Hymn in Las Vegas

In Las Vegas one may picnic on sand and smog

In Las Vegas there are many dead escalators

In Las Vegas garbage cans are always full

Las Vegas has no lack of impetuous drivers

Las Vegas is proud of its radiation

Las Vegas doesn’t know what the speed limit is

Is Las Vegas Paradise on earth?

Is Las Vegas suffering from nostalgia for sin?

Is Las Vegas in love with itself?

Las Vegas struts on stiletto heels

Las Vegas builds billboard Disneyland

Las Vegas looks like a bureaucrat on blackjack

Spring Whim

Buttercups bursting in greeny meadow,

oriole chattering in oak above,

geese squawking and euphorbia prolix

under golden orb setting in the west,

as midges celebrate their most brief lives.

Amid preening buds, frolic Spring has come

to populate damp earth, grass, and night

with trills, songs, and chirping whirls of delight.

Bees buzz, gather on purple lamium

while a woodpecker clatters on a tree.

Even silent twigs and mute lumpy stones

appear to whisper during gentle rain.

Flowering pear and plum evoke laughter

as I and my child trod weed and clover.