(With a nod to Christian Bok)

pagan arts
an aardvark
snaps at ants

a car parks
at a plaza
stagnant stars

grandpa
plays grandma,
drag bar

a skald
chants a stanza
madcap rant

play ball!
a bastard fan slags
last fall’s champs

**

desert seeds
the shepherd led
twelve sheep

wretched news
the fettered Empress
enters hell

shredded weeds
he rejects her
clever letters

he seeks revenge,
the rebel rendered
helpless

scented reeds
the egret pecks
September

**

childish dimwit,
I flirt, inciting
misgivings

rising hill,
nitwits climbing
hindsight

writing scripts
in pidgin …
thinning mist

stills drip,
I sip
illicit drinks

critics dismiss
his gimmicks …
glib shtick

**

old books,
proctors work proofs
of Wordsworth

owls bob
on cold posts —
hollow moon

voodoo storm,
bloodshot crows
drop on tombs

dot-com boom ...
old gold stocks
drop off

noon fog —
schoolboys stop
to toss rocks

**

junk rusts,
numbskulls pull up
surplus guns

dumbstruck,
gurus murmur
hurtful truths

humdrum bluff,
schmucks blurt
untruthful stuff

dusk ruckus ...
drunks gulp
suds plus rum

bull run ...
spurs cut
dust ruts