THIRTEEN RORSCHARCH PRINTS RENDERED IN (FAUX) HAIKU FORM FOR THE KING’S BIRTHDAY

1) Hemmingway staring

At a blank sheet of paper;

JFK looks on.

2) A barrel of rain

mistaken for a small pond

somewhere in Kansas.

3) A carnival mask

teaming with skinks and poppies

and one death’s-head moth.

4) Miles Davis caught shop-

lifting Don Byrd away from

the Jazz Messengers.

5) The Duende dreaming

of wildflowers, butterflies

and a lone coyote.

6) The moon shining through

clouds like a cop’s flashlight through

ghosts of gutter-steam.

7) A heart, like a frog

being fattened with sadness

to feed Love’s big snake.

8) A dragonfly’s mind

magnified a hundred times

before my mind’s eye.

9) Joan Miro standing

on top of Machu Pichu

with Minnie Pearl’s hat.

10) W.C. Fields

meets Frank James, Fox Theater,

St. Louis, ’01.

11) F. Nietzsche, S. Freud,

R.M. Rilke caught in a

Mexican stand-off.

12) Kafka discussing

literary theory with

a giant bed bug.

13) “A glass of water,

a pint of the black stuff and

a John Powers, neat.”

-Jason Ryberg, 2004