DEAD SNAKE

Walking back along a five mile nature trail

Winding along the edge of a big river

In the sun of a hot afternoon

Seeking escape from the heat waves

Rising off the earth

I come upon the corpse of a large gopher snake

Strung out in the shade of a tree

Along the edge of the path

Its head had been smashed

By three adolescent boys walking a little ways ahead

I admired its harmless and lifeless body

The beautiful pattern of its scales

And the strong girth of its entire length

An oddity of nature rarely found in the open

Grown a full four feet long over its several years

Earlier I had seen the boys picking it up by the end of a stick

Too afraid of touching it

Drooping from the end of the stick

Its tail could be seen still twisting and slowly coiling

The nervous spasms of its last dying energies

It is saddening

To see these results

Of the fear of not knowing the difference

Between a harmless colubrid growing old

And lethal young vipers growing up

A PIECE of PEACE

Trying to buy

A small piece of peace

At the corner drugstore

Like an ice cream cone

Or a Popsicle

A candy bar

Or a six pack

To wash my tears away

To waste my years away

To temporarily turn my fears away

But just barely had enough change

The prices have all gone up

I can no longer afford

Anything in a bigger size

My little piece

Won't last for very long

Before it's all gone

In fact, it won't even last

Until I get home

Returning with my tears

Greeted by my fears

Whiling away my years

And now I can't afford

Another piece of peace

The piece was too little

The peace was too brief

All I can do now

Is to wait until I get

Another couple of dollars

FINDING PEACE

Finding peace

In the silliest of places

Finding contentment

In private spaces

Under the shade of a big tree

Upon the edge of a small stream

In the bath tub

On the bed early in the morning

Somewhere off the beaten track

Away from the roads

And the parking lots

Along which all the strangers come

And go

Finding happiness

In small things

An old bicycle

A few odd poems

A painting or two

A nice meal

My little girl's smile

A bird that sings to me

While I'm alone

Happiness without spending money

Freedom without hassles

No strings attached

Peace without too many people

WATCHING the PEACE on TV

The President appealed, explained, exhorted, demanded

The voice of the will of the people

His advisors rationalized, defended, elaborated and advised

The Secretary of State went for several secret negotiations

The Secretary of Defense was busy at the Pentagon

Congress convened and debated and voted and supported

The President's decisions

The reporter's asked questions, cajoled, badgered, reported and filled in the details

The people were out parading, protesting and praying for peace and support

The Television News Rooms set up special maps and keys and had twenty-four hour coverage

