Gold so glitters than any gem that doth shine,
Effulgently than lanterns of night skies,
Dazzlingly than a moon kissed shoreline,
But nears not my seraph's opalscent eyes.
Yes, so fresh are the waters of the Nile,
With exuberance of a silken Moon,
But nears not my seraph's vivacious smile,
That tends to draw all that doth breath to swoon.
Yet I know: "Velvety is Heaven's chin,
Whose frickles bear such a novelty luster
But nears not my seraph's unblemished skin;
More fair than them in a wondrous cluster.

So true love is but a gem that doth shine,
With a luster that at one's soul doth twine.


©Kikodinho Alexandros
Jumeira, Dubai
6th February 2017

She let the tape go—
on record
one evening for an ordinary hour
Five years later, we play it back
for laughs after dinner—then as now

“Remember how the stove door screeched
at the house on Olive Street?”
And our voices!
Phoeb’s, lighter–tired
wrapping the nine’s tables in elastic yawns
like flash cards in a rubber band
“Phoeb, your pitch changed so—
while  I turned...”
to run water in the tub
lamenting the **** of Two
in frenetic escape of hands
Unruly!
Running rebel taunts in Time’s strict face
who would not dare disturb her dawns
only mine—
Roused by the first round of another day’s
ring of twelve
digits that insist
like uniform with apron waiting
on ironing board that’s never folded

Now the **** of Two cries out
Exultant!
of success in *****
Then, Oratorio for Soap!
The splashy version
with endless bubblings of “Rocky Baby!”
and obbligato of “Where’s Shampoo?”
in jubilant glissadal plunge
an octave through vocal whoops!

…I had not thought
she hardly talked
but sang and squealed or whined in tunes
Her voice lay open to her soul
a roost of piercing humming birds
small of words
but filled with sweet and want
incessant wings and things to say....

How could we have forgotten?

“Are these your boots?
Your clothes laid out?”
From sound and talk, we still can hear
frost phantoms
in winter window rattles—then as now
And Phoebe remarks how one voice
didn’t change though—
“Still talking to herself”

We laugh
and let the tape go....

"Married couples should stop thinking of Marriage
as an institution, but as a relationship that's
on fire.
It just may last forever."