Desperation

After Sonnet 132 by William Shakespeare

Your dark eyes
Where I look long for love
Lack warmth, shirk honesty,
Drip with disdain.
A smirk tilts your mouth
Your brow furrows with pity
Your beautiful face mirrors
your inner thoughts betraying
some interest in me,
Though it be mournful
For the suffering you cause me.
Your heart is hard,
Shut off from my care
Causing me to mourn.
I can’t resist your allure
So I will defend you
Just to keep your gaze.

mlc2026©️

Sonnet 132 by William Shakespeare

Thine eyes I love, and they, as pitying me,
Knowing thy heart torment me with disdain,
Have put on black, and loving mourners be,
Looking with pretty ruth upon my pain.
And truly not the morning sun of heaven
Better becomes the gray cheeks of the east,
Nor that full star that ushers in the even
Doth half that glory to the sober west
As those two mourning eyes become thy face.
O, let it then as well beseem thy heart
To mourn for me, since mourning doth thee grace,
And suit thy pity like in every part.
 Then will I swear beauty herself is black,
 And all they foul that thy complexion lack.

Saving the Day

“Fiji will you untangle this for me?”
Shoving a handful of satin cords and netting all in black,
3 plastic men in blue, green, and yellow, and 3 silky parachutes –
Evidence of some playing gleeful games
Tossing them up and watching them float
Down down down
Not one at a time but all at once
To see which would be first
Or last
I don’t know which would be better?

“Hurry Fiji hurry!”
Old eyes focus on the faint sheen of the satin ribbons, knotted and twisted
With tufts of netting caught in the maze
Stretching openings while balancing 3 paratroopers, I call for another pair of hands.
The work is slow, tedious, threading
Or should I say unthreading?
A man through here, another there

“Are you done yet?”
No…

“I’ll take it now”, he assures us
But we keep at it, frenzied now, afraid
To mess it up. Finally, free at last!

“Gimme!” And he runs back outside
I’m sure to tangle them again.

mlc2026©️

Afternoon Respite

Early autumn’s gift
yellow cottonwood leaves
polka-dot the wooden deck
inviting me to sit

My mind drifts off
hummed into a meditation
by the incessant screaming cicadas
Stilling the wind in the trees

My eye catches sight of
one leaf skittering
along a wooden plank
tracing the silent breeze

mlc2026©️

Haiku 9/12/2026

Yellow leaf skitters
Along a wooden plank
Tracing the breeze

mlc2026©️

Word Barren

Desert air sweeps through the mind
Shriveling even rootless mosses

Sand sifts into crevices of creativity
Suffocating souls and senses

Wind wraps itself in tumbleweeds
Scraping the surface of evidence of life

Sunlight bleaches fertile imaginations
Disabusing the muse of its power

Cactus needles can’t even prick
The conscience of a withered poet

So the poet wanders seeking shade,
A dew drop, and a seed.

mlc2026©️

Summer Evening

Ticking from the fan overhead
Reminiscent of the oven as it cools down
Interrupts the silence at random intervals

My attention tuned to the next tick
Now hears the train’s passage
Cutting through the dark outside the windows like a dull knife

Distinct from the air-conditioning fan
Humming its coolness against the summer heat

Whirring from the air-purifier gains
leaves all other sounds in the background

Yet I listen for the bullfrog
Whose nightsong keeps me company

I alone am awake

mlc2026©️

Dress Code

A memory bubbles up from the deepest parts of me
Seeking cracks in my armor to escape through
Into the soirée of my mind.
Will I welcome it?
Its bedraggled frayed gown elicits frowns
So also its uncultured voice grates, betraying its overlong sabbatical
Where it cocooned until today’s invitation arrived by divine messenger.
Can I give grace to the unpresentable?
Must I rush to bathe and redress it
Lest anyone see, and scorn
That which braved the light?

mlc2026©️

Shock Gloves

Cameras everywhere
We all must be aware
Someone can see
Our every deed.

Tasers leave puncture marks
Videos record muscle contractions
Guns leave bullet wounds, shredded flesh, and even death. No breath.

But shock gloves are silent
Innocent looking with
A secret switch
Leaving no trace
Just compliance
An easy case

No evidence for lawsuits
No justice for families
No reputations harmed
Of those alarmed.
Just harm for those unarmed.

moc2026©️

No Sonnet

After Sonnet 131 by William Shakespeare

What kind of love poem is this?
Black dust sprinkled on a beautiful rose in a black vase?
Luscious melted cheese between two burnt slices of bread?
The opposite of a compliment sandwich!
A diamond ring inside an old moldy box,
A pearl inside a sea-crusted oyster shell,
Did you think I’d be so flattered by
The love you profess that
I wouldn’t be lambasted by the insults?
P.S. loving me in secret, ashamed to declare my beauty to others, makes you a wimp.

mlc2026©️

#the100dayproject2026sonnet

Sonnet 131 by William Shakespeare

Thou art as tyrannous, so as thou art,
As those whose beauties proudly make them cruel;
For well thou know’st to my dear doting heart
Thou art the fairest and most precious jewel.
Yet in good faith some say that thee behold,
Thy face hath not the power to make love groan;
To say they err I dare not be so bold,
Although I swear it to myself alone.
And, to be sure that is not false I swear,
A thousand groans, but thinking on thy face,
One on another’s neck do witness bear
Thy black is fairest in my judgment’s place.
 In nothing art thou black save in thy deeds,
 And thence this slander as I think proceeds.

Afterglow

I didn’t sleep alone last night
There was no snoring
No stealing of blankets
No elbows or cold feet to
Disrupt my sleep.
All in all it was fairly sweet.
Throughout the day
I’ve been reminded
Of my unobtrusive bedmate
Not by a whiff of aftershave
Nor sweet nothings remembered
Not a hickey on my neck
Just the ever present itch
I feel on my shoulder
Where there’s a welt
From the bite it bit!

mlc2026©️