quote unquote

i am somehow less interested in the weight & convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived & died in cotton fields & sweatshops.  

--stephen jay gould

screenplay haiku

fade in

 ext. backyard garden.  hot summer morning

middle-aged guy drinking coffee & doomscrolling

whoosh!  past his ear

'holy shit that's a big bug of the apocalypse!'

pensive, he watches its flight over the fence

then goes back to doomscrolling

fade out

it's friday nite, summertime, the delta breeze kicked on, & you feel like a 'star star' by the rolling stones!

 

california state fair haiku

ah!  that summer evening delta breeze

blowing over the tarmac

the noise of rollercoasters & penned cows

how i love them 

me at this age 

& in pictures i stand in the frame

with my buddha belly at center

who is this old fat man in the picture

who am i

where is this place

i am lost 

i am lost

where i search

i am found again

at the CA State Fair: sunset

 

at the CA State Fair: monorail

 

at the CA State Fair: elvis juggles on a unicycle

 

at the CA State Fair: keep me hanging on

 

at the CA State Fair: go low & slow

 

at the CA State Fair: every day is Halloween

 

at the CA State Fair: this is a dark ride

 

drive-in movie speaker haiku

the chunk of steel in the driver's side window how a walk to the snack bar is an experience of dopplered sound with each car while the crunch of gravel underneath my feet & the ambient air of a hot summer NorCal night oh where is it now where can i purchase that tinny music

haiku at LACMA

where i learned to see beauty in the boxing paintings of george bellows

where the day was bright & long & green

where students sat on the floor copying the masters

where i knew somewhere near bukowski was living & writing

where the coolest dude i would ever see sat outside 

dressed in black jeans black button-down shirt & motorcycle boots

where music & line & color opened a trapdoor under my feet & mind

where still, even right now, i am falling in love

suburban haiku: that ineffable july evening sun

 

buzzcocks haiku

walking midtown late afternoon at 100 F

dog walkers on every corner

houseless citizens setting up for the night

roasted meat smells at the corner bistro

hurly-burly

horror & beauty

the beat of a city felt in the palms of the hand

it seems so real

so why can't i touch it?