I feel like there's a second layer
forming under my skin,
From all the words unsaid,
I bet you'd drown if I let you in.

You're tired, you say,
You don't want to learn how to swim,
So you're skimming over dead cells,
Meanings that have turned into antonyms.

Day after day the superficial layer
It's getting thinner,
What you were once acquainted with
are now the cells of a stranger.

'Cause suddenly they're all seeping
into my blood stream,
Words like bricks that form a barrier,
Talking from behind a filter screen.

I'm only sorry for one thing,
That is my pale secrets greeting the sunlight,
Till I found them in your shadows,
And you got used to silence overnight.

I wish I could lend you my skin for a day,
Like an open letter for you to read,
But I fear one word said too much,
Would make a frail vein bleed.

Now you don't recognize my hand anymore,
So I don't need yours then,
Lying to you has already become
Very much like a second skin.

On days, when time is going too fast,
I can't catch up, and there're things i can't get past,
I'd pull a chair at the verandah....just sit there
To witness, the gentler goings on in life...
See, how...why  all plants face towards the sun,
On a dimly lit corner, watch a spider patiently spin its web,
Underneath the gravel and green grass, somehow,
The earthworm, painstakingly, bravely emerges,
Finds its way out of the soil...to remind us,
"...soil is healthy....it's time to plant!"
:::::
I feel, the beetle knows me, as it inches on,
Carrying its own body, crawling down the pine tree,
I won't ever grasp it, nor tie a string on its body
To control its range of movement,
As we do to tethered beasts of burden...
:::::
While sitting there, i decide: by all means,
Towards the flower ***, i  lean
Take time to smell a rose, feel its rough leaf
Not just a quick touch and sniff
But hold its thorny body, without daring to blink
While deep within, i'd let its fragrance sink
:::::
Some early evenings
When the cicadas' music are echoing
And the moths have started flying
Circling round the light at the ceiling,
I am warned...soon, it will be raining
And.....when it starts to rain, i keep listening
Til i'm soothed by the sound of rain...falling,
From sky to treetops.....flowing...landing
Next to the leaves......cascading down
To the concrete ground
Spreading quickly, far and deep...and as fate,
As nature would have it....the soil, without fail, waits...
:::::
Long time ago, we were small,
Curious and brave, we tasted glory, and all,
Armed with a child's innocence
And an insatiable hunger for learning...
Our eyes, our minds dilated,
Our brains were like sponge...
Like the soil.....we absorbed
All, that we discovered...
:::::

Sally

Copyright December 1, 2016
Rosalia Rosario A. Bayan