New Year's Eve ~ Haiku

New York's Times Square hops
Sushi ~ Key West's drag queen ~ drops
Kathy Griffin bops

My objects of distraction

My attention stream careens
by objects of distraction
that have littered my screens,
from Lady Gaga tweets
to Kathy Griffin bleats,
from Andy Borowitz quips
to Technologizer tips,
from Facebook friends
to HuffPost trends,
from blogfeed roams
to the quick detour
from writing some poems
to hunks du jour.

But now all these seem
not at all lost time,
like walks by a stream,
knowing no reason nor rhyme,
become part of a scheme.

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placed in Poets United Think Tank #30: Observation

2010 in words

Top kill Tea Party vuvuzelas!
Refudiate bankster double-dips!
Crowdsource gleeks!
Nom nom webisode retweets!

*     *     *     *

based on the Oxford American Dictionary's top words of 2010

It's the last week of the year

It's the last week of the year:
Winding down, celebrate,
Markers set, recalibrate,
'Bests' and 'Worsts' appear.

Dreading 'Year in Review's,
Being told who's on top,
Awaiting Times Square's ball to drop,
Making Brunswick stew.

Breaking bad habits,
Remaking resolutions.
Ahead, another earth-revolution:
It's the Year of the Rabbit.

*     *     *     *

2011: The Year of the Rabbit

Denisovans

Denis the hermit didn't know
his cave held distant cousins:
ex-Africa Siberia hominins—
Neanderthals' eastern John Does.
These remnants of ancient breeds
lived on in his human genes.

*     *     *     *

Siberian Fossils Were Neanderthals’ Eastern Cousins, DNA Reveals (NY Times); 'Denisovans' shared Asia with Neanderthals and modern humans 30,000 years ago (The Guardian); Denisova Cave (Wikipedia)

Ten tentacles

I need, say, ten tentacles,
like the squiggly squid,
to juggle all those receptacles
of the internet grid.

Eight tentacles to be grown,
and each one is shod
with e-reader, pad, or android phone,
netbook or notebook or tablet or pod.

(Two tentacles I'll use
to poke on displays,
with my eyes to peruse
their photon rays.)

My tentacles enlarging,
the number swells,
with their axons recharging
those battery cells.

Now I wonder if wherever I swim
I'll have the right device,
one on each limb —
and will ten tentacles suffice?

*     *     *     *

How Many Legs Does a Squid Have?
placed in Poets United Poetry Pantry #23

state's secrets

state's secrets are like cum,
revealing true nature of affections:
wikileaks the vatican's role
in the roll-in-the-hay with boys

fantasy planet

and yet, another world whirls
with laser swords and weightless laden breasts,
a dragon here and gadget there,
and the well-endowed hero sexlessly quests
the cryptic stone to save its heir:
the duke of pearls

this formula remains
where fandom reigns

Fauxgiveness

Is forgiveness just fauxgiveness,
(as Derrida seems to say) —
an empty present covered in Christmas
wrapping and bow?

Or can true forgiveness only be
present in the unforgivable,
as when a rabbit forgives
a hungry wolf?

*     *     *     *

placed in Poets United Think Tank: Forgiveness

Gays within

To: James F. Amos
Commandant
United States Marine Corp

How can straight Marines be meekly told
they can't fight with gays within their fold? —

      fearing more a no-"gay ban"
      than a winning Taliban?

Commandants who have a spine of steel
would not fear D-A-D-T repeal.

Truth Be Told

In private, truth, in public, lie —
In comfort zones. Unleashed, the guy
Of WikiLeaks with Warhol's hair
Leaves diplomats a big black eye.
Who once surmised are now aware.

The powered reel when real is known.
The press profession first bemoan
The dark hero on whom they feed,
Then run to feed their own iPhones
With stories few clued-in to read.

*     *     *     *

In the US, there doesn't seem to be a lot of reporting on #cablegate. Mostly ho-hum. One story I thought would have made a bigger splash here was one @guardian.uk.co on how Saudi princes throw parties that the country's religious police would throw the regular citizens in jail for.

The Exit-Jesus of a poem

In the chaos of words and phrase,
with links to many-cultural memes,
I stumble in a murky haze —
I know it is not what it seems.

But in its margins, an exegesis,
an orderly flow of place and time.
And then on Exit: Jesus,
how simple truth is found in rhyme.

New life for stars, and stars for life

Life searchers have found a new form of DNA in a bacterium where arsenic replaces phosphorus. (Does it surprise anyone that a new form of bacteria is found in a place named Mono Lake?) Whatever, it means there are more ways for life to exist.

Star counters have upped their tally to 300 sextillion (300 x 10^21). Cosmologists make a distinction between the observable universe and, for lack of a better name, the universe. The new tally is for the former. There is no count of stars in the latter, or any consensus on what is or how much is outside the observable universe. Whatever, it means there are more places for life to exist.

Odds just got better we are not alone.

The Twilight Sewn

A new clothes shop, not grandiose,
The queerest shirts and pants
Of fabrics unbeknownst to most,
A feel like tingling ants.

One purple shirt leapt out at me,
At least its arms shot out,
And captured me — I could not flee.
Choked back a stifled shout.

There was no choice, I have to buy
This magic purple shirt,
To take it quickly home and try
It on. So home I spurt.

Then o're me crept an antsy feel
And purple filled my brain.
I felt empow'rd with nerves of steel
'Gainst demons to be slain.

I saw the world in purple then,
Bad dogmas laid to waste.
A diff'rent nature filled me hence,
A world that I embraced.

That shirt I wear whenever weak
Or fear invades my mind.
When I went back more clothes to seek,
That shop I could not find.

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placed in Poets United Think Tank #26: Weirdness

shadows and mirrors

eating embassy dinners —
not army field rations

collecting DNAs
from left-behind glasses

writing down Visa
credit card numbers

a make-believe world
of shadows and mirrors

where left is right
and diplomat is spy

where up is down
and leaks wikied

diplomacy for grownups
but infantry for grunts