Jack Ritter

Jack

Divine Trinity
                      Jack C. Ritter

Brahma, Vishnu, Shiva -
sit eternally on lotuses.

Shiva destroys the universe a lot.
He has as many arms as it takes.
Plus one, to hold a mirror.

Brahma rebuilds it all as needed.
He has four heads and four arms.
That seems about right.

Sitting between Mr. Big Bang
and Mr. Big Finish
is blue Vishnu,
who symbolizes energy.

Iris and Murray Klughart of Yonkers
don't symbolize anything.
Neither do their children.

All their marriage the Klugharts
have saved for a trip to the Taj Mahal.
Each one secretly fears
the other will be disappointed.

They pray their kids will have more.

Iris lights up the place when anyone calls.
Murray lights up a dreadful cigar,
sits back like a living room ornithologist,
and fully hears her song.

The creature is in full cackle.
He'll tell her about his bad MRI-

          tomorrow.

They are no one,
and their aching backs
prop up every axis,
atom,
and out-of-work deity.

Iris cries when she reads Emily Dickinson.
Iris laughs in her sleep.
Iris.

The Klugharts loved the Taj so much,
Shiva dropped his mirror.

Bio

Jack writes poetry, flash fiction, and comedy. His poems have appeared in the Austin International Poetry Festival's anthologies, and The Red River Review. This year, a local print anthology featured two of his comedic pieces. He's a member of The Creative Community, a Dallas-based group of artists and writers. His flash piece, Theory Ball, was published in the debut issue of the on line magazine Theory Train.

Jack is a software engineer by trade. He has programmed video games, and various graphics applications. He's had six original mathematical algorithms published, in the areas of computer animation, and ray-tracing. He and his wife, Barrie, co-authored "Life Histories of Serial Murderers," which appeared in the 2001 Proceedings of the Homicide Research Working Group (published by The Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI.) Lately, he has been creating and selling digital fine art prints.

A lot of Jack's good stuff is on the website he designed:

House of Words