A Passage

a pause

before the doctor's reply ...

my wife's hand in mine

the day she's gone ...

her smile in the wedding photo

with brown edges

sleepless again

I hold her empty pillow

tight ... and tighter

as if my late wife's hand

caressed my wrinkled face ...

first blossom rain

Frogpond, 48:3, 2025

Old and New, New ... Then Old ?

home alone

I listen to the snowlight

from last year

another new year

I meet the stranger’s gaze

in the mirror

the same resolution

with a different weight

first sunrise tinged gray

New Year’s fireworks …

the room quiet before

quieter after

NeverEnding Story, December 31 2025

Dare to Be Happy

leaves turn through

yellow, orange, red, purple ...

back home again !

thanksgiving prayer

with each word I get closer

to my inner child

a No Politics sign

on the dining room wall ...

turkey and ham dinner

thanksgiving leftovers

this relief when things remain

half-spoken

NeverEnding Story, November 27 2025

FYI: The last haiku was first published in The Solitary Daisy, 61, 2025

And Helen Rosner, The New Yorker, Nov. 24 2025: The Best Part of Thanksgiving, Bones and All

Thanksgiving, as it tends to be celebrated, is the most honest American holiday: all appetite, no apology... Thanksgiving just asks us to be hungry together, and then to eat. In any year, this would be a potently simple path to commonality; it might be the last truly unifying experience available to us as Americans. This year, sitting down for a feast in a time and a place and a nation that seems to be actively working to become more brutal, more indifferent, more willing to make people suffer for the sin of being poor or sick or born in the wrong skin or to the wrong parents or on the wrong side of an arbitrary line, the absurdity of it all is amplified. We feed others, we feed ourselves, and what else is there? At the table, at least, we can control something: the menu, the rituals, whatever small ferocious beliefs we hold about the holiday itself.

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXIV

written in response to the Convicted Felon's "Gilded Age" proclaim/obsession

                 the first

           Black Friday

        closing store sale

    shiny Christmas trees

made of Louis Vuitton bags

Added:

doors burst open

in the early morning

kids wail in strollers

with their jackets zipped tight

as Black Friday sale signs flap

Added:

one power blink

another and another

this Cyber Monday

I gaze up from the screen

to ten thousand stars

FYI: "Power blinks are brief service interruptions, but they’re typically caused by a fault (short circuit) on a power line or a protective device that’s working in reaction to the fault. Faults can occur through a variety of instances, like squirrels, birds or other small animals contacting an energized power line; tree branches touching a power line; or lightning and other similar events. In fact, when it comes to power disruptions caused by critters, squirrels 🐿️ 🐿️ 🐿️reign supreme."

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LXV

tower after tower

of Trump 2028 hats

store closing sale 

War Is Peace

pyramid

after pyramid of rubble ...

again "ceasefire" strikes

fireball by fireball ...

the length

of a Gazan night

smoky twilight

a cry sinks into the sound

of a gunshot

skeletal houses

these layers of silence

upon silence

The New Verse News, November 9 2025

The Golden Dream

Trump Empire, Inc, L

summer moonlight 

lapping against the shore ...

a dinghy adrift

the razor wire glints

with the first light of dawn 

detention center

a Cuban boy's stare

McDonald's arch in a corner 

of his cell window 

dust motes

in a slant of moonlight ...

this drifting life

NeverEnding Story, August 10 2025

Added:

sleepless again ...

dusting shelf after shelf

of unread books

Added:

lovers' quarrel

a downy woodpecker

stops drilling

Added:

summer outhouse

the bare light bulb sticky

with bugs

Added: Yellowing Memories, VII

the Perseids peak ...

the lives I dreamed in my teens 

but never lived

Added: Trump Empire, Inc, LI

trumping up 

one crime emergency

after another ...

the Convicted Felon 

finger-guns to the cameras

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CCXV: "a journalist murdered"

his eyes open

and his bullet-riddled helmet

marked Press ...

heavy footfalls echoing

in the smoky twilight

FYI: Haaretz, August 12: Israel's Targeting of Palestinian Reporters in Gaza Isn't Collateral Damage. It's Strategy

Anas al-Sharif, a well-known Al Jazeera correspondent, was killed this week in an Israeli airstrike. The intention is clear: If you silence the witnesses, you can reshape history

