A Guy Named Leo

I know a guy named Leo

He looks a lot like me oh

He counts to 1,2,3 oh

He wrecked my sola a mio

A gourmand is our Leo

He nevers pays a fee oh

Just eats and drinks on me oh

His things are never free oh

A dandy is our Leo

His dress code is so free oh

His pants are filled with pee oh

He fills them up with brio

If you want to meet Leo

Then come and visit me oh

If you wait long to see oh

He’ll be bigger than me oh

Phd Haiku

Do a Phd
Like drowning in an abyss
For 3 to 5 years

Bird of Jannah

Bird of Jannah

Free of her Northwestern cage

Swaddled in comforting black

A solo hijrah

Then a Shaam marriage

With her mujaheed Abu

A stranger who will leave her widowed

(But not too soon!)

Bird of Jannah

Perched in a little apartment in Syria

Cleaned of wallstains

Emptied of former occupants

They eat Pringles

Watching TV

‘As the World Burns’ she says

‘’Flames of War’ he corrects her

Bird of Jannah

Two little chicks in her nest

Raising them for martyrdom

Complained about the Australian cleric

Saw his son kicking a ball

‘Not a soccer ball

But a hooligan’s head’

Apu corrects her

Bird of Jannah

Bound by rules of hudud

Rejecting the West

Watching Frozen

Fighting on Twitter and Facebook

For all the muslims killed

By US bombs and guns

(And the Jews!)

Bird of Jannah

Surrounded by widows

Gabbing crows on a line

In her kitchen Nutella with tea

Happy if her Apu does return

Happier if he does not

But goes instead to Jannah

To meet his virgins

Bird of Jannah is the second wife

Bowing to the first, death

Daddy Secret

Baby boy

At night

When you won’t sleep

The real reason

I put you on my shoulders

Walk you down to the station

To see the birds nesting noisily

In the remnants

Of the old destroyed forest

Is so I can hear your tiny heart

Beating against my temples

As feathers drift down around us

And late commuters trudge past

Lost in Kyoto

Helping lost foreigners

In Kyoto station

Is akin to

Returning baby birds

Fallen from their nest

You might get your hand bit

And you won’t get a thank you

Distance

As far as the six Appolonians

Were from the Earth

Over the dark side of the moon

You are far from me

As I orbit my lifegiving son

Alone but never lonely

Gaza Haiku

Halal or Kosher
When they make people mincemeat
Matters not a bit

On Gender

Cosmo and the Koran

Tell women how to dress

Supreme court judges & judgmental street courts

Decide whether women are people

Preachers and politicians

Decide when a woman can reproduce

Ideology and dogma

Keep half the species in chains

And we call it equality

My Heartstone

My child
You draw out the poison
Given me by the witch
Turn me from a monster
Back into a Prince
Ready to fight for the Kingdom
Turn the Dragon back
Into a Princess
You are
My Heartstone

Drone Wars

If we could give American drones

Programmed with attack patterns

A day off

From killing Pakistani

Wedding parties

Terrorist leaders

Women and children

Let them fly

Down across Africa

Find the girls

Stolen from their futures

Beaten and raped

Sold for twelve dollars

By Nigerian drones

Programmed with murderous misogyny

Would it make us drones any less

Bloodyhanded or blasé

Subway Dancer

Grey suited rush hour Baryshnikov
Pirouetted on the escalator then got off
Slipped through the leaving line in grande jetee
Passed swanlike in front of me
Then in fifth position he posed
Adjusted his tie as the doors closed
And became a middle aged salaryman again

Standing ovation all the way to his destination

The Best Excuse

To have in hand the heat, 
because of poor physical condition,
 I will be absent today. 

I will revive in the next week

If I Object, Object If I

Wallet with legs
Legs for suit pants
Walking billfold
Folded into morning trains
Ass made for subway seats
Feet for running between gates
Lips for shutting
Stopping all opinion
Teeth for smiling
When eyes can't smile
Eyes for looking away
When ears are blasted
Ears for listening to orders
Brain not needed
Dumb at home
Untouching hands
Arms for groceries and babies


If I say a word, I am wrong
If you smile, I should rejoice
If I object
Object if I

Golden Week Haikus

I

Never understood
Half-assed holidays like these
Until I had kids

II

Keep working on work
A stroll down Kamogawa
Then don't leave my house

III

Students with questions
Why are you not out living
This needs an answer

IV

Happy left alone
Lonely in the urban throng
Welcome to 40

V

Wooden injun hands
Eyes allergic to faces
The gift of absence

No Rush

Foreigner on the morning commute
Short shirt and flood pants
Squeezed in beside dozing salaryman
Smartphone gaming schoolgirl
Nose reflected in the streaming mini-manshons
Mini-factories, malls and supermarkets
As the red sun rises
Over the Hokusai mountains
Burning away the last scrap of mist dragon

Rob Ford’s Mother

Rob Ford’s Mother

Thinks some other

Pair of brothers

Are the ones to blame

For scandalizing

Stigmatizing

The good honest

Ford family name

I once held them to my breast

I can say without duress

That I always did my best

To bring up my boys

If they went a little far

It’s because they are my stars

And we always did like bars

To wind down the day

Rob Ford’s Mother

Thinks some other

Pair of brothers

Are the ones to blame

For hypnotizing

Mesmerising

The media

With their games

I never sensed that they did drugs

When they gave me pecks and hugs

They are just funloving lugs

Those bighearted boys

If they’re hounded out of town

Until things have settled down

They’re welcome back around

The Ford family home

Why We Fight

On the last day of the war
Tired soldiers wonder
What it was all for

Sitting in the shade
Of the old hospital
Gutted by the raids

Sea turns red at the end of day
The crippled destroyer
Limps into the bay

We don't fight
For what is right
We fight because
It is all we know

Google Haiku

Who needs poetry
When you can read the whole world
Through Google glasses

Never A Sailor

Never a sailor felt more

Like sliding off his ship

In the middle of the night shift

Staying quiet buoyed by a wave

As salvation and civilization sailed away

Never a sailor felt more

Lashed to his ship

As it lurched toward shore

Fleeing from the silent deeps

To wander in the emptiness of cities and crowds

Japanese Winter Haiku

Sleeping on futon
Icy wind inches away
Camping in my house

The Hijab

All I know

About the hijab

I learned in 03

On a sunny street in Cairo

Walking beside a university girl

And her male friend

Who spoke to me in English

Of tearing down the statue of Mubarek

Of having jobs

Of seeing her hair which had been hid

Since they were children

Suddenly emboldened

She took off the red cloth

Let her dark tresses blow in the wind

As we passed a small mosque

Shirtless men, nipples dark on sweat beaded chests

Yelled and jeered and gestured madly

Stones clinked at our feet

“What do they say?” I asked

“They call me slut and whore

To be bareheaded

Walking and talking in the street

With kefir”

All I know

About the hijab

I learned in 03

On a sunny street in Cairo

Kyoto Haiku 1

Golden pavilion

Under winter maquillage

A sleeping geisha

Starlight and Rockets

Warmed by the light
Of a sun long dead
The star that guides me

Images on the retina
Of a rocket long gone
Taking you far away