Wireless

flooded in Iowa City
relief programs
save Pollack's "Mural"
black muck floors
under rust stained steel
the Cedar ran over
boil and store
water just four tanks
one left
my brother says the internet is down
he lives up the hill
two blocks from
Iowa's Katrina

           2

sermons if they
sound like lack

           3

earthquake shaken in central China
Szechuan buildings crumble like cake
a crime the government built
housing for the people like houses of cards
palaces and hotels stand

media blackout in Burma
(not Myanmar to me)

music of the world   cacophony

              4

power in your hands
the globe image
whole world like the song
perspective  the little we do
so much more
a world all wireless

               5

Onizaka Center's Big Island telescopes
U. of Hawaii Keck France Japan Italy
peer from the landscape
where the lunar rover trained in 1969
(check my Hawaii notes for accuracy)
clear Southern Cross and Saturn's rings
in our parkas and down gloves
at 13,000 feet sunset and moonrise
behind Mauna Loa
we peer down on both
from Mauna Kea's loft-world
cumulus and cirrus as if in a spaceship

Pele's relatives guard sacred ground
government treaties restrict
reluctant truce rules
legends and ancestors safe
no lights destroy the Milky Way
our van driver negotiates steep
curves to 9,000 feet
in darkness of starlight
edges to a stop for hot chocolate
telescopes magic lesson
in astronomy and humility

                   6

power of a single act
simple hello a cup of tea
an IED along the trail
for a banquet of soldiers
power of a smile a helping hand
letter to the desert to an Afghan mountain

                   7

heart decisions
those we would change
the reason--our hearts
we weren't listening or
to other voices
life raft full of holes
change by seconds minutes
days weeks years
too comfortable
when we do   change

                 8

a flowered globe
looks Oriental like a rug
golds pinks orange and olive
finger-fern fans like a Geisha
projections faces poppies
scatter across fields
circles shimmer
like a multi-faceted stone
country's promise vanished
like the call of the wild
storm of ideas
a snow of bodies cling
out of their graves
rising hovering
color here is glow
gold sun not burning 
hands open
abstract anchor it
sail out return

                9

a picture of our earth
surreal rivers flow
surrender receive open

           Linda Buskey LeBlanc