The Last Year of My Father's Life

A haiku sequence for my father who was born in mainland China, lived most of his adult life in Taiwan, died and was buried there in 2022

a slice of my life 

in father's foggy mind

birthday sunset

father silver-haired

now my child

foggy winter night

ventilator hiss

Father's face blurry

and blurrier...

this faded photo ...

the story father told us

as mother grinned

this weight

of the words half spoken

a stone on Father's grave

NeverEnding Story, June 16 2025

FYI: For more about my father's story, see my tanka prose below:

A Chain Smoker of Few Words

My father, who was born in mainland China, quit his studies to defend his country against the Japanese invasion. Later, he fought his fellow countrymen for the sake of unifying war-torn China. Retreating to Taiwan along with the defeated Chinese Nationalist Army, he was separated from his family in China for four decades. He spent most of his adult life in Taiwan, worked hard to support his new family, died and was buried there without ever again seeing any of his family members from China.

this dream loop:

riding on my shoulders

into the Taiwan Strait

Father cries out, Mama

wait for me, I'm coming home

Contemporary Haibun Online, 19:3, 2023

Added:

for ten days

onslaught after onslaught

of writer's block ...

I look out the window

at the moon, its fullness

Added:

white sand

slips through my fingers

a flash 

of morning sunlight

in each grain

Added:

one brown patch

after another, another

on the lawn ...

we speak less day by day

as the end of spring approaches

Adrift

the sound of leaves

crunching under my feet ...

laid off

the stop, go, stop

of this gig work life ...

rush hour traffic

last bus ride

office tower shadows drift

across my tired face

long time no see ...

plumes of breath between me

and my former boss

laid off again ...

I gaze at the winter skies

one cloud at a time

Frogpond, 48:1, Winter 2025

Editors' Comments: Nicholas Klacsanzky says the variation “has depth with tones of spirituality and different layers of meaning. And Jacob D. Salzer appreciate your honesty and crisp images, and your emotional vulnerability in this piece. 

Easy as 1-2-3 When Humor Bombs

Trump Empire, Inc., IX

written in response to Bob Newhart's claim: "Humor’s a weapon if you want to make it one"

MAGA bar brawl between Trump jokes a thunderous echo-fart

floodafterfloodoftariffstaxcutMARA

King Trump's Castro-length shit-words

raising chickens for eggs

since wave after wave of DOGE cuts

I fart so often

NeverEnding Story, March 22 2025

FYI: The noun shit-word has been obsolete since its recorded usage only in the Middle English period (1150—1500) (shit-word entry, Oxford English Dictionary). Now, it's revived by King Trump.

DOGE stands for the "Department of Government Efficiency", and MARA for "Make America Rich Again."

And eggs contain sulfur, which can contribute to the sulfurous smell of gas.  😂)

Added: Trump Empire, Inc., X

wall-mounted TV

blasting Putin demands to keep

captured territories

as we buy stinky tofu ...

one adds, "including the White House"

FYI: Stinky tofu, also known as "chou doufu" in Chinese, is a fermented bean curd dish popular in China and Taiwan, known for its strong, pungent odor and unique flavor. 

First Day

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, CLXV: "first day of Ramadan" 

humming of drones ...

a family's suhoor meal,

finger-sized biscuits 

iftar table 

for a family of ten ...

six seats empty

mosque floor littered 

with plaster and broken glass ...

O Allah, grant us refuge

Ramadan moon 

behind skeletal houses

the edge of peace

NeverEnding Story, March 3 2025

FYI: The first days of Ramadan, Ashra, are called the days of mercy. In these 10 days, Muslims should seek Allah's (SWT) mercy and praise Him. Suhoor is the pre-dawn meal eaten before fasting during Ramadan, and Iftar is an evening meal that Muslims eat to break their fast during Ramadan.

And Haaretz, March 2: Ramadan Begins in Gaza Amid Ruins and Devastation: "Some Families Were Wiped Out Completely"

As the holy month begins, Gazans grapple with profound loss and the threat of renewed conflict, while in the West Bank Palestinians endure economic hardship and rising despair as a military offensive widens.

America. Is. Back

On the Brink of Trumperica, I

America. Is. Back

southern magnolias

filtering the day's last light 

the White House in shadow

the winter sun falls

from a darkening sky

the Truman Balcony

one old man walks out

another moves in with Money

Arctic blast

NeverEnding Story, January 19 2025 

FYI: Among the [symbolically rich] trees on the White House Grounds, the oldest ones, southern magnolias, were planted by Andrew Jackson in 1829. And another southern magnolia was planted by Joe Biden in 2022.

