i once wrote a poem
that touched both our hearts
way back when
we were in love

so much so
with the feeling then
that i'd love to have
it all back again

where i pledged my life
to you in rhyme
from the here and now
through eons of time

that's where you said
you loved me back
in your very best
poetic finesse

two lovers caught up
inside of the rhyme
when i wrote a poem that time
of your love and mine

Things that nobody talks about:
The desperation of loving someone who doesn't love you
How the sun feels warmer when you've spent a year being cold
The feeling of weightlessness after crying yourself to sleep
When he stares long and hard at you and smiles softly, making your eyes feel shy even when you are not
How people who used to exist in your orbit still take chunks off of your surface, even when you've taken so many hits you hardly exist.

Things that nobody talks about:
Even when you've moved on, even when you've found someone who loves you more, even when you've discovered better things, your skin remembers things best forgotten.

In the kitchen,
......fragrance is eclectic......in spices
fresh, some stewing with other ingredients...garlic
ginger, and bits of pork, and shrimp paste, blending
flavors in boiling coconut juice...sliced eggplants, cut string
beans, squared squash, and squash blossoms will be dropped
soon................in a separate pan, fish is deep fried...

joining this redolence, is
the smell of plucked sweetsop tree leaves, and dry grass,
touched by rain.....raindrops shyly tip-tap on the hot roof,
flowing down on the eaves, dripping sparingly, softly hits
the steaming creviced grounds....a hushed sound follows...
red, blue, brown, beige roofs adorn the graying horizon...
too early for thunder and lightning...gray clouds hang low
...more tears from Heaven threaten to flow

the front garden beckons...awaits to be rearranged
.....peach, purple, mauve and verdant colors surround
........there's music! the air is rich with a mix of sounds:
the neighbor's washing machine is running...cats are meowing,
purring, the rooster keeps crowing...seems, dog is vocalizing,
a pleasant crescendo...as water in the basin overflows...
...i could see invisible arrows, leading me...seeming didactic
...where to go, what to do, this morning so eclectic
...but.....
i savor what remains of a late breakfast of red sausages,
......and the smell of almost gone coffee...so pleasant, as
drying bubbles cling to the rim of the mug......electric fans
are turned towards the table.....to dispel hot, humid air,
........plates are ready......there is always cooked rice,
...........lunch is served.


Sally

Copyright August 27, 2017
rrab

She is the sea, her waves crashing on the rocks,
slowly washing over me, drenching right down to my socks.
Providing life's true source, well, if it wasn't for her salt,
swirling on with no remorse but it's really not her fault.

She is the sky, both the day and the night,
up impossibly high and such a breath taking sight.
While the clouds can cover sun, the horizon will still stay clear,
and I pray that I'm the one that she'll always be near.

Oh, I live for her, and she gives me the will,
but I would still prefer for our world to stay still.

She is the air, invisibly filling up my lung,
standing up each and every hair, and tingling on my tongue.
Breathing in can revive a person once marked for dead,
she is keeping me alive by simply filling up my head.

Oh, I live for her, and she gives my life thrill,
but I would still prefer for our world to stay still.

She is the mountain, both rocky and very steep,
housing the sheep that I've lost count in while missing out on sleep.
Outlining my sight and enhancing beauty in my world,
and when we lay together at night, her curves fit into mine curled.

Oh, I live for her, and she's my red pill,
but I would still prefer for our world to stay still.

It was a graveyard and overcast sky
and I sat with book and accordian in hand,
hearing the world with its screams
swallow up around me.
The people whom I had loved and lost,
Papa with his silver eyes
Mama her sharp tongue and tough love
Rudy whose hair the colour of lemons
and questioned why, the living and dead,
worlds apart, yet both did not have a choice.
I stood and screamed so that everything shook
the burning rubble and ash and dust
willing my words to bring it all back
but it did not come, and my breath rose in gasps.
Death had looked me in the eye and said,
“It’s not time yet.”
I would shut my eyes to the world
only decades later.
I will understand that there was hate and pain
there was sadness
but even more so, there was love and joy.
I will know that the people I loved had reason
to kiss goodbye
whether it was their own hurt
or saw it as a necessity,
but they were never truly gone from me
always somewhere nearby,
in the thick and thin
frail and worn
of times.
I would learn
to forgive Death that day.
I will understand that
and I will be hurt,
but I will be okay.

~

Not all deaths are sad.
Some, meant to ease their own pain,
Are called freedom.
While some,
Meant to ease the pain of others,
Are called love.

© BT