November 22, 2009

Enter at Your Own Risk!

In the Philippines, the Christmas season starts in October, a mixture of witches, goblins, and Santa Claus. In Catholic churches lay porcelainbaby Jesus' whiter than anyone in Nazareth, with blues eyes, wearing a ridiculously huge crown that Jesus never wore. Mary and Joseph weren't exactly the richest people in Nazareth and when 13 year old Mary bore a child that didn't come from 40 year old Joseph, they were not invited to "A" list parties. My wife and I want a baby but the chances of our having one thanks to the tubal ligation I got to make sure my wife at the the time ( a female Jeckyl and Hyde) couldn't bear another; but she did three years later claiming it was a miracle of God. Suspicious, I asked my doctor about this and he said it's possible but a one in a million chance. My daughter doesn't look anything like me, even though I refuse to accept someone else is the father. How can my wife and I have a baby? Do we go to church and pray for a miracle paying money to light candles, or pull one out of the caption lingering above our heads? Surrogate, adoption, the unexplained? Time will tell, and a mythology will center around it. Good material for a new section of the Wonderland Amusement Park . . . the Park where nothing is as it seems; my conscious and subconscious minds play together on a rusty teeter totter on the edge of the big dipper and ask you to join me in a room of mirrors open to interpretation. Come through the turnstile. Admission is free. Enter at your own risk.

how come you

you're watching movies

i 'm not

allowed to watch . . .

insecurity?

inside me,

a fool juggling

moons

tonight i

learn the truth

about a

spell cast on me

in the palengke*

*palengke: pa len kay

an open wet marketplace

calm water . . .

the stench of fresh

carrion

it hurts me

to admit why

i failed to

love another til

i wasn't complete

who will

orion hunt tonight?

autumn moon

i watch you

every morning in bed,

wondering

why you haven't left me . . .

northerly winds

we drank iced

margaritas tonight . . .

without stars

will noon walk

away from me into

a misty glen . . .

her kimono bought

at a discount?

late night . . .

she enjoys the

empty stalls

will she fall

into a dream she

can't escape . . .

clouds resting on

faraway mountains?

unemployed . . .

winter seen through a

brandy glass

tonight we

ate foto maki

and walked through

christmas candles

into the tiange*

*tiange(chung gay): series of small booths

the grace of

an egret flying . . .

through my head

and dawn,

cruel keeper of all that

feeds us . . .

has she forgotten me,

this muddied reflection?

bow to

shadow's creeping silence . . .

and swallowed

robert d. wilson

©2009

November 20, 2009

Enter at Your Own Risk!

This morning, the sun slept in, leaving the moon to wonder aimlessly in a sky that made him look pale. Poor moon, I've told him over and over again to quit womanizing, to lay off the booze, to spend time with the wife and children (his wife is a beautiful mocha skin woman with a tight butt and big, firm breasts who has a thing for skimpy clothes and low cut, show everything but the nipples, sexy blouses made anywhere but China (Not a WalMart woman), which explains why we don't see her at night, her mocha skin and black clothes, blends into the folds of the outer edges of face. Likewise, I too substituted for Orion, who broke his ankle in an incident involving his fighting the mate of Ursus the Bear. I hate being a surrogate because I become the object of their insecurities and they use me to transfer their crap to me so they don't have to look into the mirrors the knights of the Inquisition shined on Don Quixote, who, though off, didn't hurt a flea. He battled a windmill he thought was a dragon (A good optimologist was a rarity back then). Quixote the dreamer, the man who thought nothing' was impossible like we do here at the Wonderland Amusement Park, a theme park without a theme, where nothing is as it seems. The food's lousy except for the sushi made by a pilipino after taking a one month class in Japanese culinary arts. Enter before the sun wakes up and the moon goes home to his mousy jealous.

today i

can finally say

it's morning . . .

a gentle breeze scented

with thoughts of you

ah, sweet air!

cleanse tongue and heart . . .

for dusk's spell

which cloud will

i walk through today?

will it be

the one shaped like

your breasts?

time to

be in a hurry . . .

lazy moon

those nipples . . .

tiny black grapes

waiting for

a buyer at

the palengke

crouching dog...

the emperor's temple

made of clouds

a shadow

reaches deep into

my pants . . .

is this how sir

edmund hillary felt?

waiting for

the stone buddha . . .

squeezing fruit

empty words

i've heard before:

i love you

and'll be home soon . . .

a turtle racing time

i'm tired of

waiting for the moon . . .

passersbye

she sped home

like a rocket ship,

she claims,

to party with me

in her sleep

wind!

