30.

dancing
muse
I hum a love song
for her, slightly
off key


29.

a sadness
slowly drifting
from me-
sweetbay blossoms
in the mayan blue sky


28.

talking myself
into missing her-
the dead aunt
who never
spoke to me


27.

stormy noon
at her Shakespeare recital-
I follow
her voice
beyond the words


26.

World Tai Chi Day
in the city park-
everyone
racing home
after class


25.

the restless cry
of a rain crow-
against my better judgment
I tell her
what I really think


24.

spring moonrise
I shift into
the bed space
of my night-mused
lover


23.

a moth
held fast
to the mantis bosom-
his stepwife cradles
the youngest child


22.

lifting the shirt
high above your head-
cherry blossoms
deeper pink
at sunset


21.

in my haste
tipping
the mango juice-
sunset pours
into dusk


20.

cabbage rose-
the tint
of her lipstick
on my favorite
mug


19.

the hollow slap
of a bullfrog's
dive-
she spells out for him
that its over


18.

lost
in my thoughts
on a moonlit path-
this doubt
I've come to expect


17.

letting down
her guard hand
for a moment,
senpai confides in me
April loneliness


16.

forgetting
Buddha's teaching
of the middle path...
I put blood, corpuscle, soul
into evening love


15.

3 a.m.
on a starless night-
I listen
for Janis Joplin
in cricket song


14.

not one comment
on the poem
I was so sure about-
this evening too
the mousing cat goes hungry


13.

"remain calm"
the manual says
easy for them-
black bear prints
in morning earth


12.

no pets allowed
in the old bookstore
yet, each spring
another
dust bunny


11.

an orchid
rising from last year's winter-
the shudder
of her orgasm
once more


10.

spring graveyard
the grass
thicker now
between
my grandparents


9.

catching them
in the act-
periwinkles opening
to the incoming
tide


8.

not a single blackbelt
to your name
still
the lip lock I submit to
every time


7.

struggling to hold
his toughest pose
the young gang member
asking me
about tanka


6.

her rain-beaten hair
in the evening cool-
a shard of moon lingers
just a little while
longer


5.

trying
to upstage
Son House
this sapsucker
in the distant pine


4.

stopping to watch
a pelican take flight-
at what point
did I become
my father?


3.

April
and the meadow
so thick
I almost slip
away


2.

as if
we needed
a reason
to embrace-
sudden wind


1.

the glass-eyed stare
of a spring peeper-
six months now
and still I'm in awe
of new love