there seems to be no end
of armed cowards killing peaceful civilians
about to do their jobs or visit friends and chat
at airports  in the underground or in cafés

and then acknowleding full responsibility
for that grandiose achievement
of putting electric wires into some explosives
and sending innocent people to their death

these self-styled martyrs claim
their deeds are prompted by religious ends
and not the simply joy of killing those
     who have no arms for their defense
    and are quite unaware they have become the targets
     of delirious murderers who seriously imagine
     their heinous crimes could please their god
     and   if they blow themselves away together with their victims
     would send them straight into a paradise
     with many earthly and some heavenly rewards

or so they say

watching them over all these years
I have my doubts
that any god has business with those guys
    or they with him

     like other groups before them they abuse religion
     to justify their greed and power games
     god for them is simply a façade
     to mask their inhumanity

it’s time the world says a concerted NO
and makes it clear to all barbarians of our century
that our tolerance
is not for them

on the first day of spring
my mother died

she had always loved flowers
and had turned
our interior hallway
into a luscious greenhouse
   father was not always happy
   about the falling leaves

in her later years
when skiing was no longer hers
she hated winters
   their long nights
   their waning sun

she was always longing
   for spring
waiting for the day
the morning sun lit up
the kitchen desk again
in her parents’ house
where she was born
   and had grown old

the night before
I had called and told her
that here in the south
the first flowers were already
   dotting the gardens

she had smiled on the phone
   almost inaudibly
speaking had become difficult

   maybe her last images
   were of colorful spring meadows

today at 7.10 a.m.
my mother died

spring has come

it may well be that I no longer am good company
     or that I never have been anyway

it’s not that people make me feel like that

it is myself that questions me
and I am spending more time with myself
     than anybody else

I have noticed lately
a touch of crankiness
looking at me out of the bathroom mirror

I wonder why

is it just age encroaching on my life
with its assorted ailments
or disillusionment of archived teenage dreams

I look again at the reflection of myself
and see what I did miss before

there is a spark of youthful mischief in these eyes
even the serious bearded lips seem ready for ironic smiles

maybe no everything is lost

maybe I can myself keep company
for some more years with little strife

even, perhaps, until the end of my sweet life

will we finally know
what we have always
   wanted to
when our lives end
   long expected
   always too sudden

or will it just be
   once more
the old wisdom
that we know little
   and that
at the wrong time

when we hear the silence
in our closed eyes
direct it into our soul
let it conclude its work
become our consciousness

far from the world’s noise
if only for moments
in secret    with no audience
we become one
with nature quietly shaping our lives

those who are big of mouth
apparently believe that putting down the other
      calling them names & pepper them with slurs
might get them some advantage in the race
for the position that they crave

they better harken back
to the old wisdom of their mothers

those who sow dragon’s teeth
will harvest dragons

there are the times
when clouds obscure our view
of blue ethereal skies
and our world grows dark and desolate

days are monotonous and gray
nothing can put a smile into our face
we see the whole confounded human race
doomed to pernicion and without God’s grace

this is the time when it is useful to remember
that it is YOU who calls the shots
YOU who decides what road to follow
YOU who determines where to go
rest, linger, or proceed

so you can truly say
these are the actions of yourself
for which you need

nobody else