College Apps Are A Very Serious Business

Disaster, catastrophe --
I left out an apostrophe
On my essays to Princeton and Yale!
Oh woe is me now
For I do not see how
To avoid an embarrassing tale
Of how I will miss
Out on Ivy League bliss
For my Stanford dreams ere now looked pale.
If my Harvard hopes dim
And to Berkeley seems grim,
'Fore my classmates I'll tremble and quail.
It would be a disgrace
After my S.A.T. ace
If to Davis I creep like a snail!

Palo Alto Limerick

When biking through Silicon Valley
Where redwoods and palms share an alley
Organic-grown food
Puts you right in the mood
To attend the green energy rally.

Palo Alto Snapshot

"Do you have this book in Russian?"
Asks the French mother
Of the Thai librarian
While the taciturn Korean man
Watches Jewish kids scamper
Up the eucalyptus trees.
Across the street, the tennis courts
Pound out a rhythm
For the old men playing chess
Built into the picnic tables
And the skaters acting out
A chess of their own on wheels.
It's May, but it's hot enough
For the fountain the toddlers play in.
This. Mitchell Park.

Chiasmatic Night

Dusk.
Crickets.
The thrill of social company and recreational time use enthrall me.
A light appears -- a star? Nay, a planet. Very bright, large, bluish; must be Venus.
I settle into that mode where at last I know I want to sleep, but it's not too difficult to keep active as long as I am occupied.
Clouds obscure the wonders of the firmament.
Somewhere in the deepness, if I am careful to note it, there is a contemplative moment of communion with the Creator, when he finds my exhausted mental state transparent to his missives.
Now the stars and galaxies shine clear in the silence.
My brain is ... Uh ... Sorry, what was I saying? No, I'm awake ... I think ...
Beneath the stars, the landscape sits dark and silent, through the hours most of humanity dares not to broach.
I am past the hardest part. Though I am dull of wit, my body surges with a new effort.
Birds pierce the silence.
Dawn.