almost ready
for a good night's sleep
the crescent moon
wearing its nightcap
of clouds

like pairs of black oars
on a downed cottonwood
the reflections
of double-crested cormorants
resting in the slough

perhaps she's grown
used to them by now. . .
on a cool evening
the meteor streaking by
cassiopeia's chair

The Campaign Ads of Heroes and Villains

campaign ads airing
like a bad western
with no one wearing any hats
it's hard to tell the heroes
from the villains

Shall we just assume it's the latter?

(Fast Forward 2016: I wrote this tanka for a previous election year. I did not foresee Trump running for President and wearing a baseball cap.)

as though it were
warning me about
my finances
the dead leaf blowing past
the atm machine

how many oceans ago
since I walked along this beach
in the palm of my hand
the sand dollar currency
of a childhood vacation

feeling the pulse of autumn
with all its arrhythmias
the heart seems to steady itself
around the red-leaf 
patterns of sumac

this day would be
nothing without
the golden musella*
armed with its brief poems
of raindrops and spider webs


*Also known as the Chinese
Dwarf Banana. 

Link to the Missouri Botanical Garden:

http://tinyurl.com/zgorwjj

the lights of the theater
adjusted for fall
I watch the silent film
of a snake crossing
the gravel road

the blare of fire alarms
inside the hospital
maybe now is not
a good time for
another cup of coffee