Cutting the Martian landscape
The rivers did rage,
Rocks scarred by waterways

Fanning out, deltaic flow :
Under rutting rove,
Mosaic of jezero .

Like shaken bones stratified,
Glimmer of lake dried,
Ruby stones testify .

*[ WSB ]_.

Industrial Pittsburg
Smokingstacks stuck
Ore factorial coarsing
From smelted combust,
Bits of orange burn dusted
From molten pour,
Pig–iron crust on the floor :

Casting from coke–fired
Furnaces, and rolling out
Municipal blocks .

Unearthed,
A kingdom come,
The steelwork done .

*[ WSB ]_.

*[ WSB ]_.

Eleven May
Is the very day
I entered the play .

In a year of yarrow,
Bones soft on the morrow :

Shot from a sling,
In orbit I sing—
A satellite swing
Dispersing .

*[ WSB ]_.

Anti-American tirades ;
The lemmings leap ;  falling bones .
Leaning by :   the dirt-crusted spades .

*[ WSB ]_.

Forgetting wariness allows friendliness,
Warlike defenses fall :
That is the weak–link.
Human .
The higher animals [ all of them ],
Move beyond the fight, the flight,
To the friendship, organic addition—
The next level ;

Not robotic, but conscious decision ;
Branches removed from
Poriferan clades,
Ancient .
Is befriending strangers defining,
Like having prominent chins ?
Yes, even connections with contraptions :
Being human .

The whirring machines like tail–wagging dogs,
No judgment or demands .
Thus, some will become
Hermits .
Although one may decompose off–grid,
Mother is there at birth .
The essentiality of language
Beckons loners

Hence from the dark shadows of the wield
To lightsome sward, where most
Take it to the next
Level .
Beyond the hearty handshakes of brothers,
To a union of auras
In beaded light–years spun like cotton webs :
Awe from laced hands .

Eros is the losing of one’s mind,
Level by next level ;
From limbs conjoined to
The kiss,
And even closer :   [CENSORED], the goal
Being—one human being :
Subtraction through addition ;  questioning
Entry level

Compared to subsequent levels ventured :
Social evolution,
Family to clans,
Nations
Of lonely people seeking others
Reflecting back their shadows,
Heartening each to brave the next level—
Not always up .

*[ WSB ]_.

Sanctimonious
Man against Mouse :
Manqué joust .

*[ WSB ]_.

The French horns drone beneath
The sun’s high notes dappled through the oaks .
The orchestral argument enters
After the morning dew
Fades in strings and the mockingbird
Skitters the grass like a dinosaur .

Bassoons accompany duck
Walks comic along the lakeside,
The allegro cadence of water birds
Splashing in shimmer,
As glissando waves slide
Through octaves about the watershed .

Drums of woodpeckers distantly echo,
Stabbing at the score .
The woodwind owls accompany
The staccato of thrashers .
The soaring piccolo hawk cries
And crow caws end the scherzo .

*[ WSB ]_.

*[ WSB ]_.