jimfleming

The sweet pineapple Five hundred days to mature Five minutes to eat

I’d heard about the crocodile in the salt ponds I walk the road nearby every evening and thought I might see it eventually   The American Crocodile is a rarity, but if left unmolested will live for seventy years The local paper mindlessly reported the sighting and the tourists came Gaijin in red rented Mustang convertibles They would stop me on my walk and ask, “Yo, you seen that Alligator?” I said, “No and it’s a Crocodile and I doubt it wants to see you.” Not the friendliest local, me I was worried it might have been rubbed out – killed for its skin or its skull Or the human perversion, killed fo

Self-esteem Self-assured Self-motivated Self-starter Self-centered Self-absorbed Self-help Self Magazine! Self-awareness Is A Blessing. Self-will Is A Curse.

Our lives are satire and irony and tragedy Plenty of metaphor to go around We have been ground down, distilled and simplified A manageable state of somnambulistic artificial autonomy The terrified dumbasfuck demographic Hungry for the latest authoritarian daddy figure

The Buddha’s reflection in the dirty glass...serene The palm fronds tickle his ear when the wind kicks up Stone-still as the lizard chases a beetle over his foot Loving both Sometimes a reflection in dirty glass is the clearer image The direct gaze misleading With my back to the Buddha it is clearer still The blind know this to be true

 Ever wonder what’s behind the attraction of the "Zombie” genre? …of human survivors battling the animated dead? Everybody, EVERYBODY identifies with the uninfected healthy people NOBODY identifies with the zombies This begs the question; in every human vs zombie portrayal, how can there be so many zombies and so few human survivors? America, like Hollywood, markets happy endings in the face of the overwhelming evidence of that impossibility This acratic behavior is evident in our ordinary lives So many cheer leaders of the last-man-standing-capitalist paradigm, identify with the billionaire class, as they do with the sam

“Gunssss” a single syllable dramatically lengthened and reverently articulated by Charlton Heston "Gunssss" The first word intoned by the keynote speaker National Rifle Association convention, Denver   Only ten days after the massacre at nearby Columbine Charlton was always a great ham An over-actor's over-actor He did not disappoint the crowd of faithful He was a trooper and “the show must go on” The NRA show did go on, though abbreviated Only one day instead of three. Two days of gun show cancelled Ten days after the massacre “Gunssss” It was as if God himself was speaking the word. “Gunssss

Why did we abandon our tribes? Our clans The things that kept us rooted to the Earth The community, the personal, the genuine We are unrecognizable now… a parody Devouring mountains and excreting poison Vaporizing women and children, dismissing it as collateral damage Selling children with interest and calling it investment Congratulating ourselves for exceptionalism as we kill the planet “More” is our mantra   “Enough” is our antithesis What took millennia to form, to mature organically, to reach a balance of natural authority and acceptance, Those things that kept us connected... Can we ever get th

Her name tag told me she was Frida Exceptionally gorgeous, even by Miami standards Shimmering black hair, pulled back loosely Eyes clear and chocolate brown Glowing skin of a twenty something Latina Polished Professional Polite Not Geisha polite A more sincere deference As I checked out of the Hilton Frida asked sweetly, “Do you want help with your luggage?” Jokingly I told her, no thanks, I just look old… She smiled and said, “…but you’re rockin’ the beard…” Funny, like poetry, the effect a few words can have

The current hastens As I near the waterfall Then it is over