Wikipedia, Truman Balcony: The Truman Balcony is the second-floor balcony of the Executive Residence of the White House, which overlooks the South Lawn. It was completed in March 1948, during the presidency of Harry S. Truman...In a September 2012 interview in Vanity Fair, President Barack Obama listed the balcony as his and his wife Michelle Obama's favorite spot in the White House.

And The New York Times, Jan. 20: A Trump Oligarchy Is Moving to Washington, and Buying Up Prime Addresses: Billionaires and multimillionaires are flocking to a city where power has been more important than money, but is now deeply intertwined with it.

This is a sequel to the following entries of Between Heaven and Hell:

Between Heaven and Hell, III

first visual magical realist tanka

USADecides:

TheSecondDumbing 

theredhotheadline

morphsintomarching

phalanxafterphalanx

(FYI: For more examples, see "To the Lighthouse: Magical Realism in Times of Crises")

Between Heaven and Hell, XVII

Tanka Two of "Making America Trump Again"

once blood-stained

the Capitol's arched portal ...

in one day

the Convicted Felon will take

(the oath and) the Power

Between Heaven and Hell, XXI

the downward tilt

of his chin and forehead

and the knitted eyebrows ...

Convicted Felon's official portrait

[l]awfully like his mugshot

And This haiku sequence is the first entry of my new writing project, "On the Brink of Trumperica," a sequel to "Between Heaven and Hell"

All art has its share in truth insofar as it serves as a transcript of human suffering.

-- Theodor Adorno

And

A poem after a poem after a poem is POWER!

-- paraphrasing Margaret Atwood

Added:  I just added one more fun haiku about this viral "air kiss" today:

Inauguration kiss

the distance between Trump

and Melania's lips

Threesome

simmering heat 

every touch of her

you ask, I answer

last light of day

my body alone

night chill deepening

NeverEnding Story, August 9 2024

FYI: This [first] 2-line haiku sequence is written in response to the following:

After Dusk

asleep

the firefly

is fueling

sparks

however small

light lovers

our bodies

listen

to light

Listen to Light, 1980

Raymond Roseliep

Added: reading between the lives and writing between the lines, LXXXVI

shooting her husband

in the heart three times

the neighbour 

said nothing... and yet

everything to each of us

FYI: This could be read as a sequl to my tanka below:

a winter fog

smothers the winding road

to her mother's house

the bruises on her face

say everything & nothing

Bulgarian and English Tanka Handbook (edited by Dimitar Anakiev), 2022

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXXXVII: "Life still goes on"

surrounded 

by rubble that was once his home

this Gazan man

flashes a defiant smile ...

his X post reads, Life still goes on

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXXXVIII: "settler violence"

                                 |                          

a settler aims his gun | a child throws his rock

                                 |

FYI: NBC News, August 8: The silent war: Settler violence in the West Bank surges since Oct. 7

Mother's Day As Usual

model planes

hung from a starry ceiling

that quiet room

this burden

of the morning silence

her absent son

height marks on the wall

day after day still a boy

in her mind's eye

Fireflies' Light, April, 2024

Here And There, Yet...

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXXVIII: "bloodied baby"

written in response to Reuters, July 15: Israel launches new Gaza strikes after weekend attack kills scores in safe zone

the corner

of an Israeli soldier's eye

a bloodied baby

breaking Gaza news

a newborn pierces the silence 

of this West Bank family

rubble-strewn ghost town

my baby's life ends, not the war

and no one hears 

NeverEnding Story, July 16 2024

FYI: Haaretz, July 15: "Why Has Gaza Become Dispensable?" Arabs and Palestinians Decry Inaction Over Israeli Targeting of Hamas Commander in "Safe" Zone

Weeks into the war in Gaza, the Israeli army designated the area of Al-Mawasi a humanitarian safe zone, instructing Gazans to evacuate there. Soon, the 16 square-kilometer strip along southern Gaza's coast became the only safe area for over 380,000 displaced Palestinians.

