The loneliest man in history

For years
I've spun the tale of Michael Collins,
The third astronaut
In the Apollo Eleven crew,
Consigned to orbit the moon
While Aldrin & Armstrong got famous
Landing on Mare Novitium.
Collins got relegated to orbit the great grey rock,
To transit the backside
Never seen directly by human eyes before.
And when I informed Susan
The loss of all radio contact on that leg
Must have made him
"The loneliest man in the history of the race"
She said "don't be so sure-
Better write him a letter and ask"
(will).


(for Michael Collins)

d h lawrence

     Brute force crushes many plants. Yet the plants rise again. The Pyramids will not last a moment compared with the daisy. And before Buddha or Jesus spoke the nightingale sang, and long after the words of Jesus and Buddha are gone into oblivion the nightingale still will sing. Because it is neither preaching nor commanding nor urging. It is just singing. And in the beginning was not a Word, but a chirrup.

-- D H Lawrence, Etruscan Places, ch. 2 (1932), quoted from The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations

work-site

He forgot his lunch
Now I have to give him
Half of mine

-for John Young

Gandhi

"...we are constantly being astonished at the amazing discoveries in the field of violence. But I maintain that far more undreamt-of and seemingly impossible discoveries will be made in the field of nonviolence."

-Gandhi

clubs

They finally figured,
Did the Millards,
That nothing's quite as boring
As playing cards

beach 'ku

padding his nest
the cormorant’s finessed
a red bikini vest

busted

Busted by neighbors
borrowing the wife's Mexican sandals
to fetch the morning mail-
triple-takes & broad smiles-
did they believe my tale?

reversal

As generally supposed
Eternity is the unimaginable
Extension of time:
When precisely the reverse is the case,
Eternity as all absence of extension,
Yes, temporality on its very face.

provenance

   Apparently the term "hauling ass" as regards to going fast originated in the Forties from this verbal image: "...make like a bread truck/ and haul buns"

for Ed B.

If I had a bootprint
  For every nickel I've made
    I'd be a wealthy man

berkeley bumpersticker

I'm Already Against The Next War

Art of Cheating

(for Lew)

As I crawled across the floor
Accused of massaging the pong score

Gales of laughter coming out of me
Just confirmed my larceny