things dry up
cracked dusty riverbeds

The Moon
is still beautiful.

a poet still sings
beyond silence.

your river
becomes an ocean.

Four o'clock
dusk is sinking
shadows eagerly waiting
to usurp the day
Winter's germinating
chilly roots burrowing
deep
to the bone
will children reap
the harvest of snow
will its pale smothering
conceal broken homes
as the bitterness
silently
grows  or
rekindle the warmth of hearts
that froze?

His "I love you" came swiftly.
Like the monsoon pouring down on a leaky roof
Those three words broke through my defences.
At first they were an ambrosia;
They sustained my life and our relationship.
At least for a short time.

Then "I love you" became an excuse;
For absences, and purpose-filled accidents.
And I ignored the warning signs, the flashing lights.
I pretended like "I love you" was enough...

...But it wasn't.
His "I love you"s were like band-aids on bullet wounds;
Like using play dough to fix cracks in concrete walls.
But I rationed our good memories,
I held on as tight as I could to our love
And watched as it slipped through my fingers.

His "I love you"s became poison,
That seeped deep into my bones,
And turned blue skies grey,
And turned light into darkness,
And slowly killed whatever semblance of love
I fooled myself into thinking we had left.

A living skin, a skein of green briars
where a half-hinged door is wagged by the wind

Good-natured god, decay’s stigmata-stained spires
nettles paint the stairs splotch patterned, olive skinned

Glass window shards grab a slip of silk curtain
pick-pocket beetles engrave brute luck broadside

Chimney thrushes cabined in ash are certain
cynicism’s growing sums are rectified

Blue jays opine time’s cuckoo clock mocking
worms ply enormous copses, scrawl casts of clay

Autumn gusts and rains whirl detritus stocking
flung colors Pollocked, clutter’s chaos array

Hours dissolve the acorns and soft seeds scatter
as grasses grown tall have turned light yellow

architecture’s flourishes are picked off
crumbled valuables filched and turned to dirt

tumult’s passages dug the driveway’s trough
carrion feeders pull black quills from their shirt

slugs smear a rainbow trail and mice scurry
collapsed walls fall to the slush of leaf slurry

Settle in my heart, swoon with my soul
In a human delight, human after all,
Where beauty blooms without bounds
Where flowers dance with no sounds
In a living soft drum, red, red-red;
Beats resonate a rhythm never been heard
With a flow of passion migrates red, red-red.
O, this floods of regular love rhythm,
It counts my sighs in cadence with them,
When you packed memories, body and will,
And departed countries late that evening,
And returned with angels in a dew cell,
On a harvest day, early one dear morning
With songs of birds on kindled wings,
Invisible heavenly bliss, joyfully swings
In meadows cradle that seems still,
A bliss has chosen my heart to dwell,
A human heart, a will with machine skill,
That lives, loves and imitates a drowned bell.

Thank you Lord for each dawn that breaks
For every happy hour it brings
Thank you for granting one more year
To see your glory and kneel in prayer

Thank you for the breeze that blows
For every lovely flower that blooms
For each silvery star that twinkles
Proclaiming your love that never dwindles

Thank you for friends who always stand by
And through love n’ kindness add to our joy
Thank you for silent words of solace uttered
When in pain, words of disgust muttered

Thank you for all those we chance to meet
Who with smiles and kindness gladly greet
And add to our sense of self worth
Making our lives lovelier on this Earth

Thank you for your hovering care
During trying times of wear and tear
Thank you for your silent voice
That always makes our hearts rejoice

Thank you for all the trials you send
That makes our weak shoulders bend
For it is then we look up to Heaven
And all our binding chains loosen!!

As he gazed on my face
I saw waves of emotion
rise and crash
in his deep almond eyes
and I became a river
hurtling down to join
the mighty current

When he whispered to me
honeyed words of passion
in the enormity of silence
I blossomed
into
a red tulip of love

As he played on the strings
of my heart’s violin
I got tuned
into an alluring symphony

When he held my palms
I evolved into
a beautiful painting
on a blank canvas

When he cupped my face
to stamp on my lips
the seal of love
I became
a flitting butterfly

When he lifted me up
in his arms
all the stars came down
to see the spark in my eyes
wondering if it outdid
their combined lustre