"Haiku String," "A Human Sonnet," and "Poverty Stricken"

Haiku String

A squirrel transcends
the art of origami
dangling from a limb
                                 what the poet writes
                                 a child is tangential to
                                 creating the world
                                                                  with wind and water
                                                                  five rivers meet in Cuenca
                                                                  where roses are dreams.

A Human Sonnet

With the zygote of first thought came a host
of consequence, gatherers plant seeds
in brutish light, invent furrows and farming
women told to bathe in the Elysian fields
men declared their versions of stigmata
Dante or Thomas define paradise lost
my wife in Paris, my beautiful boy each day
that saxophone playing in Savannah, Waxwings
quaking in the Aspen’s, angels of poverty
light heavy in the magnolia’s petals
bludgeoning earth with fertile seeds
each petal dropped the limb of a child
headed to the threshing ring at harvest hoping
certain consequences lead to rebirth or Heaven.

Poverty Stricken

In our defense, suffering is everywhere.
The blades of the boys dullen with weak use
sharpen with grief and survival. The Geisha
of Kyoto sadly step back into the streets wet
with the practice of mizuage. In this kingdom
love and hunger measure revival. Beauty
an unfamiliar face in the mirror. We languor
cherish dented cans of salmon, our empathy
replaced by anger. Each night there is no moon
or dippers to drink in the stardust of a god
who does not answer. Some of us live
on every word that proceedeth out of god’s mouth.
Some of us don’t. Each day we wait for the miracle
but that crepuscule, again ends one more day.
It seems we only find faith when we gather
bury and praise the dead, cursed we’re still
amongst the living.