The Monkey Show, social media

He feigns as if to save
   the baby monkey from drown;
rub, squeeze, the tinny blue belly,
   until the milk gushes out of the mouth,
cheeks, and into the pink ears,
   unaware of the viewers' horror-hit eyes.

his hand continues pinching; shaking
   the little animal. he might say: this is only a test
to see your reaction;
   a snake slithers out of his grin; believing
he could fool the eyes; not know the fact that
   to do what he has done takes
a heart of steel or stone.

Why would he presume we could enjoy the show?
Because it is October? Why would Halloween need
all those gores? Because some sick minds wield
the guns and knives at school and malls?

As there are many thorny trees in this world, so are 
   many marigolds that thrive on love; that need to write 
a poem to allay the heart; to get some sleep at night. 

©Byung A. Fallgren

   

Early October Mountain

Decades have gone, and 
you greet us today in the same way
you did on the days of unsettling;
the bear-rock watches the world
over the mountains,
the mystery;
has not been solved; or never will;

the sun's long finger stirs the brook,
smiles at the glitters; at the rare child's play;
the golden leaves listen to the water
that warns of the eventual bareness and
freeze of you and me.

But today, we will indulge in
your calm mature beauty;

and we will prepare for the reborn.

©Byung A. Fallgren

Like You
Rogue Dalton

Like you I
love love, life, the sweet smell
of things, the sky blue
landscape of January days.
And my blood boils up 
and I laugh through eyes
that have known the bud of tears.
I believe the world is beautiful
and that poetry, like bread is for everyone.
And that my veins don't end in me
but unanimous blood
of those who strange for life,
love, 
little things,
landscape and bread,
the poetry of everyone.

Rogue Dalton, born in 1930 in El Salvado, was the
author of several influential poetry collection. 
He died in 1975.

My poems and five haiku appear in this Weekly Avocet.
Thank you, Charles, Vivian, and Valerie, for choosing my poems.

–Byung A.

The Orchids
Jose Santos Chocano

Freaks of bright crystal, airy beauties fair,
Whose enigmatic forms amaze the eye--
Crowns fit to deck Apolo's brows on high,
Adornment for halls of splendor rare!
They spring from knots in tree trunks, rising there
In sweet gradation; winding wondrously,
They twist their serpent stems and far and high
Hang overhead, like wingless bird in air.

Lonely, like pensive heads, all featherless,
Loft and free they bloom; by no dull chain
Their flowers to any tyrant root are bound;
Because they too, at war with pittiness,
Desire to live, like souls that know no stain,
Without one touch of contact with the ground. 

"The Orchid" appears in Isaac Goldberg's Studies in Spanish-
American Literature (Buentello's Publishers 1920.)
Jose Santos Chocano, born on May 14, 1875 in Lima was 
Peruvian poet.  
 

Ode to the Kimchi

Don't spice up our food, they say;
what kind of people eat the cabbage 
looks like that? says a girl, wincing. 
But many Americans and others 
                                  love kimchi.
don't eat, if you don't like it;
no one force you to eat it.

With garlic, ginger, cayenne pepper
in it, kimchi is antioxidant.
If you don't like spicy red kimchi, 
then you have a choice--white kimchi.
yes, white kimchi. even kimchi has 
red and white. To make white kimchi,

use green pepper and pear for you and me. 

©Byung A. Fallgren 

Snow Gove of Denver
The Cyborg Jillian Weise

Where disabled activists lived and loved
and fucked and fought and fucked again
after fighting and made all the public buses

across the nation crossable and were 
arrested and were arrested again
this time for asking the question 

"May we speak to Senator Gardener?"
and were jailed for three days and three nights
and we stayed for three days and three nights

and I was so in love with your brain
and we scissored and ate popsicles at dawn
and I lodged in the hotel bc you had work to do
important work, more important than--
dawn, I have not forgiven you..


The Cyborg Jillian Weise is the author of multiple titles,
recently A Kim Deal Party (Borg 4 Bork Productions, 2020)
The recipient of awards and fellowships from Pen America,
among others. She lives in Florida.