chaos theory

The pastor recites the reading
“Give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s
And unto God what is God’s”
But he mangles the meaning

He says that Jesus taught us to
be obedient to two masters
and to serve the heads of state
wherever they are leading

Serving under arms when called
to kill foreigners on foreign soil
who worship God a different way
A […]

bombus alights on
morning glory, blossoming
above rotting trash

the vines extend their
tentacles upward, fighting
to pull down phone lines

the purple trumpets
sound a silent clarion
for reinforcements

the untamed backyard
grasses respond to the call,
overthrowing the fence

somewhere, a mower
rusts in the shadows while birds
and vermin rejoice.

Shooting the wounded
in the head with a rifle
isn't good PR.

I'm flying to San Francisco,
Somewhere above Kentucky

The sun has set slowly behind a mountain range of clouds

Anvil Thunderheads tower and flash

The sunset glows through gaps like the embers of a campfire

Cirrus, a passing fog of ice

is the ceiling, and cumulus the floor

The clouds form snowy praries, glaciers and caves and rivers of light

They thrust up […]

betrayal of trust
in increments of dust
still feels like boulders
It cannot be swept
out the back door with a broom
or under the couch
Like crushed glass it cuts
from hidden floor crevices
long after breakage

grackles and cowbirds
spring's black-clad vanguard siezes
the backyard feeder
The displaced pigeons
and the vagabond sparrows
sulk among snowflakes
daffodils ignore
winter's last futile flurry;
they stretch and awake