The action news teams were at every probable spot on the earth

The troops were well trained, rehearsed, tried and ready for action

The planes were poised, the bombs were armed, the missiles mounted in position

Ex-Generals and Commanders dressed in business suits and ties

Gave Kindler and Gentler, fatherly talks to small groups of children

Blood donation trailers set up on all the campuses across the country

New blood for old, good blood for bad

The reservists were all mobilized and reported for duty

The wives cried and had babies with the fathers far from home

Short haircuts came back into style

The whole nation was glued to the television screen

A single, well coordinated, mass mind

It was all well explained, all clearly understood

We were going to war, again

We were going to protect the peace in the region

It was not the oil that really counted

It was a question of Freedom and Justice

American is strong again and can win again

This is not like Vietnam

The whole world supports us

The villain is another Hitler, another Stalin

Nobody wanted war, they said

But all wanted victory if war began

Besides, the blockade wasn't working fast enough

And we must go and fight to save the Jews

And the rich oil Sheiks

We were there in such strong military presence

To protect the Peace in the region

Another war to end all wars

Another war to preserve the balance of peace in the world

Our country fights for Peace, not Power

Our country fights for Freedom, not Control

Our country fights for Human Rights, not fossil reserves

Everyone said they wanted peace,

But we had our principles to defend

The bombs fell with unbelievable accuracy and lethality

Right down a factory Chimney at twenty-thousand feet

And exploded with frightening voracity

Consuming entire buildings in a cloud of pulverized rubble

The bombs rained down over Mesopotamia

For more than forty days and forty nights

Our boys were tired but proud

The news reported the tragedy of each single set of American casualties

A bomb explodes an underground bunker full of small children

The President declares it was the devil that made him do it

The villain put them there on purpose

Why should they try to protect their children

When we are so right

When everything seems so black and white

The news reporters tell it like its been told to them

The Scuds raining down over Jerusalem

The ever patient Israelis

So good to put up with such a barrage

Everyone running around with gas masks on

Like some old late night Sci-Fi flick

Then the ground actions started

Everything went right on schedule

Without a hitch, without a casualty

The evil army crumbles and flees in terror

A good little war

Keeping a secure, lasting peace

A holy crusade

Of Christian against evil Moslem

Keeping the Peace

On TV

A SIDEWINDER and THE TANK

A cooling desert wind

In the evening of the plain

Cast in the shadows of the mountain ridge

Stretching across the clear blue skies

The sidewinder

Moving across the desert sands

Leaving behind his peculiar tracks

The tank moves slowly along the road

Out upon a one-tank manoeuvre

The driver sees the sidewinder

And veers off course to run it over

He misses but just clips its tail

The sidewinder coils in anger

In the middle of the road

Rearing its head

Poised threatening to strike

It shakes its tail but nothing sounds

The tank slowly steers around

Returning to finish the job

Stopping before the snake

The snake is hissing and strikes out

Then the commander gives the signal

And the tank track slowly rolls over the snake

The crew get down

To inspect their work well done

The coiled snake is flattened like a pancake

Squashed lifeless like a dirty bug

The sergeant wanted the rattle

The driver wanted the fangs

For his children to play with

They climb back on board

And rumble off down the road

Looking for more snakes

BUILDING BRIDGES

Building bridges

Spanning the chasm

Separating both sides

Crossing over the waters

Flowing between

Building bridges

On firm foundations

With strong building blocks

And big beams of timber

Building upon a common ground

It takes time

Building bridges

To continue the way

Through the forests

Between the mountains

Allowing easy crossing

To the other side

Building bridges

Beginning on both sides

At the same time

Slowly meeting in the middle

Over the deepest part

The way it's always done

Working together

Building bridges

Between different lands

So to come together

Somewhere in the middle

Across the vast empty spaces

And to cross freely

From side to side

A CASE of MISTAKEN IDENTITY

Young man hunting

Pheasants in the peach orchard

With a long single barreled shotgun

Great for long distance flying ducks

But unable to hit anything off the swing

Shell after shell

And the game just runs away

With the hunter running after them

Finally a bird flies up into a nearby tree

It is evening and the shadows are growing darker

Making it more difficult to see

A single lucky shot and something falls from the tree

The hunter runs to find his prize

Only to discover not a pheasant

But some strange looking exotic bird

Like a blue stork

Something he'd never seen before

Like a crane

A funny, queasy feeling rises in his gut

The long leg is banded

He looks around

Of course there is no one else

Standing in the middle of the orchard

He finds a spot under the tree

And there with the stock of the gun

Digs a hole and quietly buries the bird

The young man gives his shotgun away to his best friend

And never goes pheasant hunting again

EYE of the STORM

Peace dwells at the hub of the wheel

The center of the spokes that keep turning around

Living at peace with oneself

Is like living in the eye of a storm

Where the world nearby is calm

When the times all about are trying and turbulent

It is not an easy feat

Learning to live within the eye of the storm

When new events are always threatening

To knock you off your feet

One must dance with the shifting directions

Of the mighty winds

And move with the grace of a deer

Upon a mountain slope

It requires a keen sense of inner balance

And to always be able to look

And easily find the center

To know when the ever changing storms

Are going to shift directions

It requires being able to look into the gray darkening skies

And know that a storm is on the rise

We all have a center where peace can be found

While it is storming all around

Earth Tiding Verse

Along the Way