Nine months into the war, the Israeli army launched a military attack on Al-Mawasi, killing at least 90 Palestinians and injuring 300 others, including, according to the IDF, the commander of Hamas' Khan Yunis Brigade, Rafa'a Salameh.

And Al Jazeera, July 15: UNRWA headquarters in Gaza "flattened"

The head of UNRWA [The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East] said the organisation’s headquarters in Gaza has been destroyed in another “blatant disregard of international humanitarian law”.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, LXXIX: "life and death"

this moment

between life and death in Gaza

smoldering remains ...

Added:

summer drizzle

on a barbed-wire fence

droplets of blood

Added:

child migrant's stare

a world beyond

this border fence

Added:

exit ramp

this last-mile journey

to the churchyard

Aftermath

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XI: "Holocaust"

written on International Holocaust Remembrance Day

in response to UN top court's/ICJ's genocide case against Israel ruling

and for Jewish Israelis 

blot out Amalek ...

clutching his bible a rabbi 

lost in thought 

Holocaust Remembrance

Together We Will Win

[peace... peace only]

candlelight virgil

a tattooed survivor holds

a Stop the War sign

NeverEnding Story, January 27 2028

FYI: This haiku sequence is a sequel to the following sequences written for Critical Reflections on the Israel-Hamas War:

The "New" Old Normal

we don’t ask for the moon

but for the occupation to end ...

fireball after fireball 

the blood moon

tangled in half-burnt trees

bits of clothing

smoky ruins ...

each day a new battle

for water and food

NeverEnding Story, November 1, 2023

First Casualty

a time for peace

a time for war only...

a twist to PM's mouth

remember, remember

what Amalek did  ...

fireballs burst skyward

night turned into orange day

a news host laments

the most feared word, context

police phalanx

Never Again, Never Again

for everyone 

Genocide or not?

bounced back and forth between experts ...

peace candles flicker

NeverEnding Story, January 3, 2024

(FYI: The title alludes to 

The first casualty, when war comes, is truth.

Hiram Johnson (1866-1945), a Progressive Republican senator in California

For more, see Special Feature: Poems Selected for South Africa’s Genocide Case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, ICJ)

Notes:

1 Anadolu Agency, Jan. 11: South Africa reminds ICJ of Netanyahu's Amalek rhetoric to invoke genocide against Palestinians: Lawyer Tembeka Ngcukaitobi also brought other incitement rhetoric by Israeli officials to commit crime of genocide against Palestinians

2 Haaretz, Analysis, Jan. 26: ICJ Fires Warning Shot at Israel Over Genocide Case at World Court.

3 BBC News, Jan. 26: ICJ genocide hearing against Israel ruling [by 17 judges] HIGHLIGHTS:

1. 15-2 The state of Israel shall take all measures to prevent the commission of genocide to Gaza

2. 15-2 The state of Israel shall ensure that the military not commit any acts of genocide

3. 16-1 Israel shall take all measures to punish all public solicitations to genocide

4. 16-1 Israel shall take immediate and effective measures to address adverse conditions to life in the Gaza Strip

5. 15-2 Israel shall take effective measures to preserve evidence of actions impacting the Genocide convention

6. 15-2 Israel shall submit to the court a report all measures taken to follow the orders of this court within one month 

Haaretz, Jan. 28: Israeli ICJ Judge Aharon Barak Is the Last Liberal Fig Leaf Masking Israel's Anti-liberal Reality,

Aharon Barak supported the World Court's majority position in two of the provisional measures: one instructing Israel to allow essential services and humanitarian aid to the residents of the Gaza Strip and one instructing it to take all available measures to prevent and punish incitement to genocide.

Haaretz, Jan.28:Israel's Mainstream Brought Us to The Hague, Not Its Lunatic Fringes

Isaac Herzog, Yoav Gallant, Israel Katz: Israel's president, defense minister and foreign minister. The president of the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Joan Donoghue, chose to cite all three of them as evidence of suspicion of incitement to genocide in Israel.

The judges in The Hague diagnosed perfectly what we here refuse to admit: Israel's problem is its mainstream, not its lunatic fringes. It is the mainstream that brought us to The Hague, it is the mainstream that incited to genocide, after Israel convinced itself with unbelievable ease that after October 7 everything is permitted. Fortunately, in The Hague they seem to think differently, very differently.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XII: "tattooed number"

white hot silence

pries open the fault lines

among protesters ...

an old man rolls up his sleeve

to show a tattooed number

FYI: Holocaust Encyclopedia, Tattoos and Numbers: During the Holocaust, concentration camp prisoners received tattoos only at one location, the Auschwitz concentration camp complex.

