Samples > 21 Sonnets

Namibia- Etosha National Park, 2002

The animals line up at the watering hole
As far as can be seen in the heat of sand
In herds and prides, every creature of the land
Zebra, lion, springbok, buffalo,

The masses of the plains in preordained places.
No killing will occur in this condition
All must drink from the small muddy lake
And no species will challenge their positions.

It is a rare event in the scourge of draught,
An instinct to survive nature’s roar,       
Like people in the bread lines from war
Or whatever natural catastrophe will mount.

But all step aside as the rhinos’ drink first,
Like the self-appointed kings we bow to and curse.

(From 21 Sonnets from a Time and Place)

Sonnet to Uncle Jack’s Scissors

Uncle Jack, on my wife’s side, was an uncomplicated gent.
We’d see him once or twice a year at family events.
He was devoted to Aunt Hilda, and the two were childless.
His claim to fame was how he spent the fewest cents

To buy his dapper clothes.  He read the cartoons daily
And had few and little needs, like a baldheaded boy of ten,
For fifty years the happy seller of stationary supplies.
He retired, played golf, and died in the senior center.

Somehow I got his scissors, the ultra-grand deluxe,
With the sound of kissing steel. It resides next to my desktop.

The mail, the coupons, my nails, there’s always things to cut,
Shoelaces or strings, there is not a day I do not stop
And think of Uncle Jack, and his simple and kind heart,
As I use his passed-down tool which tears all things apart.

From (21 Sonnets Stirred not Shaken)

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