You are my sun

I am warmed by you

Grow in orderly fashion

Endure the occasional storm

Never put off by clouds

Your light is in my heart

You provide hidden treasure

I simply cultivate

When my day is done

You give me a chance to rest

Beneath the moon and stars

Until you come and request

That I begin my day and

Watch that I eat healthy

You begin as a spark, but

By noon you have me hot

When my season is done

You still have use for me

My heart must be tenderized

You long for my special groove

You are water washing over stones

Eventually they become smooth

You are my sun

I am a project you can’t release

When my year is over

Preparation will be made

A new dance with the same band

Fresh costume for your parade

You have me depending on you

In a way I like the feeling

When the weather is cold and wicked

You are even more appealing

You are my sun

How long can this go on?

Is forever a real word

I’m in it for the long run

You, too, depend on me

I must absorb your energy

Keep you excited with destiny

You’ve always known it was with me

Steve Haarman

December 2, 2013 ^

In what has become hyper-rich

real-estate, years after we bought

in Sleepy Seas, Florida,

we thought going to the then upscale,

indoor mall was the best, especially

as we rode there on our bikes. We

never bought much, but it was a

happening, a thing, prescient as it was,

for us well meaning naïve consumers.

Well, we got to see a lot

of stuff. It seems a million years

ago now, maybe not for grand

reasons such as coming to our senses

regarding consumerism run amok

and free market capitalism as just plain

banality, especially with the

glorious gulf just a few blocks

away but as prescience often

has a way and we’ve

moved away, we

see that more clearly than

ever, each and every

day.

Travel many miles

to view leopard in the snow.

It must move to see.

Travel many miles

to view leopard in the snow.

Maybe let it be.

Travel many miles

to view leopard in the snow.

It moves. Did they see?

Leopard’s eyes shone blue,

steely, cold with black center.

View was ecstasy.

Leopard’s head turns back.

Piercing eyes vanish again.

The mountain turns white.

That would have been nice to see.

He has a hard time believing

that a woman could yearn

for a man as a man yearns

for a woman. They are

“sugar and spice and

everything nice,” distant,

aloof, crystalline, cold,

spicy, too hot to touch. Males

are “snips and snails and

puppy dog tails,” They’re

snippety short on what’s

long in life, slow to grow,

doofusy, a swinging,

swaying Chocolate Lab’s

tail full of neediness and

please pet me, please.

They stumble and bumble

and fall head over heels

while cool, cold, icy

cubes of sugar with

so many sharp corners

only melt in coffee or tea

but certainly not he

and his charmless arms.

Or maybe it’s the other

way around or better

yet, both and — sugar

melts, the dog laps up

the sweetness, the

tail wags, they fall

headlong in love

which turns out to be

romance — some say

God’s trick to secure

marriage and the future

of the species – hormones

as a divine joke.

Really?

That’s not very romantic.

Day comes and goes;

Night comes and goes;

Sun comes and goes;

Moon comes and goes;

Stars come and go;

Snow comes and goes;

Rain comes and goes;

Wind comes and goes;

Rivers come and go;

Mountains come and go;

Breathing comes and goes;

Life comes and goes;

Death comes and goes;

Joy comes and goes;

Sorrow comes and goes;

Holding comes and goes;

Letting go comes and goes;

You come and go;

I come and go;

All come and go;

None comes and goes;

And so it goes.

The smartest scientist

who ever lived said,

is saying and ever will

say, “It is all here right

now – past, present,

future.” She was, is

and will be asked,

“How do you know

this?” She said, is

saying and will say

now, “An old, drunk

Lakota when he

wasn’t, isn’t and

won’t be so drunk

and neither

was, is nor will

I be…so drunk

told, is telling

and will tell me.”

He sat at the kitchen counter

where he kept his computer

and, immediately, smelled

stinky feet.

He looked down where his

shoes and feet did meet.

He breathed a sigh of ease;

it wasn’t he,

but he looked up and

on the counter

sat a dish of breakfast cheese,

two and a half hours after breakfast

and three out of the deep freeze.

Then he heard his wife ask nicely,

“Darling, put the cheese in the

refrigerator, please.”

They always look good

when they walk out the door

and when they walk back in.

Even while working in the yard,

bending over flower beds, then

looking up, smiling, laughing,

waving. The kids come home

for holidays and they always

look good, too, unloading the

little ones from their safety seats

with grandmother and grandfather

opening the door and walking

to the car and hugging the kids,

lifting the grandkids in their

arms and everyone happily

heading inside. They are all

very religious and you just get

that feeling from them like

they’ve got it knocked more

so than most everybody else

and maybe they do as they walk

out their door and back in again.

Ironically, can you believe

that DNA on PBS right now shows

that we are all brothers and

sisters back to Adam and Eve,

just like the Bible said,

metaphorically speaking

(Well, actually literally speaking

there was a family a 150,000

years ago from which we all

descended, but I digress),

while throughout the

good old US of A today,

right this very moment,

brothers and sisters face

off against each other

believing the dirtiest,

low down lie ever

told by Satan, the

scared angel who

does what he does,

and, of course what

we do, because we

just want back in the

eternal loving relationship

we are already in because of

Jesus

but which we don’t know

we are in for reasons of

pride, egotism, selfishness,

insecurity, fear, whatever (as

they say these days)

and as a result cause,

foster and propagate the worst

violence imaginable?

Thank God it isn’t Hitler’s

Germany, Stalin’s Russia,

Bush’s Iraq, Pol Pot’s

Cambodia, and on and on

and on throughout history

because it is bad enough as

it is. Christ have mercy.

The scared shitless white boy in blue

blasted the big, intimidating black boy –

it’s true.

So, what else is new?

The scared for his political life

county’s attorney

told the grand jury

not to hurry.

Idle hands are the Devil’s

workshop.

Ferguson justice just played

hopscotch.

Nothing’s new.

Nero fiddled

while Rome burned.

Once again, we

get what we’ve earned.

White man’s fear wins

once more. So goes

the unending,

Amerikan Civil War.

Kyrie Eleison.