And there are 245,000 Jewish survivors still living across 90 countries.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XIII: "Gaza's hospitals"

a cacophony

of sirens, shouting and screams ...

a girl curls up

next to the wheels of a stretcher

that holds her bloodied siblings

FYI: CNN, Analysis, Jan. 25:CNN Investigates How The Israel-Hamas War Is Debilitating Gaza’s Hospitals

Relentless bombardment, power outages and shortages have pushed nearly every hospital in the beleaguered northern Gaza Strip out of service, with evidence of repeated attacks on and in the vicinity of medical facilities despite the presence of doctors, patients and civilians inside, a CNN analysis led by CNN Investigative Producer Katie Polglase has found

Democracy Now, Jan.30: Israeli Forces Storm West Bank Hospital Disguised as Civilians, Kill 3 Palestinians

In the occupied West Bank, Israeli soldiers raided Jenin’s Ibn Sina Hospital earlier today disguised as civilian women and medical staff and killed three Palestinians. Shocking hospital surveillance footage shows the Israeli forces storming the hospital with guns raised as they searched for the three militants they said were using the facility as a hideout. Israeli soldiers and settlers have killed more than 370 Palestinians in the West Bank since October 7, while more than 6,300 people have been arrested.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, XIV: "winter rain"

smell of winter rain

amid garbage and debris

bombed-out dollhouse

Al Jazeera, Jan. 27: Cold, rainy weather making war-wracked Gaza ‘completely uninhabitable’

The UN’s human rights office warns about the impact of continued Israeli bombardment and worsening weather on civilians in Gaza.

Whoever kills one life kills the world entire

Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, VI: "death count"

written on the 100th day of the Israel Hamas War

Whoever kills one life kills the world entire

white sand beach

miles north of a refugee camp

now-flattened

a Gazan's first and last

apperance on the TV

bombed-out hospital

death count debate

a peace vigil stretches

into foggy night

NeverEnding Story, January 14 2024

FYI: The title is taken from Talmud:

Why was man created alone? Is it not true that the creator could have created the whole of humanity? But man was created alone to teach you that whoever kills one life kills the world entire, and whoever saves one life saves the world entire. —paraphrased from the Talmud

--Gideon Frieder, "To Save the World Entire"

For more poems about the ICJ's genocide case against Israel, see Special Feature: Poems Selected for South Africa’s Genocide Case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, ICJ

Democracy Now!, Jan 10: IDF Is Using Hunger as a Weapon of War, Says Israeli Rights Group B'Tselem

Human rights groups say Israel is using starvation as a weapon in the Gaza Strip as Israel severely restricts the delivery of humanitarian aid, medicine and food supplies to millions inside the besieged and bombed territory. In a new report," Israeli human rights group B'Tselem lays out how Israel's decision to cut off electricity, water and international humanitarian aid to Gaza after a 17-year blockade against the territory has led to a very quick collapse of infrastructure. "The things that impede this provision of food for people who are starving is a declared policy by Israel," says Sarit Michaeli, B'Tselem international advocacy lead. "The Israeli government is at fault, is responsible for this, and this should lead to immediate international action."

CNN, Jan. 11: Some Israeli intel officers "shocked by what they were asked to do’ in Gaza, says Israeli journalist

Bianna Golodryga speaks to Yuval Abraham, a journalist at +972 Magazine, on his investigations into how the Israeli army is operating in Gaza.

And Haaretz, Opinion, Jan. 15: ICJ Genocide Trial Showcases Israel's Collective Temporary Insanity and Vile Government

It should be mentioned that this humanitarian assistance, very aid, which was a central aspect of Israel's line of defense before the judges but actually before the judgment of the entire world, was maligned and vilified by several members of Israel's government, as an act of capitulation.

The New Yorker, Jan. 12: How Israel’s Inspection Process Is Obstructing Aid Delivery

One of the things we witnessed personally was a large warehouse filled with humanitarian goods that had been rejected at Israeli inspection points. Goods like medical kits used to deliver babies, water-testing kits, water filters, solar-powered desalinization units, tents that people said might’ve been returned because they had metal poles.

