Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Friday, June 22, 2012

colibri sonnet

colibri sonnet

decline of rich men

decline of rich men

decline of rich men

The decline of rich Men.




The numbers of American millionaires have declined

I read this as a news item and was amused.



I know of an old man who became a lotto millionaire

He had a facelift, and married a young woman.



But time was only on the woman’s side and he couldn’t

Cut the mustard…and sank into despondency.



Clutching dollar bills he went to hospital and begged

Doctors to restore his potency…they could not.



Expensive divorce, lawyers she had the best money

Could buy, and then he as poor again.



His old wife took him in but he has to live in the dog

House, feeds him rice pudding and combs his hair.



The numbers of American millionaires have declined

But I will not speculate on the reason why.

Thursday, June 21, 2012

as days pass

As Days Pass


What happens to the day? Not long ago it was morning

and I was struggling valiantly to read Norman Mailer’s

“Harlot’s Ghost,” 1380 pages didn’t he know when to stop?

That is why I like Hemingway, he was so mercifully short.

I was thinking of this when sitting in the local bar nursing

a whisky with ice water, but then all the farmhands came

they were noisy, played cards…so I gulped down my drink

and left. At home I put Norman back on the book shelf,

decided to leave him for a long winter evening; and since

it doesn’t get dark till nine, I drove towards the sunset and

wrote a true ghost story about a sunray that danced at

midnight and picked flowers for his beloved, a moonbeam.

Alas, in nights blooms are grey or colorless, she refused his

offer, his ardour too hot for her… she flew back to moon.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

a ghost...me

The Ghost…Me?


The dog woke me up came into my bedroom looked unnerved

and whimpered. In the living room that once had been a stable

A mule stood munching on straw, but it was not the animal

the dog was frightened of, but of a little man in the corner of

the stable asleep on a hay bale, beside him an empty wine jug.

When he saw me he screamed like he had seen a ghost and ran

through a door that was no longer there…the mule easy going,

followed suit. In 1952 the owner of the stable claimed he had

seen a ghost, a strange person who looked like a foreigner.

When I bought the stable/barn and converted it into a dwelling

the villagers told me the place was haunted, but also with a sly

smile, said the previous owner was fond of his homemade wine.

The dog went back to sleep, while I picked straw off the floor;

the poor man had seen the future and I had seen into the past.

Tuesday, June 19, 2012

whales

Whales.


What can I say about whales? I’ve seen them blow geysers of hot water

on the coast of Canada and Norway. Great innocent beings with small

brains living in peace, but for man. So much meat and fat; have you ever

tasted whale meat, it is dark and tender but it has to be soaked overnight

in vinegar or it will taste like cod liver oil. In the old days its fat made liquid

was good to lit lamps. We have got electricity now, so if you want a steak

kill a cow, they are plentiful, mind they are innocent too, graze and do not

know they are targeted to end up as burgers. The whales have a complex

language marine biologists say I don’t think it is hard at all, they are saying

in surprisingly feminine voice … where are you? I’m here two miles away

from you and watch out for boats, with propellers”. “Ok, thank you”

Sven Foyn, the whale murderer, nearly hunted them to extinction with his

exploding harpoon gun, but thanks to a few nature lovers this cruel practice

ended… Today there are many whales in the ocean sooner or later someone

will say there are too many of them, we have to cull them and make a little

money on the side. And unseen by us, but known by whales, a dark hulled

ship with a captain Ahab onboard is still hunting for an illusory white whale.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Friday, June 1, 2012

Cuba 1958

I remember it like the day before yesterday Cuba 1959. Batista,
the corrupt dictator, had fled, but this was revenge time and
many of his collaborators were rounded up and shot; and what
often happen in such occasions there were onlookers cheering
and having their bloodlust satiated.

There was one man, man wearing a panama hat in his left hands,
refusing to wear a blindfold or have his hands tied behind his back.
On top of some steps he stood against a white wall, ready, but
there was a hesitation; waved his hat to the weary executioners.
A volley of fire, blood trickled down the steps, deep red, rich.

They but the body in a coffin, but there was silence, one man’s
courage had shamed onlookers and soldiers into pensive silence.
The revolution didn’t matter anymore, but human dignity did…
Is this all, does nothing change have we just ended one dictator
 with another one in the name of the people.