Do Not Disturb
“Art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable.” — Cesar A. Cruz
holes in life
bored
in our terrestrial boat
a polar bear
on top of the world
alone in a sea of light
a goose
in a noose
foie gras
farmyard scene
on a porcelain plate
the rest of the chicken
the way chicken
sticks to a frying pan
a boy’s first gun
chipped china
the widow sips canned soup
a reality show on tv
jackhammer
the warm handles
on a laborer’s coffin
grass
always greener
at the pot shop
blood on the tracks
a junkie’s punctured arm
waves away a mosquito
a nun
with a bad habit
the crack in the bell
an icy wind
beneath dead stars
the monk’s starched sheets
arriving home
bone dry
memory’s raincoat
a disquieting guest
in the back room
new ideas
social media
train tracks
arriving at a conclusion
Death Be Not Proud
a broom
over sunlight
the pile of dust
guttering
the lamp of life
in a no parking zone
in failing light
bent over a battered board
checkmate
nightfall
a tuba sounds
surprised
laundry at night
the empty sleeves
of the wind
water drifts
under thin ice
the surgeon’s blue eyes
death’s door
the knocker askew
another eye in the peephole
grass growing
through my ribs
food for thought
and cows
daydreams
wildflowers in spring
poking through my skull
cherry blossoms
drifting with the breeze
I let the bus go by
The Problem with Zippers
She wants a Scotch Terrier, to lead along the esplanade. I want another shot of Glenlivet, no ice. We can’t see eye to eye. She in her designer shades, and mine blurry. Words between us like flurries of snow, in the headlights, of an oncoming truck, in the middle of the road, in the middle of our lives, going on, regardless.
Liberating a Dream from Her Bathrobe
clocks ticking
in a watchmaker’s shop
honeybees sweetening thyme
an old man
with a shovel
groundhog day
teaching Pinocchio
Morse code
Geppetto’s woodpecker
long after
we stopped smoking
the sheets
seeds of discord
in every smile
the last watermelon
a boat dozes
in the star-splashed waves
froth on a daydream
eternal recurrence
a parallel universe
with a monorail
space food
counting the calories
in π
talking to myself
I find the keys
to the lost suitcase
the poet’s octopus
out of ink
rime on a parking meter
Evening at Kastro’s
The whitewashed wonder of Mykonos before the tourist hordes.
Clear water clouds the ouzo, as beauty beguiles time.
Mozart’s Requiem in vinyl turning round the still point of the needle in its veins.
We make of metaphors a place to be another, which can never be.
What youth enjoys and passes beyond, memory hoards away.
Sunset in the windmills by the sea.
temple ruins
a spring wind awakens
marble curtains
Robert Witmer has lived in Japan for the past 46 years. Now an emeritus professor, he has had the opportunity to teach courses in poetry and creative writing not only at his home university in Tokyo but also in India. His poems and prose poetry have appeared in many print and online journals and books. He has also published three books of poetry Finding a Way (2016), Serendipity (2023), and Sunrise, in a Rabbit Hole (2025).
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