So a whole collection of rejected items that seemed purely arbitrary. And I will also say that when one item on a truck is rejected, the entire truck is turned back, and in talking to a truck driver and others we learned that some of these trucks take twenty days to go from the starting point to delivering assistance. 

Haaretz Podcast, Jan. 9: How Can We Expect Others to Empathize With Us When We Fail to Empathize With Palestinians?

Haaretz, Jan. 12: Half a Million Gazans Are Suffering From Acute Hunger. Let That Sink In

The scope of the crisis in Gaza is becoming clearer; according to the UN, Israel is creating conditions that are making life in Gaza impossible; but Israeli leaders are unbothered

Haaretz, Jan. 30: A New Low: The Israelis Advocating to Starve the People of Gaza

For Israel's extremists, nothing is off-limits when it comes to Gaza – fighting the delivery of humanitarian aid, re-establishing Jewish settlements, human decency. But it would be a mistake to dismiss them as a fringe movement... According to Agam Institute surveys, nearly 60 percent of Israeli Jews oppose humanitarian aid – a stable figure over time.

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, VII: "war after war"

war after war after Arctic blast nothing new under the sun

FYI: The Guardian, Jan. 11: ‘Brutal’ Arctic blast expected to bring frigid temperatures to North America: Extreme cold warning issued in Canada as US forecasters warn of wind chills in Texas and major snow in midwest and east coast

And according to the Geneva Academy, there are more than 110 armed conflicts in the world.

Added: This Brave New World, CXLI

in-between

fireballs bursting skyward

smell of winter air

Added: Against the Drowning Noise of Other Words, VIII: "broken world"

On This Fresh Morning

just to be alive

in the broken world, my friend writes

I respond,

dying is the most alive

you'll ever feel in Gaza

with one purpose

does this war make a stone

of the broken heart?

thousands of miles away

I ponder in a cold snap

One Day at a Time

test results

this carrousel

of thoughts

early leaffall

the silence between me

and the cancer doctor 

hospital garden

the evening breeze carries

my prayer

The Bamboo Hut, 2, 2023

Life as a Chinese Temp

restructuring...

my cubicle shrinks

my salary, too

look of this cashier

I set aside chips, eggs, milk...

even the rice

finding new gigs ...

in my mind's eye these faces

of landlord after landlord 

you're let go ...

this twist to the boss's mouth

in my midnight dream

The Bamboo Hut, 2, 2023

Each Day Has Enough Trouble of Its Own

a layer of ice

over yesterday's snow

another rent hike

among strangers

hunting for bargains

this loneliness ...

moonlight flooding

through the kitchen window ...

a meal for one

midnight sirens

one stray answering

another

Modern Haiku, 54:3, Autumn 2023

Peace, a Bloody Mirage

from a Canadian Perspective

written in response to the surprise Hamas attack and the Israelis declaration of war

spilling of blood

later a stream of blood flows

into a river of blood ...

war after war news ...

the length of our silence

this Thanksgiving

NeverEnding Story, October 9 2023

FYI: Yahoo!News, October 7: 'You don't speak for Canada': Internet reacts as Trudeau says 'we stand with Israel'

Justin Trudeau, @JustinTrudeau, Oct 7

Canada strongly condemns the current terrorist attacks against Israel. These acts of violence are completely unacceptable. We stand with Israel and fully support its right to defend itself. Our thoughts are with everyone affected by this. Civilian life must be protected.

nuha, @nuhanotnoah 

Today is a day I hate being Canadian. How dare you never help innocent Palestinians getting attacked and murdered on a daily basis, and the one time they decide to fight back you chose the side who caused all this with billions of dollars going towards their everyday violence... 

Added:

Day and Night

lineup around the street

this lingering smell of turkey

from a soup kitchen

the weight and cost

of Happy Thanksgiving

table for one, please 

A Trilogy

lovers’ trail

my hands remember the curves

of her womanhood

windshield wipers squeak

back and forth we bicker over

stay or go ...

night of fireflies ...

all that remains 

of our on-off love

NeverEnding Story, August 31 2023

her voice

recedes into the roar

of the river --

this floating life too short

to be anything but happy

Added: Re-Homing in the Maple Land, IX

my roommate

mutters, no you or I

only we 

crowded in this basement ...

together a l o n e

Added:

after a day

unlike all the others

a six-lane snarl-up