In the Jungles of the Heart

for Sarah K

Via the hyperlink
You sent me yesterday
I saw this video clip
Of a captive lion
Who through the bars of his cage
Gave capacious embrace
To his indigenous savior

This being no mean trick
Accompanied by a typically
Incoherent news report
I imagined the back story
Of this noble beast
Enslaved by some Colombian drug lord
And then for reasons obscure
Perhaps as the federales
Pressed in was cut loose
To fend for himself
A monarch exiled
An ocean or two
Away from his
Original realm

Surely any king
Would likely starve
Finding himself thus deserted
And dethroned
If not for the apparition
Of a savior of last resort
Passing through the forest
In act of loving kindness
To the animal shelter brought
The starving lion and
To good health it restored

And to see the lion thus
Embrace its maiden savior
Is to know gratitude
Is not to humanity confined
But as with other feelings
Thus refined
They're equally shared
By us with animalkind
We have such likeness undeniable
Being all sisters and brothers
From the Pekinese tossed
Roughly to the curbside
To the raven proudly sporting
The tools she has made

And thus we all
Grieve over our
Respective Edens
And savannas lost
And dream of lifetime restored
To our full natural glory
Instead of living out
Until the end of days
Being everywhere confined
By this widening pall


If and when the day comes and
It's our turn to be struck
By hunger and despair
Whether in dark forest solitude
Or a cage of our own making
Much better that we remember
There's a Natural order
That overlays the statutes
By which we humans aspired
The entire world to enslave

And by standing upright
We all may better clasp the bars
That have kept us apart
Almost embracing
Each other
Skin to skin
Lions and humans
We're creatures akin
To each other beholden
And it’s the same love
That rules the jungle
Inside every beating heart

A Short Poem for William Blake

The deeper into the purple
Of the world that I get
The more I discover
Whether to better
Or pleasure yourself
First you must put
One skate forward
And then the other

Not always marked
By urban woe
These faces I see
When I’m pedaling so
Cousin Billy

That’s the way it is
Not everywhere
But more yes than no
Among the places I know
Deeper into the purple
Where I choose to go

Photo by Marissa Bridge

Sidewalk Sailing

Wing and wing
You and I
We’re sidewalk sailing

I’m the jib
And you’re the main
Or sometimes it seems
It might as well be
The other way around

Anyway it’s all the same

We catch the breeze
Running down wind and away
From the late afternoon sun

A water tower
Squat on the rooftop
Serves as constant reminder
Of our common destination
As we travel
One and together
From first to last date
As with hoops of steel
We are strongly bound

On the Heart Sutra

Suddenly it hit me
As they were fixing
My Mac and I was trying
To keep my hard drive
From spinning
Out of control

Like it says in
The Heart Sutra
No matter how well
Life suits you
Each product feature
Also contains
This indelible flaw

Parasamgaté

It’s emptiness
And nothing more
The raison d'être
Of every body
Even with the
Extended
Warranty
And all

Getting Ready for Another Journey

When high tide
Takes full swing
At the established banks
Just before autumn
And kids have started
Thinking back to school

If one has begun
To figure out part
Of what it means
To live at the top
Of the food chain

How to shoulder
The great responsibility
And make the most of
The many incredible
Opportunities

With tarragon scent
Heavy on your hands
And the shrimp
Well butterflied
A 7/11 coffee close by
And all around the
Thick perfume of the late
Summer afternoon

Then come and sit down
Put your feet up
And relax in the shade
It’s time to begin
A new journey
This time it’s The Book
Of Enlightenment
That beckons

In a calm frame of mind
Without the least bit of fear
Alas not everyone is up to the
Task of heading aloft
With clouds for wings

But that is precisely
Where we are bound
Together with
The brave Monkey King

And to travel with him
We must likewise
Board our cloud ship
Steady in the bow
Let loose the sheets
And unfurl the sails
Today being the first day
We found ourselves
Alone and together
And thus we learned
How to sail

Ode to Zhuang Zhou

Doing my stretching
One rep at a time
When one eye falls
On the reflection
Of my shadow
There at the mirror’s edge
Doing its own stretching too

What my shadow sees
When it stands by the mirror
Is standing next to me
A most peculiar thing
Only a few steps in between
I wonder what it thinks
Looking at me

Friend of my friend
My blurry doppelganger at the gym
The reflection of my shadow
Now giving me attitude
With its own feminine side too

Or is it an even bigger
Cubs’ fan than me
A burly shaggier beast
Prone to dozing intermittently
Falling deeply asleep
Then arousing itself with a shudder
And suddenly scurrying
To catch up with me

As the correspondence
Between waking and dreaming
May feel all the greater
While appearing less distinct
So I find things stand
With me and my shadow's reflection
As each of us keeps stretching
For a part of itself that
Remains out of reach

Small Poem for a Small Planet

If you think it’s time
To kick off the traces
Of history

Just remember
That sleaze is
A hearty perennial
That grows in
Perpetual
Abundance

Whereas potatoes
And eggplant
Like to grow together
Very very much
And strawberries
In short thick clumps

These being just a few
Of the many things
You need to know

If you’re going
To make the most
Of the small difference

Between merely
Letting things go
And learning to 
Prosper from seed