The Bat Night Moon Circles on All Hallows' Eve

sleepwalking thru a corn maze
where skeletons and scarecrows
play rugby w/ carved pumpkins
and apparitions keep score
while witches watch witchy
and their black cats find sleep
under tree-limbed gargoyles

Roman Number Time

On a Roman junket, I rented a red & black Italian scooter w/ a tag that read "Dante9" -- and on a Dramamine high, I weaved in and out of traffic along w/ all the other whining purrs of small stroke engines just so I could be first at the light. What a green-light anticipation I felt coursing thru my sight-seeing elation. I passed Harry's Bar on Via Veneto where Fellini filmed La Dolce Vita in stylistic grandeur, sped thru the Piazza di Spagna where fashion converges in a trinity of parallel streets, where Bvlgari and the queen of cashmere dwell, circled the ancient Coliseum where they crucified martyrs for spectator jolly, and steadied myself in the Vatican mileau in case the Pope stood on Bernini's balcony w/ proclamations of peace and speeches of divine order; speeches typed by an assistente who goes home to sing Puccini while his brethren prepare spaghetti Bolognese w/ Grissini Croccanti al Sesamo. At the return of my two-wheeled chariot, I saluted the Swiss Guard, and I felt bigger in Spirit than ever before. And always I will be inebriated of holy wine.

Birthday Boy is Four Blues in E

They say it's my birthday

I was born a big dog
I was born eating a lot
I like to chase soccer balls
and rabbits that can't be caught

I am too big for my collar
I am spoiled beyond belief
I like to show my smarts
to my masters' full relief

I like long walks
and to be in the lead
smelling and marking
on the grassy seed

I like to do tricks
and turn down the covers
I like to lie on my back
so there's no room for others

I like to be loved
I go crazy w/ my tail
It gets me attention
for I am the Alpha male

They say it's my birthday!

Doors of Saint Irene

Beyond this limewashed door, a Greek couple sit at a bronze table, etched w/ palindromes, pinching leftovers from the night before. They wait for the T-shirts and tourists to leave via hairpin turns so that they can go fishing on the wavy Aegean sea, governed by the touch of gods.

Beyond this door, empty calm except for the gilded sunlight that dances the hokey pokeynas over wooden beams and thru an empty bottle of Vinsanto. The tourists have fled down Penrose stairs, having spent their last drachmas on deified pottery; it's safe to come home, a home molded by a volcanic temper, the wrath of a devil.

Blae Heiven

Once standing under this Celtic cross with a friend
Now kneeling on this plateau of dirt for a friend

Anniversary in Aquamarine & Peridot

For Mine.
Didn't the Bard put it this way, with love bleeding from his quill, "Love is merely a madness"... I agree; but in a dark house, he is my life's blood, my life's joy, my life's enrichment. And on a canvas lit with the moon on water, he is the reflection on my face. And thru love's eternal capture, I can only letter these scarce words on the edge of my voice... "To A -- Happy Sixteenth Work in Progress!"
Yours.

As yesterday was ours, today is ours -- a gathering spot on the horizon, ever always a new opening to each other.

Impromptu:
My life's draw
My life's answer
My life's indulgence
My life's duet
My life's refrain
My life's affection
My life's renewal
My life's atonement
My life's resonance
My life's alms
My life between the lines

miss thistle

Labrador Deceiver

Ladies and gentlemen: the story you are about to read is true. Only the names have been omitted to protect the innocent.

Sunday September 20th 4.00 AM. Large eighty-five pound dog wakes Master. Dog wants food. Dog is ignored. Dog tries his luck w/ Master number two. 7.00 AM. Master number one lets dog outside. Once back inside, dog indicates hunger. Master number one goes to feed dog. Master number two says, "No, I've fed the dog." Master number one dumps the food back in bucket. Calls the dog a Labrador Deceiver. Dog perplexed. Motions toward his bowl, with his big block head. Evidently, dog feels that Master number one has committed a terrible faux-paw.

On this date, the trial was held in the kitchen. The results of that hearing in a moment. A moment passed. Under the intense light of the bay windows, dog was unremorseful. Dog was convicted of perjury (pawjury?), but was given a suspended sentence.