Ukrainian Au Pair

smoke
            cinder
                          ash

dye job from hell

calls Putin “Daddy”

spellbinding
back tat–

a forest
of impossibly tall
trees

with dark
squid-like branches

loves Billie “Eyelash”

possesses
                  a wicked
                                   left hook

Cloud Corporation

They lock you up
and feed you clouds.

Cumulus
candy puffs.

Cirrostratus and
Nimbostratus gummies.

You float
on delicious filaments.

So much
wonder.

Silvery minnows
of the mind.

Nets
for the careless.

Stippled
with black

floaters.

Ophelia in Aspic

Richard Peabody

she is under the rice

fingers poking up through the water

playing air piano

 

are fish allowed

to swim the paddies?

 

they should be

flashes of koi gold

among rich green

 

every hillside

a rice aquarium

 

with jazzy flowing

fish and rice

fit for a Sumo wrestler

 

who secretly yearns

to play furniture music

 

and wrap

her sacred curls

in airy zen piano