Zeus the Action Hero

They found him on a far-reaching

casting call. There had been a time

when he would pretend to be a swan.

Pretending to be Stallone sounded

cooler. Lights, camera, action,

and it was all thunder and bolts,

fastidiously signing autographs when

the director yelled cut.

Full Height 

She used to sit in the corner

rocking in her old-style chair,

an antique they brought in so

she could play her domestic role,

pretending to know how to knit

the results were knotted

chunks of twigs and twine

they, in turn, pretended they might

one day attempt to wear

while she cradled herself

back and forth, the family thought,

My, how tiny

but then she began to flail

her arms one day and burst

the chair into splinters

and revealed her true height.

A Study of the Tantrum 

of course, now we record

them using the variegated

lenses we carry on our person

but I remember a time

when a being could thrash

and shout and the only

evidence was the casual

eyewitness or security cam

I even recall a time when,

to my ultimate Chagrin, I myself

engaged in a small tantrum

and thankfully there was no one

to hold it up like hieroglyphs

on our digital cave wall.

Guacamole Haiku 

verdant and cooling

yet raging with spicy charge 

metaphors for you

The Once Great Mammoth

He used to be

mighty and feared, keeping

all in order. Now he sits

on a flower-covered sofa

in a distant aunt’s basement.

There is nothing on television,

yet he finds himself looking.

He has not shaved in weeks.

JD DeHart