I Don't Fully Understand This One

In the Hills, a Plum Tree Flowers in a Small Garden


Blossoms all have shaken down, and alone
it casts a warm beauty over the garden,
whose slender shadows lie on shallow ponds.
A faint fragrance drifts under a dun moon.
Snowbirds, landing, look again, to see
what dusty butterflies would faint to know.
Lucky me, making friends with whispered verse—
who needs golden goblets or rhythm sticks?
--Liu Bu

Tanka with the Theme of Misperception

Almost showed you plum blossoms
that were a light fall of snow.
--Akahito



The sea slips from the shore.
One white wave again stands fast.
A crane in the surf.
--The Emperor Uda

To the Dogs

The ravenous god who devours our flesh,
she always throws a bone to the dogs.

The Tenderloin, the Yoshiwara,
Sharon Terkel’s trailer, all gone to the dogs.

Feeling distant from him who lay close,
she crept downstairs alone to the dogs.

A misanthrope she now knew him to be,
for he’d never taken that tone with the dogs.

The parents, but not the sons,
feel most at home with the dogs.

Most say Ron, some Ronald, some Ronnie.
By scent I’m truly known to the dogs.

Two by Li Bai

Seeing Meng Haoran Off From Yellow Crane Tower


As flowers bloom and leaves unfold,
my friend sets out, west for Guanling.
His solitary sail recedes,
vanishing where river meets sky.
--Li Bai






To the Festival Plateau


Feeling oppressed toward evening,
I drive up to this ancient place.
The sun blazes a moment more
before the yellow dusk follows.
--Li Bai

A Whole Lot of Asylum

Whatever your view about whether we should have gotten into Afghanistan or whether we should get out now, most of us should be able to agree that if we leave and the Taliban takes over again, we'll be obliged to offer political asylum to the entire female half of the population. There could be a whole bunch of women trying to grab onto that last helicopter taking off from the roof of our embassy.

More Hoboes

Dead-These-Ten-Years Mitchell
Chester "Polka Down the Tracks" Trazewski
Mustard Sucking Rudy
The Beloved Word-Salad Sarah
Liver Lips Lenny, the Dollar-a-Kiss Man
Gimpy Jim with Kids in Columbus
Trilling Willy, the Mole Whisperer
Merkin-Lint Mavis Stumpel
Trevor from Guelph
Beardless Jane
Imelda, the Former Mrs. Burro
Defrocked Sandor

A Possible Answer

Meme theory is the notion that cognitive items--ideas, phrases,etc.--can be subject to evolutionary pressures. So let's say we have some dubious religious idea. What happens if we add to it provisos that it is absolute truth, that you are deep trouble if you don't truly believe it, and that it is known to be true by faith and is thus impervious to logical disproof? A dubious idea with these provisos would be more likely to be reproduced--maintained in your own mind and passed on to others--than a dubious idea without them. And then what would be the effect of making the idea not only dubious, but to a degree nonsensical or unintelligible? An idea you want to reproduce, remember, pass on to others, that is also not really intelligible, is more likely to be passed on verbatim. More likely to be passed on without mutation because paraphrasing something you don't really understand is difficult. Thus we stand up together reciting creeds.