It’s mid-July;
The lotus plants
Burst into bloom.
Joan’s golden yarrows
Catch the eye
Of those who stroll
Past our front yard.
A miniature rose bush
Just one foot high
Displays a half dozen
Breathtaking blooms,
White, with subtle tinted edges,
And the various dahlias
Radiate
Beyond description.
Thirty innocents are murdered
At a Baghdad apartment.
Palestine keeps lobbing
Useless missiles into Israel,
Inviting air strikes
Leaving hundreds dead.
In central Africa
Christians and Muslims
Systematically slaughter
Each other.
Seventy folks were shot
In Chicago
Over the holiday weekend.
Everywhere, inspired zealots,
Responding to orders
From their one true god,
Kill the infidels.
Meanwhile
Regal oaks, stately elms,
Weeping willows
Overarch
Lotus, rose, yarrow, dahlia—
Incandescent, stunning—
Wordless poems.
Breaking news: car bomb
Kills 89 in Afghanistan.
Malaysian plane shot down
Over Ukraine for no discernible reason.
295 dead.
More wordless poems.
(7/15/14)