Capricious Brain

Disconnect
between A and B

no step 2
between 1 and 3

brain lapse
from missing synapse

mental blank
in memory bank

unmoored moment
of bafflement

until found shard
in quarried recall.

American Paradox

What alien folks we walk among
superficial similarities
matching only half-inch deep

ignoble populace
with long-smothered resentments
spewing out in Niagara-like volume

grabbers for sated needs and whims
in sparkly, overstuffed marketplace
while generosity, compassion forgotten.

Persephone's Fall Necklace

Strung together for remembrance
of sunny, autumnal days lost

red-leaf goblets
glints of gold
orange flutters
bronze add-ons
fruity tastes
tinted breezes
crispy air
prismatic dew drops

collected lingeringly
clasped with luminous moments.

Fall Foliage #22

Start the color parade
eye-catching, vivid

glittery, mesmeric
in a north, leaf-chasing quest

ubiquitously brilliant
amid steadfast evergreens

allées of gilded trees

each outsparkled by the next

dazzling, sunlit stretches
of saturated beauty

then some stripped, bare branches
within once blazing patches

dampened soon at northernmost end
to extinguished, gray-green finish.

Brigadoon En Québec

At the edge of the Seaway

with beaucoup de tranquilité

midst long hayfields, tawny marshes

anchored deep by ancient rock

peopled by contented tribes

fishers, farmers, and peace-seekers

Québeçois Victorian abodes

harmonious with beguiling sights

overhead vees of snow white geese

hillside surprise of backlit poppies

splendid, technicolored trees

upon stunning gray-white cliffs

beach-trapped, glacial remnants

as beneficent sculptures

and clair de lune in total eclipse

within its resounding silence

star witness to this enchantment
chez le village de Kamouraska.

Last Communion

Growing old together
in parallel existence

friendly through extended time
for two score plus ten

grayer, less thin are we
you, still green and taller

ever green with fall colors
in never-ending beauty

protective in all seasons
of our modest North Woods niche

soon to be guillotined
in episodic harvest

ours an absolute end
yours, a resurrection win.

Ballet over the Marsh

Synchronized in white
winging left
next to the right

blue and green scene
randomly staged
with flying troupe

one, two, three, four, five
discretely settling
in graceful silence.

Shadow of the Fall

No more the shining city
under spacious, hopeful skies
mired now in corrupting deeds

constitution torn asunder
by reckless manipulators
oblivious of end-times spiral

overwhelming cacophony
conflicted in high dudgeon
by hateful, amplified chorus

ungovernable ignorance
Democracy's corrosive force
against informed, reasoned consent.

Ode to the Missing Wishbone

Pre-fab fried chicken
with no classic wishbone

fused clavicles
in odd, fork-like shape

gentle-tug tactic
for best winning snap

long-ago memory
of sibling contests

triumphant wisher
with lengthier piece.

Drifting Through Deep Time

Obsessed with seeing
super-sized continents
breaking apart, colliding
along the planet's seams

systematic earthquakes
extreme volcanism
stretching, baking, buckling
Earth's thin, fragile crust

younger oceanic rocks
captured for attachment
to older continental chunks
as changeable puzzle pieces

majestic mountain-building
with drip-drip dissolution
repetitious sequences
in a never-ending saga...

until the final finale
with depleted mantle heat
no driver of plate displacement
just flat, static, crustal sameness.

Spring Hello (in the North Woods)

Limbs entwined
lightest green with dark

kissing tree cousins
in spring greeting

seasonal palette
of contrasting hues

evergreen shafts
still needle-clothed

bare trunks in bloom again
to full-figured foliage.

High Desert Opus

Expansive beauty
not singularities

extravagant rock ruins
in primeval silence

multi-hued offerings
of impressionistic clout

prodigious vistas
towering far and wide

all revelatory bits
from Earth's deep-time story.

Modern Solace

Earth's stamina
supersedes

despite pestilence
she survives

and war
she endures

and covetousness
she recovers

with ancient genealogy
she consoles

undefeated
by human malfeasance.

Arroyology

Narrow, wide, wider
steep-sided, vacant spaces

maze-like conduits
plumbing high desert country

mostly dry...until deluged
by nature's unleashed fury

still gully shrubs revivify
oblivious to flooding terrors.