Two of my students in their
       scout outfits stay
       cool in the Thai heat as they
       proudly clean the local monastery.
Could Robert Baden-Powell possibly
       have ever imagined his idea
       exported to an arena of
       banana fronds and pagodas?
Evenings find them boiling rice
       over camp fires.
Mornings find them feeding monks
       admiring butterflies.
Could Baden-Powell possibly have imaged
       A merit badge for enlightenment?

Burgess Needle is capable of creating a sestina but has yet to learn the vagaries of bridge. He loves The Pogues.  Burgess is an Arizona writer whose poetry has (or, will soon) appear in: Blackbox Manifold (UK), Concho River Review, Boston Literary Magazine, Istanbul Literary Review[Turkey], Decanto (UK), Centrifugal Eye, Under the Radar [UK] Kritya (India) and Red Fez.  Diminuendo Press published his poetry collection: EVERY CROW IN THE BLUE SKY @ 2009. He taught English for two years in a small Thai village for the Peace Corps, been a co-director of the Southern Arizona Writing Project and co-published and edited Prickly Pear/Tucson [a poetry quarterly] for five years. Although born in Boston, he has lived in Tucson with his wife, Barbara, for a long time.

>>

<<