Springbok

With a white mask for a face
the dark brown stripe
a shadow below the
hard brown skeleton
the soft white belly
slid in from under
like the work of a
taxidermist distorted.

Tsessebe

Mothers hold babies
in their arms
prodding their gaze
towards the camera

bellies covered
in clothes
only faces show
satiated or not

Mary and Infant Jesus.

Half knowledge is dangerous

Knowledge
Route A (right)
and B (on left)
form a loop

Intended Route
go on A and dont take B (at the beginning)
turn back after the peak

Half knowledge
Dont take B

Detour
when half knowledge
is deployed
each step away
from the destination
The Beginning.

Coffee

forever on the mind
when unavailable
easily forgotten
on the shelf
in a refrigerator

On Turning 45

I will be mad on the road
at the speed limit

A Wallace Stevens poem

is a cemetry of words

Whereways

Early in the morning
as the male black
cat with white feet
and a female cat
belonging to him
hurry down
so does the hiker

A pair of strangers

If I could rise
as high as the lamp
post I could tell
what the bird with
white underbelly
and light sandstone
feathers was

If some go far
some go high
to elude you
In sight
out of reach

Trees at Work

My tea time companion at home
an ash throated flycatcher
its voice reverberating
in the calls of its brethren
at office parking lot.

A different bird call
sent me into a slow tap dance
as my feet followed
as projection of
the birds movement on
the branches onto the
horizontal axis

A Gila Woodpecker
to keep me company
until the end of
migration.

The Golden bough

A pomegranate tree
at the bottom
of Grand Canyon

A pumpkin patch

in November.

The could have been pies
and the jack-o-lantern eyes
the brittle that
it can still be

Merwins little children

With shards dispelled
on account of a fall

landing on a carpet
not missing to
ricochet off a chair

there lay a shark
with its jaws open

Upside down a tooth
or protome of an
elephant

As a vase
it had a nice rim.

Mudra

The Antlers
uneven fingers
spread
beseech

Experiments in the lab of a surrealist

I kneel on the road
to greet a baby
and her purple animated
stuffed antelope with
caribbean hairdo.

I hope the
white truck and
its driver
take whats
left of the road.


*****************

Peeling unwieldy
layers - hard to
separate puff
pastry sheets-
from soap

Audit Earth

One morning the
post-it pad with
a curlicue P
on the white fridge
said " Audit Moon"

Lying on the floor
I caught a bit of
it at the edge
of the top of the window:
It sure is shy.

A visitor could
find the faults
on Earth
not one speck
but many Earthians.