My Safe Places

dancing with the Incas in their ancient worship of the holy snow-capped Andes

floating off towards untouchable blue Tibetan peaks with chanting Buddhist monks

surfing with the seals in the rich smelling foamy waves there in a far-off NorCal paradise

pollinating lovely infrared flower patterns with the other bees on my honey-making job

spending time in the New Stone Age, crafting tools and fighting cave bears

orbiting our earth at the very limit of the exosphere, taking in all her colors

roiling with a strong clean river, smelling the big migrating salmon flashing all around me

getting covered with red desert sandstone dust in all its finely-ground Anasazi grace

peeping out with tiny montane tundra flowers after 8 months beneath deep snow

speeding with the suns reflection across the cup of a huge, cleanly breaking swell

pausing beneath the midnight sun to watch the rivers running to the north

taking in the winter light from a panoramic southern exposure, far from any road

pushing across the bluest sky with the puffy clouds on that perfect day in May

Hunting with the dolphins, co-operating with the bluefins, feeding on the life force

Losing my pre-conceptions as I drop their illusions and tear up my prescriptions

Circulating with the oceanic currents, from the surface to the bottom, all around the globe

Slaloming the methane powder mountains all alone, on the active moons of Saturn

Savoring fresh Indian ocean sushi with the great whites off the coast of South Africa

crossing the Bering Strait with mammoths, admiring vast herds of ice age mega-fauna

fattening with the giant brown bears as my coat grows thick and glossy

watching the first spring sunrise with the emperors on Antarctica’s frozen coast

dining on tons of krill strained through my baleen right alongside the great blue whales

gleaming in the dancing rainbows off the shimmering green cliffs of the Hawaiian coast

sighing with the ponderosa pines as we hear another gust of autumn wind approaching

waiting on the tide for dinner as the rain tinkles above us on the Inside Passage

riding on the chords of good music to a place so far above, where I can only try to stay

watching the sled dogs pull our family away from my final place, alone upon an ice floe

raking that impeccable garden for an eternal moment in a quiet Zen sanctuary

searching blue canyonland shadows with the eyes of a Navajo medicine man

painting spirit creatures on the walls of our ceremonial cave in ancient Spain

meditating with the Buddha beneath the great tree of life, pondering the river’s gentle whispers

gazing up from sunlit coral gardens through the warm waters of our mother ocean

searching for more reassuring sign of the totem that guides me all the days of my life

crying out with the hawks far above by the cliffs where the sunset still radiates

howling with the wolfpack at 30 below beneath the aurora borealis, feeling our mortality

seeking that ancient understanding pulsing so close beneath the thin skin of things

Violent Macho Vegan Fantasies

Come on out from watching football and let’s settle this climate change issue right here

There’s a vegan birdwatcher been lifting weights who wants to break some NeoCon face

Gonna enjoy smashing your snow machine on behalf of all the vanished wildlife

Would be happy to fill your car with all that trash from those drive thru windows

Put down your stupid firearms and let’s settle this like the TV men you dream of being

Gonna smack you down for the frogs you 4WD’d over while smirking-drunkenly, smug and secure

Got a squishy liberal hammer fist for sending research and engineering overseas

Here’s a broken tooth for your overspending role in this ridiculous credit debacle

I’m a sissy treehugger, but I’ll gladly bury a palm strike in your fat and outsourced face

How about a bony elbow to your unused head or skinny knee in your fast food gut

I’m calling you out over what you’ve done to this country over the past 40 years

I’m a weak and yellow bicyclist trained hard enough to snap your overburdened joints

I’ll show you tough on fucking defense you wheezing, red-faced, HamAndEggers

Bring it on and we’ll film liberal greenies tattooing your tired-out, freedom-loving asses

Putting you on notice that machoism can survive on organic salads and soy milk

Here’s a hard left hand for the channelized and poisoned rivers you leave behind

Let’s do this in a peaceful meadow that your smoking bulldozers have not found as of yet

I’ll quietly meditate and sip green tea as they carry you off after I finish your beating

You can review your mistakes with your personal savior during the ambulance ride

So, yeah, the Bushido Zen Way is not incompatible with a peace-loving heart

Been practicing chokes and armbars just for you while I was hugging all them trees

This peacenik calls you to go mano a mano over your standalone cowboy foreign policy

While you’re on your back, gonna put quiet mufflers on your moronic pickup

You’re gonna go back to the earth with me to enjoy some good old ground and pound

This proponent of universal healthcare wants to ensure you a safe and free trip to the ER

I’ll enjoy a fruit smoothie after I am de-con’d of all the bloody sweat from your fat body

Gonna Visualize World Peace as I knee your piggish face from a tight Mui Tai clinch

Step down out of those oversize pickups so I can knock the Budweiser right out of you

Wackos are gonna bitch slap you until you whine like your fat, spoiled and stupid wives

Socialist flag-burning recyclers will punish jet ski riders from full mount position

A meditating observer longs to slam a real patriot into the cage just to feel his pain

Gonna pay you back with elbows for letting them ruin our standing with the whole world

Callin you out for a beating on behalf of the lakes whose fish you have tainted

Taking you down hard for stripmining mother ocean and waltzing off with the cash

Here’s a vicious combination for the tortured cows, pigs, chickens, turkeys and sheep

Gonna whup yer ignerant, selfish polluting asses and force feed you nuts, tofu and sprouts