Haiti

Too much devastation
For one lonely little island
In the blue Caribbean
What karmic wrecking ball
Befell these shattered people
Fine sand and water lapping
On Bahama and Bimini
And only smithereens
Here in Haiti
Overkill

Be Nimble

The sun became a dying ember
The day you went away
Night stars wither too in pain
The sky was always a silent joy
Unlike the ocean, arcade,
Even nimble mental noise
All its awe so effortless
And you leave,
I hear it cry

Philadelphia Fans

My hometown Eagles took an ugly beating tonight in Dallas at the hands of the Cowboys. I could not imagine a more unsavory scene: George W. Bush and Jerry Jones rejoicing in the stands, the masters of war and business, the most expensive franchise in all of sports pulling it off beneath the Jumbotron in the new Dallas Palace.

I offer this as consolation to Philadelphia fans.

We learn early how to lose
Baptized in this salty river water
Faces taut from years of pain
They line us up, we fall again
When once a decade chances come
Usually they bind us
Find us still helpless, unprepared
As fall frost descends on our stadiums
We wring our collective hands
Where would we be without this common sorrow
Our one blood connected by these unfulfilled dreams
Our lineage and legacy
McNabb and Schmidt, Bowa and Boone
All these ghosts we know are here
On the cold winter streets
Of South Philadelphia