1. A Steinbeck Aha
Peering upward from the apogee
of infinite soaring mirrors
I watch you stray far off course.
Thus is produced an aha moment
as luck exits the equation.
You’re exposed like a water lily
that floats on thick firmament.
I fix my focus on
your dusty gray work shirt
as you stoop to pull chickweed
from ever widening cracks
in the pavement.
A bitter wind whips waves—
the lights of Seaside
cauterize Monterey Bay.
2. Transmogrified
He was kept after school
due to acute insubordination.
He fought substantiation,
a train at the roundhouse
getting loaded with coal.
He weathered transmigration
across riven continents
to make a stand as a race
that in time gained ground.
He tossed formulas down
crevices of secret canyons,
learned his lessons
devoid of impressions.
In accordance his teacher
made him recite ABCs
backwards endlessly.
3. Hat Trick
My shoulders pressed firmly
against the back wall
of McFly’s nightclub
on Saturday night.
Capitalist ESPN beams
Giants battling Dodgers.
Budweiser ubiquitous,
the assembly salubrious,
will reach fever pitch
once music commences.
Then a commercial:
the black bear
bounces a basketball
between its hind legs
like a Harlem Globetrotter.
The best mudder won
the Derby this afternoon.
Subway cars ramble,
rattle in my ears
like bulletproof cobras.
Predatory
There are quite enough scallywags
and false prophets among us
to swindle any god
out of every drop of blood.
We evidence ostentatious laissez faire
connoisseurs of exotic wines and fruits
along the palatine boardwalks
that span massive galaxies.
Surrounded by scoundrels, would-be
devils and and ghouls we’d just as well
skedaddle, lest lay black tracks
while evaporating in a vapor trail.
Resonance is tested as resistance
evinced by the rooster’s boisterous
cock-a-doodle on a dim chilly morning
when coastal fog gives up the ghost.