let the trees speak

their piece too

i am like

a child on christmas

anxious to

explore my stocking

when all hell breaks out

a fox pushed

another fox into

basho's pond

your eyes flash

on and off like

neon lights . . .

when a quapo white man

responds to your add

rainy day . . .

talking to words on

her computer

i slept an

hour then mounted

you again . . .

a still life straddling

the tops of mountains

bread maker . . .

have you seen the

the sun rise?

my wife talks

to an ex-fiance

this evening . . .

trees have a language

all to their own

a nara

wood fishing boat . . .

filled with stars

is it

monday that's bothering

her, the thought

of another man

swimming at night?

robert d. wilson

©2009

November 17, 2009

Another day, another now. What is, isn't, and what isn't, can be.

All is motion, in a state of transition. Just as it is here inside the

Wonderland Amusement Park, a park where nothing is as it seems.

The poetry you read below my haiga are unlike any other on the

planet because they comes from me. Visit my daily thoughts,

memories, the good, the bad, which can be disturbing for many

as I'm not a politically correct person, and unlike most

of you, I have been to hell and back riding on the back of a dragon that

swore to follow me several years ago. I was born on Friday the 13th.

Enter the park at your own risk. It's not a place for the prim and proper,

nor a playground for children. Admission is free monetarily but what you

read will affect you. Enter, and when you do, become a lifetime member

by hitting the button above the the box containing photos of very brave souls.

I wrote the poems from my conscious and subconscious mind. None are

made up. All are true. Be forewarned, it's you who'll interpret them from

your own frame of mind.

i want

the baby i can't

give you . . .

thick fog seeping

through keyholes

karma?

a talapia eating

her eggs

nervous,

i want out of the

VA clinic . . .

a street family

sleeping on cardboard

unearthed,

a relic thought lost . . .

stamina

i strut like

a movie star in

shopping malls . . .

every eye on the kano

with a fat wad of cash

a theme park?

elephant ears in

thick grass

why does

every man get drunk

in eden?

rubbing stones together

to start a fire

a rain drop

taps me on the back . . .

too late!

another game

to play when no one

else can?

boys flying tire

irons like kites

without roots,

bamboo shoots build

their homes

a ruse to

grow black roses

dyed red?

she left wearing make-up

and a low cut blouse

tonight's

entertainment . . .

sweeping fields

at dusk,

will bats follow

my breath

into elephant grass

fields shaped like quilts?

how can i

forget the time you

fucked my friend . . .

telling me only

you could do it

winter moon . . .

begging the clouds

to come back

how soon they

grow up; children

raking leaves

from the tops of

weathered mountains

is it me

i don't trust, knowing

it's winter?

a hundred

vc in the va
posing as
filipinos . . .
and no weapon

he wants

more than mirrors . . .

winter night

robert d. wilson

©2009

November 15, 2009

Remember last night, the air stale from car exhaust and

stumbling drunks too high to stand in line, riding the

same ride over and over, uncertain if you're awake

or dreaming, a goose making time with wrens?  Nothing's

as it seems, or maybe people clone themselves; hoping

to win the Nobel Peace Prize for stretching a dream into

five thirty minute sequels. And every time I look at Salvador

Dali's Hallucinogenic Toreador, I think of you, totally naked,

walking through a rainbow into the mouth of a catfish ready to

swim below teutonic plates in the south china sea, your hair

woven with colored strips of foil a few notice; your breasts,

the main attraction for fat men with camcorders posing as hot

studs in the Filipino Heart, unaware that those without pictures

are rarely contacted, the Monster Mash, an old song from the

early sixties competing against Big Bad John. 

bay lights . . .

a fish farmer

watching lights

excited,

feeling guilt, she

sleeps with

strangers, hoping

for a miracle

lovely,

the full moon blushing

behind clouds . . .

thick clouds . . .

we want to make love

before a

mirror existing in the

abyss of our minds

white heron . . .

you fly out of my

chest into dawn

fly with me

into a world that makes

its own stars . . .

after the movie and

lime margaritas

without street

lights and the moon . . .

falling stars

friday the

13th, i trip

and fall in

front of diners

watching cartoons

a proud man,

ignores his wounds . . .

watching stars

watching you

blossom, flower . . .

petals

falling like leaves

in a gentle breeze

your stamen,

orchid, unravel a

thousand dreams

watching an

action movie with

you beside me,

waiting for the

the final credits

the breath of

blossoms, a lung

full of dreams

breathless,

a dream that won't

end when dawn

nudges you to wake up . . .

the lightness of being

a dream,

watching you dance?

