Tavi

Bald, not bare, eagles
White-plumed helmets flash like stars
Brazen in crisp air

Inane strategy:
Klepto-parasitism —
By hook or by tariff

Web of life’s strength lies
In countless threads that bind us —
Hang by one, we snap

Faith in short supply,
Belief has been left behind;
Trust-busters rejoice

Dainty jewelweed
Thrives in rich soil; indicates
A healthy wetland

Ghosts in the machine
Haunt reality’s home with
Artificial thoughts

Will end of U.S.
Be a gentle sunset, or
Nuclei colliding?

Snapping turtle soup;
Nature’s selection process
Takes no prisoners

Go, larva, go: Crawl
Toward metamorphosis,
Your flights of fancy

Fall’s drumbeat quickens
Sunshine fades much earlier
Get ready to chill

What do you, swallow?
How much airspeed can you make
When you’re unladen?

Where will you run to,
What harbor will you seek when
It all goes pear shaped?

They say you should write what you know, and Scott McIntosh has pulled that off brilliantly in Basin 63 (available now on Kindle). Full disclosure: I used to work with Scott at the Rochester, NY, Democrat and Chronicle. I would happily read more of this if Scott has any further tales in mind.

On life’s carousel,
There’s nothing quite like getting
A bunny side eye

What the Founders meant by “pursuit of happiness” is not about ensuring you get to go out drinking on Friday nights. It’s about the constant search for becoming a more virtuous person. I guarantee you will find something meaningful in this book, regardless of your current political persuasions.

A first-time novel by an Aussie author that has some real muscle, bone and sinew to it. The plot is simple police procedural on the surface but soon gives way to a far more psychologically complex tale. Here’s hoping the world sees more from this gifted young writer.

Tree frog lollygags
On way home, stops for a drink
At watering hole

Don’t peons deserve
To be treated at least as
Well as peonies?

Classy clematis
Climbs when it has some support,
Like many humans

Stay still as you can
Then stay still some more so you
Can capture dinner

Trees heavy with rain
A pregnant pause while nature
Lays new booby trap

Charlie Stielow’s story detailed in this book is the granddaddy of Innocence Project-style cases — and was the catalyst for the science of ballistics identification. Moreover, it happened in Medina and other WNY venues. An important entry in the annals of criminal jurisprudence.

Bleeding hearts all know
You cannot live a full life
Without empathy

Petals bring pizzazz
To drab world gone loco; save
View to memory

Remember Arthur*
And thousands more who gave lives
In nation’s service

*Arthur Ames, Jr., Pat’s maternal uncle, killed by a sniper and buried in an unmarked grave in Burmese jungle, age 20.

Don’t jive me with your
Chives that don’t jibe with my gibes
Or you’ll catch my hives

April’s showers turned
Into May downpours, drenching
Our collective mood

Dead wood is not waste
It feeds forest floor that once
Fed and nourished it

I’ve always been a sucker for a good time travel story (all reading can be a form of time travel if you do it right). Bradley brings some new twists to the genre, including demolishing a longstanding “law” of conventional time travel stories, in a style that is entertaining and wry.

For many creatures
Spring’s awakening equals
Maternity time