salade aux fines herbes
my cohabitant chops a carrot, one of three.
“do you want any help?”
“i don’t think so…
“it’s taking a long time.”
“no rush.”
..
the making of a salad is a salad in itself, with
the exotic ingredients of music selection,
arrangements of foodstuffs, raising of blinds,
reminiscences and sighs.
health is in the air,
health of direction,
of attention and presence, of
dressing and undressing and dressing again
and the soothing flow of rinsewater.
ab
a square plus b square equals c square
for all right triangles with a and b
being the two adjacent sides joined at 90°
and c as the hypotenuse.
a bit of thought tells us that a and b
make a nifty half a rectangle
the whole of which is of area a times b
and the half of which is of area (ab)/2.
so ab is twice the area of a right triangle.
it is also the bookends of ahab
and also the muscle abdominal
and the rhyme scheme of the first two lines
of a shakespearean sonnet.
and when we move on (and plenty of us want to)
the place where we wereay be marked
absum
abesse
afui
afitus.
serum
jab or imbibe or pop pop if a gelcap
Hellsap™ might make you into something new
stereochemical potion chimerical
notional miracle’s essence of true
aerosolized for an inhaled transmission
portioned for timed release side effects minimal
may disappoint if expecting cold fission
it’s ineffective but hey it’s not criminal
the hunger problem is sickening, especially here, with
a view in this mall of a fat man eating a dunkdonut
covered with chocolate
and filled with “kreme,”
with cookies and cinnamon rolls
and pretzels and movie snacks
and soft-serve ice cream and ghirardelia and pockpucky
all visible from a single vantage point
while on your phone cate blanchett
mandy Patinkin and his wife
and any number of other wellfed celebrities urge
giving to the hungry and oppressed–my god,
they mean well
and they meant well fifty years ago too
but it is just like the pills we well-meaningly take
that make our numbers better
but treat only symptoms.
please, whatever demigods may be,
stop solving the sub-problems,
and SOLVE. THE. PROBLEMS.
in the name of mother Earth i pray.
amen.
drone delivery
some drones deliver candy
some drones
deliver death some
drones deliver narc
o
pan
& fentanyl
& meth some drones record
a festival
& then
a falling bomb that makes
a mist of dna
of granddaughter &
mom
some
drones
create an image
in brightlight
dot array
at halftime
with no scrimmage
and make the crowd
hooray
the cause of strife’s elusive
but it’s
SO often
G R E E D
..
deliver drones from evil
and think upon
this screed
..
deliver drones from evil
and have them fill
a need
ampers& planet
the days there are not never bl&
the nights sometimes may get out of h&
& you’ll freely bet
on bliss & regret
to writhe on the lot’s baby gr&
..
& if you catch scent of a dahlia
& lily & orchid et alia
the l&ndscape may change
& the game’ll free-range
& your mood may become melancholia
..
but sense & instruction abound
when the s&ndcastle falls to the ground
a b c d cease &
a welcome release &
the str&s of intent may be found
..
l’envoi
beware of power lines, my child: they leave a whiplike br&,
you are not meet to mete a fate brought on by ampere-s&.
&
don’t forget to volt!
American Graffiti 2026
Here in the American 21st Century
A Black woman hangs from a tree in the South. Some
Have the willful, denying ignorance
To call the cause of death Suicide.
..
“Detention Centers” are being built
Here in the American 21st Century
Expressly for people who came into this country. The
Pretextual reason was to protect us from “the worst.”
..
The more people who fight this home-grown tyranny,
The less chance it has to engulf and kill
The goodness we have striven for, here
In America before these dark 21st Century times.
7ty two
7teen in ’71–it
took til now
yonder to go
..
“I’ve been aware of the time going by
They say in the end
It’s the blink of an eye
And when the morning sun
Comes streaming in
We get up and do it again.
Amen.”
Jackson Browne, “The Pretender”
..
Yesterday, August 30, 2026, was my 72nd birthday. I was graduated from Glendale High School in 1972, so I am Class of ’72. 72 is two times two times two times three times three: the product of a cube and a square. So in an esoteric way, I feel as though I have just come of age.
sweetener and creamer blend the coffee
fondled face and kisses blend the bliss
asked, the man who’s kissed and coffeed tells us
life so rarely blends as well as this.
..
Note: Today I celebrate my 72nd spiraling orbit around that yellow-dwarf life giver we call the Sun. I share a house with the love of my life and this instant I share my day with you and you and you. I am glad to be here and hope you are too.
Rendezvous at My Grandfather’s Alma Mater
It is an eight-minute drive to the campus
Of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor
From the breakfast buffet
At the Holiday Inn Express
Where I and my sweetheart have come
At my whim
To see the campus where my grandfather,
Harold Ross Bowers,
Received his degree,
Master of Science in Pharmacology, in 1928,
Ninety-eight years ago.
..
My grandfather died in Modesto, California,
In what was then called a “mental institution,”
In the early 1960s
During the Kennedy administration,
And the White House sent my family
A certificate of appreciation for his military service
Signed either by JFK himself
Or his signatory ambassador.
..
The one photo I ever saw of my grandfather and me
And my brother Brian
Was probably taken in 1957
Because Brian is in diapers
And I look like I am about three.
In another photo of the batch there are two men,
Literally “the men in the white suits,”
Smiling congenitally for the camera.
And the most touching photo is of him and Dad
His arm around Dad’s shoulder,
He looking rather like an old Woody Guthrie
And Dad like a young Desi Arnaz.
..
Grandfather, I am here,
And I would not exist if not for you.