falling leaves

the echo

of a thousand dreams

sewn into

a tapestry painting . . .

the tops of mountains

sing, river . . .

caressing sea

bound desire


they hated
filipinos during
World War II . . .
the thick stench of
bayonetted babies


summer dawn . . .
walking over dead bodies
to Bulacan


what was buddha
doing when filipinas
were forced into
prostitution and soldiers
bayonetted babies?


a smell
one can't forget . . .
bataan

*ba ta an


tilapia,
teach me how to cast
lightness
into shadows
shaping tomorrow

christmas lights . . .

young girls caroling

to fat men . . .

robert d. wilson

©2009

November 13, 2009

I woke up my wife before dawn with more than a desire to clean my office on the roof of our
home, facing Mount Makiling in the Philippines; the rumble of earth, shudder of limbs pushing
clumps of cloud into mason jars my grandmother left behind in her apartment before she was
shipped off to a nursing home posing as the Club Med.

We celebrated the new year one and a half month's early, planning for something no one gets to know about, in case you're a peeping Tom.  I've been sitting on my ass all day composing poetry and the above haiga, haven't eaten breakfast or lunch, and it's almost dinner time, and . . . oh dear, I forgot to take my PTSD meds! What's the world going to think, that Beanie and Cecil have risen from the dead? Crusader Rabbit and Rags the Tiger were closet gays?  George Bush's heart bled for the needy and poor?

The Wonderland Amusement Park: illusion or real? Made-up or hallucinatory? Myth, legend, or a sick man's need for attention?  Enter at your own risk. And don't buy the popcorn.  They're leftovers used to pack the chocolate Chip Cookies my mother used to send me in care packages when I was in South Vietnam watching the rocket's red glare, the thud thud thud of incoming mortars, and feeling bullets speed past me less than a half inch away like gnats on a mission.


motorists . . .
a blossom smiles
sipping sunlight


a runaway
girl washes her master's
clothing                                                                                                          
in the warm tears of
maria makiling


lusty moon . . .
tonight i'm closing
the curtains!


i can
only be the breath
of what's sensed
when elephant grass
whispers through stars


christmas lights . . .
a wallet waiting for
a young girl


alice, if
only there isn't an
end to the
hole we jump into . . .
heaven's river


above the
chow king, dark gray clouds
without smiles


late again . . .
baklas at the beauty
salon
pull customers into
a world without end


unpainted
buildings smile at an
awkward moon


in ten years,
give or take, i'll
be a leaf
decomposing in
a sleepy urn


give me a
child to brighten winter . . .
long nights


to fly past
the stars into
darkness
swept clean daily
with prayer


chasten me
for what, a weathered
tree limb?


i smell the
scent of bulalo
and know . . .
the sea will bring us
together again


music and
the chatter of
daffodils


like stars
we sip this month's
latte in
designer mugs
made in china


nara tree . . .
teach me what it's like
to be barren


plaster me
on post office
walls . . .
a fat egret
moored in deep mud


blinking lights . . .
aurora, the name of
a bar girl


will my poems
do more than satisfy
the dreams of
an old man wanting
to be remembered?


eating lunch . . .
the scent of orchids
kissing dawn . . .



we float like
balloons without
direction
into the sum of
another's equation

sundown,
a young girl washing
melons


i'm not a
cloud floating at the
whim of an
overweight egret
flapping her wings



robert d. wilson
©2009

November 12, 2009

Some days are darker than others, the moon on leave from his senses, the sun screwing the neighbor's husband, the world around me, a mirror I wish others would smash into a thousands pieces, using each piece to compose something better than the last. I wander like a drunk in and out of sanity or at least another's version of it, as we are all insane in some way or another, but conditioned to keep our laundry in the laundry room and cover the stink with the new and improved Tide with this year's designer scent. Some more poems: tanka, haiku, and senryu, mixed in with a haiga Norman Rockwell would run from in terror. Or at least claim he did. The Wonderland Amusement Park, where life is frank, Tide isn't used, and the self righteous and politically motivated avoid. Enter at your own risk.


this morning,
the sun couldn't rise
high enough . . .
she'd enter the room
with a fertile smile


the shadows
of bamboo trees . . .
tattoed


time spent
together this morning,
blossomed . . .
the chinese new year,
3 months away


ant, what's
it like to be
celibate?


brown on brown . . .
men tilling the dirt with
carabao


how can i
put into words
the flight of
an egret tilling
rice paddy shadows?

