Unforgiving heat
Camel marching on the sand
Desert tests the man
199
Fruity pipe smoke engulfed the room
Surrounded by shelves containing damp dusty LPs
The cynic
Whispered into my ear
“Old people change their mind like the wind”
198
Heliconia
Queen of tropical garden
Hummingbird’s best friend
197
Hit the reset button
Stability is a bore
You love me
But
Obviously
Need more
Hit the reset button
Simple life
Has you down
Safe
Always sound
Everything in order
You
Desperately
Crave
Continuous disorder
Hit the reset button
Danger
Turns you on
Swim away
My beautiful swan
Compose
A new song
Hit the reset button
196
You look at everything
As a winner takes all competition
Compromise
Much less frustration
Give it a try
Relationships
Would not become
Permanent goodbyes
195
Lake Okeechobee
Sitting with cane pole
Catching panfish
Wearing straw hat
Smoking pipe
Faraway
From the hype
194
Calm yourself
I know it is extremely difficult
However
Try your best
Stop
Blaming others
For your sorrows
Hit the beach
Jump
On a skateboard
Ride
A boogie board
Pull out
Old long surfboard
Check out
Gorgeous tan ladies
Wearing
Brazilian bikinis
Sip
Pina coladas
Forget
Martinis
Thread the needle
Sow your oats
Next morning
You will wake up
And
No longer
Feel like an old goat
193
Her hands dirty
All day
Working the fields
She is proud
Yet
Does not pretend to be superior
Brutally honest
Simplistic
Clear noncompetitive eyes
Smile super wide
No mask
Nothing to hide
192
Mahi Mahi
Spare ribs
Jumbo shrimp
Spiny lobster tails
Hushpuppies
Buttered corn on the cob
Special coleslaw recipe
Bucket of rice
Topped with Cajun hot sauce
Case of ice cold beer
Hot Florida summer sun
Barbeque
All weekend long
191
Watching the water
Run down the drain
I understand your pain
Drop the bum
Move on
Go have some fun
Grab your backpack
Hop on a jet
Southeast Asia
Is
An exotic place
To hang out
And
Forget
Soon
You
Will be laughing again
Fresh
Happy
Wiser
Starting over
Without him
190
Megacities
Massive migration
Urban population eruption
Left village for more prosperous life
Husband-children-wife
Continuous flow comes in
Culture thrown into rubbish bin
Live in a slum
Pollution chokes lungs
Crime rapidly controlling everyone
What will be impact on civilization?
189
Some place
Central America
Woke up soaking wet
All through night
He sweat
Looking at mosquito net
Got up
Walked down to the sea
Rendezvous
With the señora
She asked
“Is everything ready?”
Symbiotic relationship
Based on greed
Both tangled together
In the weeds
He is her token gringo
Because he always succeeds
Complicated
Dangerous
Game
Living under an assumed name
Continues playing
Only himself to blame
188
The peacock
Always
Stood tall
Displaying
His colorful feathers
A player
With swagger
Machiavellian tendencies
Reckless
Leading to colossal failure
Causing
The proud bird
To plummet
Eternally
Into
The psychosomatic abyss
187
20’s, 30’s, 40’s, 50’s
Plenty of Risk
60’s, 70’s, 80’s
And beyond
If one lives that long
Risk-averse
186
Left behind
Never before took to crime
Unemployed
The young man
Walked down the steps of the favela
Pulled out a sharp blade
Decision made
First time hardest
Life forever tarnished
Society pays price
Living in fear is the sacrifice
185
News media boils pot of soup
Ultra-liberal professors brainwash youth
Think tanks bought and sold
Regurgitating propaganda
Doing as told
Powerful control the messengers
With titles and promises of gold
Pay billions for a startup
Although employees do not make enough
For food, shelter, clothes
Divide the nation
Population full of hate and frustration
Elites continue rapid castration
Forced starvation
Pound peasants into the ground
When everything is taken
Board private jet and leave town
184
Why?
