THE FIRST LYRACIST

            The sound of a flute

Made of mammoth ivory

In a cave 35,000 years ago

 

Inspired a warrior

Listening with head bowed

 To do more than hunt

 

A word sounded in his mind

To fit the music in the air

Filling him with pleasure

          

CHECKUP, Haiku

 

CHECKUP

 

Dental appointment

For an examination

No cavities, please

 

 

STRANDED

Stranded in my easy chair, 

watching the weather 

 through a window, 

watching the world 

through a computer, 

remembering the days 

of striding the streets 

on my powerful legs

FALLING

 

Falling to the floor

Landing painfully once again

The future looks grim

 

STRUGGLING to SLEEP, a poem

 

Strutting round my bed,

sleep hovers tauntingly

just beyond the reach

of my wired body

struggling to find

a foxhole in my mattress

to hide from wakefulness

 

 

AT 90

 

No five-year plan for me

Aging limits my outlook

so, each day I wake up

looking forward to

breakfast and dinner,

speaking to my children,

watching films and news on cable,

reading novels and poetry,

          Newsday, NYT, Washington Post;

          inspiration to write poems,

          pretzels, caramels and cookies,

          going to sleep at night

 

 

DEMOCRACY (Senryu)

 

Ben Franklin said it

We have a democracy

If we can keep it