tonight's
haiku: fill in
the blanks


every day
without a break,
our worker
allows us to eat
the world for pesos


hazy dusk . . .
her smile this morning,
reigned in


i though of
contacting her again
but couldn't . . .
i'm teaching a good friend
to look in the mirror


old ninja,
why do you eat
buttered clams?


sometimes i
wonder why she doesn't
text me, the
air around me thick
with burning leaves


orchids . . .
tree climbing in
our back yard


what will i do
when balance trips
on an echo
and the chasm below
me speaks in tongues?


lonely dog . . .
the residents here
aren't stars


will the snake
bite me again?
the walls,
a drive-in movie
without popcorn?


this mind
traveling between stars . . .
sanity?


the sun lies
low, as if to remind
me of my
daughter's anger for
cinderella's step mom


morning yawn . . .
winter affirms life
with yoga


am i the
serpent, the creature
that conned eve
into eating the
forbidden fruit?


stair at me
dog, i am the melon
that killed you


swallow me
catfish, digest me
me in the
plates wrestling the
under world


she brings me
red orchid blossoms . . .
sans dark dreams


fuck you, mirror
the jokes on me, i
fail myself
and everyone else, a
rotting winter melon


sick dog, teach
me to persevere
the whispers


i live in
a wonderland even
alice wouldn't
fall into, the stench of
rotting corpses


wonderland?
your ticket to
hell and back


in the pail
your reflection's
a serpent
waiting to pull you
into it's spell


still the wind . . .
i become a brown
cracking leaf


the clouds on
makiling, a spell
she can't shake
off, wonderland's
newly built ride


the clacking,
bamboo, and your . . .
stillness


in the rice
field of my mind
i swim through
reflections dali
had issues with


still water . . .
only karma
to look at


robert d. wilson
©2009

November 10, 2009

Another day, another part of the Wonderland Amusement Park:
a park unlike any other park, without an end, always expanding . . .
my thoughts and dreams dancing with yours on a stage made
of fireflies, shooting stars. We have fears, taboos, guilt, and ghosts
we don't like to share, wanting always to look good in front of others . . .
wearing masks that some mistake as real. Am I in the throes
of madness, an inventor of myths, a poet who thinks he's good but
isn't . . . Is this the song others sitting on dusty thrones too long
want you to think? It's time again to enter the Park's turnstiles, perusing
your mind and spirit through a different perspective. I only write the
poems and design the haiga, it's your job to interpret them. Happy
landing!



still windy,
inside and out . . .
whirlybirds


before dusk,
the rotors of a
dragon grow
louder and louder . . .
shivering trees


the fireflies
on your pupils . . .
towing clouds


this morning's
song flies between
a heron's
bamboo-like legs . . .
brushing water


un-calloused,
your hands haven't
felt summer


a nipa hut
without a hair
dryer ?
this dance under
bridges made of skin


light rain . . .
the muffled feet
of children


our child
will glue together
our souls . . .
crossing the river of
stars with without waders



forget time,
your love swims through me . . .
heaven's river


like a
carabao, the
man carrying
wares over his shoulders
with a bamboo pole


how can i
understand the rain,
breathing you?


a lightless
house, staring into
your heart . . .
a childhood pond
too long ago


how quickly
the bamboo grows . . .
gecko song


yesterday
we argued about
something
stupid like children
jumping in craters


sleepy wife!
up all night until
the sun crowed


want to
run in circles
with the wind?
on the street, a toad
covered with ants


how can the
bra seller sleep?
heavy rain


waiting for
the wind to change
its course . . .
we eat sushi made of
seaweed wrapped no's


waving grass . . .
she prefers foul air to
a night of stars?


tonight, inside
the cafe, we fed our
tiredness . . .
at home, reality
on a pogo stick


full moon . . .
she embraces darkness
like a mistress


i get an
e-mail from a woman
who forgot
she has a mirror . . .
scattered showers


winter moon . . .
a bar girl stares at
christmas lights


a good friend
paints stars on my
my stomach . . .
cereal boxes and
rooms by the hour


she listens
to a lewd ringtone . . .
chance of rain


the same girl
with the sad look
extends her
hand like an organ
grinder's monkey


morning glare . . .
we discuss her plans to
get pregnant


a tree full
of eyes waits for me
to drift like
a cloud into the
mouth of a catfish


the bamboo
planted weeks ago . . .
winter's child


i avoided
you last night, knowing our
photos would
be folded into
paper airplanes


no lettuce
in the palengke . . .
sing to me


a day here
is meaningless . . .
small black birds
circle a dead man
pretend he's alive


the coffee
was too weak today . . .
orchid buds


robert d. wilson

©2009