063022

bird came back
canary in the cyclone
says duck

042822e

Dragon with Fish
(a children's ekphrastic poem)*


Such a fat, friendly stripy dragon,
antennae half its body length,
big feet and a goofy grin,
itty bitty wings—no way she could fly,
but there she is, above the clouds,
frolicking with a winged fish, and one
with a head-mounted propellor;
but the cat with a jet pack
decided not to hang around.

Far below, fields in summer colors,
stripes of green, orange, red, and yellow,
delicious crops, I’m sure,
but I don’t know what they’re growing,
those people who live
in the red-roofed farmhouse.


*Ekphrastic poems are based on works of visual art. This one, by my wife, Sheila Kopaska-Merkel, is a colored-pencil drawing above my desk.)

020222b

black
tea
light spell
full moon mid-
night cemetery
south Georgia demon summoning
so sorry words of power were lost in translation

020122c

Failed Haiku 74, 300 SF senryu, including a couple by me

https://www.haikuhut.com/FailedHaikuIssue74.pdf

020122b

court of the Black Sun its song sucks you in to the vast nothing

013122

You hit the nail on the head,
She’s hot enough to melt asphalt,
But don’t touch that dial.
Don’t you recognize her?
That’s P. Mantis,
Deadliest divorce lawyer in town;
Tread carefully,
Or she’ll eat you alive.

012222e

Bessie
jumped back in shock
loved the craters

012222d

memory banks
preserve her digitally
Carrington Event

012022c

clockwork not bones
and muscle inside her chest
feeling rundown

011922

phosphate tailings
mountains of tiny
teeth and bones

011622c

the Snake River
rubs its old skin loose
farmhouse tumbles in

011422b

third sunrise today makes me feel old

011322c

counting
on her fingers
again she gets twelve

011322b

spreading again
the cell we missed was the one
that counted

011322

my money
was minted next year
I'm hungry now

011222b

Crop Failure

imagine their displeasure
after 3.8 billion revolutions
the bacterial crop
should have been prime
instead, the farm was crawling
with inedible vermin
multicellular, encrusted with,
or containing, hard bits
of very limited value
the second spheroid from the primary
smothered by an opaque gaseous cloak
the fourth had lost all its water
the rest were worse
the system was a total loss
had to scrub the orb
and start anew

010922c

Rolling down the highway
Eyes shut for a NY minute
Woke into a dream
That’s lasted nearly half a lifetime
Changes had to be made
Patience with myself
With others
New limits to set
And overcome
Or not
Finding things I like or don’t
Rubbing shoulders with Death
So often I almost know them
But there are perks:
New people, new places
A thousand open doors
And this new chair
0 to 15 in two seconds
I’m flying

010722d

field-checking the map
he never finds the edge
nor any dragons

010722c

Fates on speed

seed Heaven’s back 40,000,000 for materials
outsource weaving to limbo

7.4 billion to snip
1,000s of bales to recycle
and they never used to go on so long

010722b

exiting the snake at last teeth again