black-coated scratchboards

we create our own

vision

of radio filaments 

found in the milky way

Milky Way 1,000

restless pacing

the jangled nerves

of throwaway keys

how being stressed out

starts on the inside

it's not the steps

or the four flights of stairs

to room 458--

what bothers me is knowing

that you won't be there

the machine precision

of cubed carrots

in canned vegetable soup

one man's first step

towards bachelorhood

revised tanka:

january ballet

of dancing on ice

no one has trained me

how to fall or how to fail

gracefully

original version:

surviving the latest storm

I slide down the ice

on the driveway

and regain my footing 

in the snow