Tea Stains and Tears
Words After New Year
The words are dwindling now
but they will come again
in time, towards this year
with the purity of silk strewn
through a ring.
I will wait for the words
because unlike politics
these things have to be
seen to, with patience
and care like a plant
on mulched sand.
Sadness and Walking By The Moonlit Sea
I do not
whisper about the moonlit sea
anymore.
because I am past
the age of innocence
and recognitions
of times
I have betrayed
to someone else.
Instead I will wait
and if you betray me
I will write about you
with such fervour
you will wonder
what hit you
when I write
of two soldiers
walking by
a moonlit sea
after days parched
in the desert.
The Black Nazarene
The Black Nazarene moves now.
Each year,
during the passage
of our Black Nazarene,
I am cursed to follow
a certain predicament
funny
predictable
infuriating.
Now I find you
and nothing
but sand.
This man
who reminds me every year
of what I have done
what I have done
what I have done
to both of us.
Is It The Devil In Me
The devil in me
says take it.
Take the pen and be master
of your destiny.
I fear the walls are thin
between us
and you can see
my transparent
sinewy motives
like tea stains on
words of old books,
maps, atlases of desert dunes
that hold the key to
fate and destiny, of lovers,
soldiers and the piety
of children who do not know
yet how to hold
a pen.
Copyright © Shalom Aranas | Year Posted 2018
|