Silent Lovers

Two silent lovers
She inside, he out
Dark eyes locked
Waving their fingers
At the ticket gates
Again by the iron railing
And again at the stairwell

Sweetest, saddest, beautifullest thing
I have seen in quite some time

Tennoji Zoo

It was in the Tennoji Zoo
Watching the lions
Your weight on my shoulders
Pushing my third & fourth vertebrae together
Conforming me to average height
Screaming boys in baseball caps
With plastic swords
Chubby girls in Barbie shirt
Walking after mothers
I knew we'd have to leave
This country that put itself
Back on the road to war

Cat and Carp

Beautiful black and white stalker

Ears perked, haunches coiled

Eyes alight with birds

You give up instantly

Tongue your muddy paws

Nap standing in the sun

Between stone bench, temple and stream

Thank you for being in my world

Cold gold and grey wanderer

Gills whispering, body undulant

Obsidian eyes inscrutable

You undulate slowly

Through muddy waters

Disappear in the shadow

In dark stream below stone bridge and bench

Thank you for being in my world

Kyoto Cricket Song

Is that a cricket chirping

In our hot apartment

This sweaty Kyoto night

Or a loose screw

In our old fan

That barely turns

The turgid air

I know you cricket

I saw you yesterday

Brown cockroach color

Peeping out from under my slippers

In the hall

My roach murder rage dissipated

When I saw your fiddlebow legs

And sad pinhead eyes

I let you live

Now you serenade us this night

Your repeated high C

Cooler than any old fan

That barely turns

The turgid air

This sweaty Kyoto night

Our Memories

What you'll remember
Blue up
Shovel house
Sun on skin
Animal smells
Sweet mouth
Warmth
Hug


What I remember
Sunny Saturday morning
I took you for a walk
Under an azure fall sky
The quaint old house
I wanted to buy
Being ripped down
By a power shovel
The foreman tousled your hair
As you watched enraptured from your pram
We bought bread from the French place
Then watched the goats and rabbits
Playing out back
We sat and shared apple strudel
You grinned and asked for more apple
More apple please more
As the sun shed the morning's chill
And for the first time ever
You asked your dida for a hug
Instead of running from
My stubble and wet dog smell

Our memories are one

Long Commuter Haiku

Drink in the blue sky
Tree lined walk to the station
Come home in the dark