Unsalted Peanuts

a handful of peanuts
is a perfect snack
or a perfect treat
for city squirrels

I bought a 5lbs bag of potatoes yesterday

Potatoes soaked, grated, and mashed.
Potatoes whipped, roasted, and hashed.
Potatoes fried to the delight of all.
Potatoes, I love you, nature’s great windfall!

Peanuts at the Park

a squirrel settled
at my feet
to eat

from hunger or trust?

who knows?

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Different Fruit

a lovely sunset

perhaps a ripe peach
or orange
or mandarin
or pomelo

and to some of us
not fruit at all

Lemons on the Counter

The lemons have fallen from the bowl
in two neat schoolchildren rows
Is this coincidence or the inscrutable hand of fate?
A mischievous god or a child with a taste
for fun and games and mind games galore
But perhaps, I’m fashioning over-complicated lore
for a few simple fruit I bought from the store

I think the tourists believe I’m one of them, at Katz’s

The table next to mine
thinks me funny for squeezing
mustard on my plate.

That’s because I don’t like it.

But if I’m to have a proper pastrami sandwich
I might as well try a little bit on the side
with my shavings.

Nah, I still hate it.

I do know how to eat a sandwich.
And I do know I’m getting robbed
at New York prices.

Scent vs Taste

a pungent French cake
made of lavender essence
tastes like my hand soap

Cavendish

Giant anthers of yellow
Honeybees recumbent
Banana pollen

Favorite Basho Poems

I received some upsetting personal news and am not feeling creative today, so I thought you might enjoy some of my favorite haiku by Basho instead. The following were translated into English from Japanese by Sam Hamill:

You weren’t home when I came
even the plum blossoms were
in another yard

Between our two lives
there is also the life of
the cherry blossoms

Just one possession
in this lightly-lived life —
a gourd of rice

At Thanksgiving

Mothers give you the whole wishbone;
They tell you half-dreams are an impossibility —
That all the goodness in your future
Is already yours