Urban HAIKU

Coffee-driven days

–-the sound of banshees howling

up the kettle spout

Gabriela

She was the moon-washed, lush Pacific night,

and I wished against nature

to still the crash of waves to hear her every sigh.

In the night of tossed bedclothes

and palm-framed balcony doors flung wide,

her thighs about me, pressing at my heart,

I opened her against the slightest of protests.

“I am black” she whispered from the back of her throat.

That was all.

Glints of wavetop silver shimmered on the wall,

illuminating the brown and pink of her...

where I laid my need and plumbed her own so gently.

Some moments are all there is...

some sensations tell you all.

All that night we told each other these same, simple things.

Ah, but see how the dawn always drives lovers hopelessly

along sad and divergent paths....

Months later

a day came and went

when it could have been again

And the crashing waves-–on hold like stop-motion–-

continued their eternal back-and-forth.

And those footprints on the sand are no more.


[This appears in my "Mexico--Dust in My Blood"]

Archie

They killed Archie.

I never said they could,

But who am I anyway?

No longer a reader of Archie Comics;

not a pal of Jughead’s,

nor a foe of Reggie’s.

I’ve had my Betty and Veronica moments,

lived through decades with each,

one at a time.

Friendly divorces too.

Thank God no kids! How could I explain to them

being in high school for 47 years?

I guess it was about time to say it:

“Goodbye, Archie.”

(I thought you were dead anyway.)

Toy

You’ve spun me like a children’s top

and watched me caving in,

stored me like some pretty toy

inside a flowered tin.

You call me when you feel like it,

or you don’t call at all.

I see our summer’s fading love

fast turning into fall.

You’ve played me like an MP3

and put me on your list,

kept the dried buds smoldering

deep inside your fist.

So smoke me when my pollen

gathers all about my ears

and tell me how my presence

eradicates some fears.

Know that I am captured

but that freedom lurks within;

admit to me the world we know

is wearing very thin.

Spin me past the memories

of old loves lost and gone.

Hear me babbling like a book

when my old heart carries on.

Find me swaying on the brink

and touch me from above--

watch me plummet all the way

as you withdraw your love.

Hold me, push me, drag me close,

or stay the hand of lust.

Tell me all your future plans,

ideas that I must trust.

If you know me drop a hint

that tells me to be sure.

But if you leave me this last time,

be sure to lock the door.

Angels populate the sky

when all my hopes are gone,

and bless my efforts to be found--

she comes unknown, anon.