IMPLANTS AND BIOTECH

These are the scarecrow years
When frost tears glisten
On molded and painted cheeks, beside ears
That no longer listen
Being more deaf than dead
And hearing only
Through implants and inputs into the head
Bonily, stonily.

Fears come while certainties lapse:
Fears of the dark,
Of abandonment, monsters, uncertainty. Now (perhaps)
Some Schrödinger’s shark
Divides cosmonaut, cryonaut, chrononaut
From those who can’t trust
The unknown, are ill-taught, or die without thought.

Thrive on change, or be dust.

Published online: The Rotary Dial, Canada, September 2015

THE MOON

The birds of dawn

Sing Come out on the lawn.

Flowers

Say Seize the hours.

The day, the sun

Say Don't stay – look, laugh, run.

Warm rain

Says More! Again!

A tree

Simply says Be.

Beyond the trees, the beach

Rumbles Extend your reach.

A cliff

Asks: If?

The sand

Calls for a handstand.

A wave

Says Misbehave.

Sunset

Asks you, Done yet?

The moon, that overhanging stone...

The moon says You're alone.

Published online: Snakeskin, UK, October 2014

ON ROUSSEAU'S 'DREAM'

I will be a flutist

Standing in the trees

With the lions and tigers

Stalking past my knees;

You, my naked lady

Languid on a couch -

Is the tiger standing,

Or is it in a crouch?

Enormous tropic blossoms

Open in the heat;

Your hand is out toward me,

The pipe I play is sweet.

You have no need to answer

If things are as they seem.

The scene will last forever,

A moment and a dream.

Published: The Lyric, USA, Summer 2014