Chasing
Chasing
Craving recognition
Brings only disappointment
Look through the prism
Physical world is an illusion
Rip out the ego
Toss on the bonfire
Watch it disappear into the night
Breakaway
Harness intuition
The only true light
183
Time
Nothing left but time
Deep in the underwater cave
No escape
Alone
Accepting fate
Soon
No more time
182
Leaning
Against the tile wall
Taking a long hot shower
Scrubbing
Away the dirt
With a new bar of soap
Did not
Remove humiliation
But
Provided
Her
A bit of hope
181
Sitting on beach towel
Drinking fresh squeezed lemonade
Watching tide come go
180
He is the potato guy
Save for winter
Always
Make sure
Table has dinner
Homeless
At young age
Low risk
Financially safe
Habits
Difficult to break
179
Time
To stop
Playing marbles
My nose
Stuck
To grindstone
No longer
Pursuing
Itsy-bitsy bones
Spinning
Roulette wheel
Will transport
One
So far
This junkyard czar
Has
Raised the bar
Found
My
Motown groove
Perfecting
Hip hop moves
178
Ten Thousand Islands
Dropped anchor under stars
We made love on sandbar
177
Daybreak
Clean
Sea breeze
Lungs clear
Practicing
Tai chi
Harmony
For Free
176
All night with headlamp
Writing poems amongst tombstones
No longer alone
175
Hatching sea turtles
Marching towards the ocean
No baggage just instinct
174
Worn out hiking boots
He just kept moving along
Soaking wet but strong
173
Man lost his temper
Hiding behind machismo
Actually fearful
172
Fed beast for long time
Today woke up changed my mind
Freedom what I need
Veins dry nothing left to bleed
Tomorrow will sow new seeds
171
Damn right
I’m a cynical chap
Suffered my share
Of mishaps
Today’s world
in a severe undertow
Nothing is sacred
So much hatred
Perverted terrorists
Have wet dreams
Of blowing planet
To smithereens
Central Banks’ books are cooked
Masters of finance crooks
Ponzi schemes left and right
Living expenses out of sight
Leaders are clowns
Running countries into the ground
Dump Hazardous waste everywhere
Companies do not care
I need fresh air
Is the food safe to eat?
Growth hormones
Steroids
In the meat
Clean water hard to find
Global warming will destroy life on earth over time
170
Relax
Be patient
Sit by the river with your fishing pole
Most of all
Do not be dragged down the rabbit hole
Overtime
Bad character
Will be exposed
Then you will completely know
It is time get up
And
Permanently
Walk away from the sideshow
169
Frantically
Scratching
At his deformed image
In the mirror
Hyperventilating
He cried
“Please help I need air”
Fallen idol
Emotional bowl of jello
Desecrated soul
Pissed in his own rice bowl
Alone
There are no more calls
No longer the star
Of the Masquerade balls
168
For a long time
She had suffered much
No longer heard the beautiful sounds
Of the garden chimes
Final days
I sat in a chair
Next to her hospital bed
In the end
“I no longer believe”
Is what she said
167
Privileged
Less privileged
Social climbers
Boomerang slackers
Believe in the good book
Or burn in hell
Pray five times a day
Study Quran
Or an infidel
Sprinkle ancient dust here and there
Until on their deathbed
Atheists do not seem to care
Who is right?
Who is wrong?
Respect each other’s beliefs
Start getting along
Before humankind is gone
166
Hold on a second
I will open wide
So you can shove it down my throat
Artificial intelligence
Tossing the human race
Down a catastrophic slippery slope
You high tech freaks
Crave to wire everything on the Globe
Creating software and machines
Without hearts
Futuristic
Armies of Robots
Totally state of the art
Seizing power
All societies will fall
Because geeks
Will no longer
Have the intellectual capacity
To halt
The contraptions
From controlling us all
165
Fiddler crab
Moving back forth on beach sand
Never stays with plan
Has no control of wheel
Flip Floppers never close deal
164
Stingrays
In the sea
Gliding along effortlessly
Queen angelfish
Swimming gracefully
A grouper
Under a coral ledge
Observes me cautiously
Spiny lobsters
Look tasty
School of barracuda zoom back and forth aggressively
Just another early morning dive
In the Florida Keys
163
Put it on the bain marie
May not eat for another century
Spent winter in Romania
Hung out with vampires from Transylvania
Full blood transfusions made me live forever
But much crazier
Worked my way over to India
Met a snake charmer who was even zanier
He gave me a worn copy of the Tao Te Ching
Went home to Miami
Every day for one month
Sitting on the beach
Reading all 81 chapters of writing by Lao Tzu
No more luxuries for me
Decided to pawn off all of my bling
To this day for no reason
When drinking coconut water
Start to sing
The Star Spangled Banner
Oh say can you see
Numerous shrinks unable to help me
Bought old wood sailboat
Went off to sea
Made landfall here in Tahiti
Really enjoy your company
Please pour me some more tea
162
Sitting on my beach chair
Who the hell needs a career?
Catching rays
Reading philosophy books all day
I’m not a frustrated big shot
With an empty fridge
But has kitchen granite counter tops
No
I live in a sixty year old three room shack
Concrete Block Structure
Flat Roof
Survived multiple hurricane attacks
Sharing space with
Reptiles
Rodents
Termites
And
A gigantic organic vegetable garden out back
Love my Sony Walkman
Forget digital sound
Will die a cassette man
For over forty years
Bar-B-Que
1-2 times per week
Colonoscopy just came back all clear
Drink Ice cold Heineken beer
Nine years ago stopped cutting my hair
The Hermit Poet's Ramblings 