200.
My 31st Leaf
Obtained thee from up
Just a second gap
For years with a crowd
Holy float enshroud
“San Enchero” leaf
From a man on top
Near the icon's lap
Devotee clusters
Among churchgoers
Near highschool classmates
It's a holy day
It is Good Friday
At early evening
After float blessing
Twenty-Ninth of March
About church in front
Diagonal slant
Where people gather
Here banwa proper
One of the last floats
It's memorable
For I was able
To effortless pick
Now's so very quick
About one second!
-03/29/2013
(Dumarao)
*My Toladas Collection
“There’s a world where you’re my wife
And we live in this house on Kent Street
And enjoy a quiet life”
- Anna K Jacobs: Letting You Go
And we go to church on Sundays
Every week begins anew
And the priest says Sunday’s better
Cause his gospel sings the truth
I feel his words inside me calling
Begging to believe without proof
But there’s a feeling now that’s stronger
And it tells me it’s no use
I wish I could believe
I bet I could and still be me
I wish I could have faith
But I can't believe
What I can’t see face to face
I wish I could hear God
I could preach his word to all
He would speak and I’d nod
I’d give my sermons
And the churchgoers would applaud
Every bit of hate I’d block
Cause I’d know I had the thing
Most everyone dreamed of
Every year, people of a humble community living in the 88th Street of Bangkulasi are gathered inside a church. And each year, eighty-eight candles are being litted by children with disability, kids with less than ten fingers and very few assisted kids with no natural fingers at all.
One purpose of lighting the candles is for Thanksgiving. And again on or before Christmas Day before the end of the year.
There are eighty-eight sticks in a standard piano -- 88 tones being played and heard by churchgoers, participants and volunteers as they sing the church hymns.
The eighty-eight litted candles can represent many other things, depending on how people see and interpret things around them.
One child asked the priest, "Of all numbers, why '88' ?"
Spring sunshine as winter has now past
That tempestuous wild weather did not last
Pollen-covered daffodils do permeate the air with their fresh scent
What will the pious sacrifice for lent
The easter hunt did unanimously excite
A fine lamb roast with heartfelt the family they did invite
Rabbits were seen but scattered when approached in the field
Churchgoers took communion and for the priest they piously kneeled
A time of sorrow but laconic love engulfed in the lord’s presence
A celebratory time for their children, in their element and entitled essence
Themed distractions, affairs a boulevard,
as elbowed are divided from their minds.
Aloof, queues succeed a ship calling card,
as untrained get on, moons all exit signs.
The General Slocum, dressed to the nines
--churchgoers being passengers adorned.
Petite girls, bulky boots-dresses confines,
a spark burning as the captain is warned.
Crew-covered ears as the shrieking arose,
clung rails ... faith enables those disabled,
backing from charring ensue panic throes,
river rips donning death ... apt tests fatal.
Swimmers valueless o'er a thousand died.
Lifeboats? Vest hopeless; the firm denied.
There are folk, in church or non-church family
Abounding in warmth; "Hi folks!" with charm
Least expected ... On the couch, deep memory:
Kind misdeeds, intent ignored: cut on thy palm
NOTE: a pastor may counsel successful churchgoers & find unsorted anger & hurts, rumbling & smoking with volcanic ferocity. Watch for small signs: the unkindly cuts from charming people. So, talk ....talk, talk, talk. Someone will listen so that volcanoes will be natural disasters, not human. Shalom ShalOm
As the sun begins its return
mall parking is available
shadows pencil mark their growing length
as breezes in Canada huff and puff
the ten day forecast leads listeners to therapy
super markets or hardware stores
rubbing salt into not yet open wounds
breakfast, accompanied by a canine chorus
howling in a growlish taunt
as squirrelly churchgoers cover their ears
a child peeks out from a wrapping paper cave
a size nine cat peers from a shoe box
the pagans will party
for the gods have forgiven them
their moonlight transgressions.
12/26/2019
STRAND SPECIAL 10
It was an altar of prayer
but God didn't rise
evil entered the house in a noble disguise.
Bullets were strewn
sanity was killed
bodies fell as corpses
blood did spill.
And hatred had the victory
on that grisly day, it seemed.
It was pain, agony and cry
they felt in their mind and hearts, they were the kin
of the happy churchgoers.
"I forgive you" those words they uttered
time and time
the evil stood in silence and just smiled.
People made a human chain
and prayed
and it was not revenge that struck the deal
but forgiveness that prevailed.
Love had its last smile
and it triumphed at the end.
CHRISTMAS MIRACLE
Tinsel and glittering childen’s lights mean nothing
To the aged in shop doorways, hungry and sleeping.
Churches filled with strong believers, with smiles
For fellow worshippers, mean nothing, when for miles
Your world is a pushed shop-trolley filled with rags
And you carry all your life in two plastic bags.
Miraculously the glitter could become supper,
The tinsel could change into a warm room upper.
Then the Christmas warmth of the churchgoers strong
And the laughter of the season - could belong
To every one of God’s children
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Entered in Carolyn Devonshire's Contest Your Christmas Miracle
!0. The dragon and atoms compress and converge.
From Tokyo Bay, Raymond Burr sees emerge.
9. I have no more face than the man in the moon.
The hump in my back, all the churchgoers swoon.
8. To all but Christine, I am known as a ghost.
To all but Christine, I am a most horrible host.
7. Hear them warning the village so loud on the gong.
The King on a rampage. " Kong's coming! It's Kong!"
6. 3 leaves keeps him breathing, 9 leaves sends him out
To the bride he has been seeking three eons without.
5. Finally, I must know the wrong from the right.
Divide Henry and Edward, leave each to his plight.
4. Alone in the Amazon, he swims deep and true.
You decided to hunt him. Now he's hunting you.
3. "The Moon will be full! You must lock me away!"
for if Larry finds you, you won't see a new day.
2. Her blood I must have, I swoop in with the bats.
I defy you, Van Helsing, in a red fog with rats.
1. From 10,000 parts with a face from the grave.
I will curse and pursue you with no soul to save.
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