in transit

Stuck on neurostar,
a speeding slow train.
Never making connections,
one track switches brain.

City ahead grows
distant on approach.
Red light burns cold,
coach leans low.

From a seat both aisle and window
I squint to count the passing grass.

Ode to the Indictment of Ted Stevens

Bribing a Senator--
how hard could it be?
One needs but rubber chicken
and weak coffee.

Bundles of cash
and golf bag blowjobs--
these fail to impress him.

It takes subtler favors to
ethically undress him.

reporting live

The whole world explodes
in every little bomb—
a million tiny shards of why.

The police siren and the webcam
vacuum up a reason
along with the blood and
replace it spewing punditry.

We soon forget to care
about each blast each flood
each unavoidable famine

until the next time paints its
inevitable, temporary
splatter pattern.

"Spare, Change"

I still believe
in a place where
they keep hope alive,
where a thousand points of
peace in our time shine atop
a city on a hill. It’s morning.
In America.
Like a rock.

place: holder

if at verse you do not succeed
try again--but only once
or else the moment will be lost.

the poet creates a placeholder,
some lines to test his template
be sure to stop by here again
for more instant contemplation