fish have band, birds have choir and sharks play poker haiku

`

9/25/15

you are so tiny
jumping out of the water
from two feet away

when you turn around
to see the fish behind you
they make a circle

all at the same time
must be friday band practice
stop searching for shells

fish are excited
fisherman stopped to catch bait
in only one net

went back to fishing
because he caught so many
you can just reach down

she takes the photo
seventy birds singing songs
choir practice too

slowly following
fish back upstream to the pool
choreography

much needed practice
sound like baby chickadees
peeping from chicklets

when you’re almost back
to where the water’s waist deep
shark came two fridays

a group of fourteen
guy carrying a big stick
forgetting these guys

twenty feet apart
two women stand with leashes
long measuring stick

men holding notebooks
the water is two feet deep
girl dropped her iphone

watch her recover
in the fast moving water
lady with big stick

laughs as something crawls
who knows what they are doing
wet and giggling

`

pool hop shark haiku

`
jazz white bikini
after only ten minutes
rain drops touching face

lasting minuet
balcony reconnaissance
only man and beer

no one is smoking
in the pool just right outside
so close if it rains

you begin choking
just inhaling inhaler
our government banned

are you alright dear
it’s the charcoal smoke blowing
missing golf cart twice

standing inside pool
smoking three long cigarettes
a man at the beach

trying the best pool
no one is allowed to smoke
walk inside there’s smoke

no one is smoking
the pool or the jacuzzi
or standing around

most of the people
looking for shark in the bay
standing on the bridge

no less than a week
“there are no sharks in the bay”
he told his two sons

“the shark has escaped”
while i am writing they shout
and now back to two

found the dumb smokers
blowing smoke inside the pool
sitting at the door

don’t know where to go
what will become of me now
third attack this hour

two police cars sit
they wanted to see the shark
walk over the bridge

two weeks end tonight
our favorite family
“who will never smoke”

the man doesn’t know
there could be sharks in the bay
some call it a creek

`

shark sail sale

.

afraid of sharks
“another one bites the dust”
will not go in ocean

Crystal from jamaica
wanting to braid my hair
flew in with lizard

if you braid shark’s hair
he will never bite your hand
but he can’t pay cash

thirty m.p.h.
all the smokers have left
“everybody cut loose”

two men running dive
jumping into each other
one wears miner’s cap

they must think this fun
appears a little painful
replay many times

alcohol involved
everyday ordinary
you can make the call

turning up volume
people run away from wind
delightful cool breeze

“get in the house”
music telling the smokers
to go inside like me

cool but they’re singing
“hot stuff baby this evening”
” hot hot hot hot stuff”

someday i will ask
if they know what century
this is “kokomo”

we’ll “sail off to sea”
whenever music stops
“defying gravity”

6/20
.

what i learned ,in the last few days :

1a. my maternal grandfather was a major sephardic jewish family of the ottoman empire

1b. mr. mishuginah is still enjoying popping his bubble wrap, fifteen years later

2.i was thinking about my mother-in-law and found out she had died exactly 7 days earlier, at age 91. they said she would not live long because of muscular dystrophy & she outlived everyone.

3.i knew both of my grandfathers were named morris, but i didn’t know both of my grandmothers had the same birthday as one of their daughters.

4. i learned the census taker in 1930 was drunk, because he spelled everyone’s name wrong: my father, uncle , mother,aunts…i know they spelled last names however they felt like , when your grandparents came to this country, but this is their first name & thirty years later.

.

one crab keeps kosher

in six inches of water,i was thinking about all of the people who had been attacked by sharks over spring break,in florida and all of a sudden something grabbed my foot and pulled me.

hysterical i jumped out and asked the fisherman if they were fishing for sharks and they said yes. my foot was bleeding and a very sweet teenager said a crab had grabbed my foot.that was the last time i was going to get in water that deep.eleven days later,i was in water only above my feet, when all of a sudden ,i couldn’t move and just stood there like an idiot pointing at a real shark,i hoped was a dolphin, but it wasn’t….

finally i could move and seven crazy paople came toward me  and the shark,and took pictures of him.he was in very shallow water and swimming in circles eating the bait fish.this woman , from georgia,got out of  her chair and had seen me pointing and asked how i saw him.i said because i was looking.then the people who took his picture tried to tell me how big he was and i said i know he was 15 feet away from me, but i really didn’t know :apparently he was six feet long.i never saw his face.so much for two inches of water.then there was a giant crab,possibly 12 inches around, who wasn’t even in the ocean, but getting a tan.he lifted his back,if the surf came close to him.

the wind was blowing 16 mph and i was thinking, this is ridiculous i feel like uncle fester and 2 seconds later, this man came toward me and said look it’s uncle fester to his friend.”what did you say ,i was just thinking that exact same thing”.