Filtering through the empty broken balconies along the rivieras
are the waning cacophonies echoing monotonous songs,
“Merciless they are to us at the breaking of dawn”
Where life once thrived, we arrived in the city called the strip,
an open-air prison, an amphitheater without any spectators
insight, although the world is watching
We trudge onto yet another camp
The sun brings nothing, not anything more than light
that shines upon a smokey sky
I see more of nothingness, space, void, rubble
Everything is foreign and everyone has changed
All are cold, scared, and hungry, we walk aimlessly
In the hands of anyone unknowing if he or she's sane
There is so much fear, I am no longer safe
A new reality has come upon me
To the smell of death should I adapt?
A new day has dawned, morning has broken
Echoes pick up murmurs of others tears long spent
sifting through these ruins where I hide
Unattended unattached, no time for a sigh,
cry, or yawn, I am zombie like
The unrest of the last night has begun again
The recent blood red scenes now past
Yesterday's echoes filter one more reality
Will it be me today?
Categories:
rivieras, angst, anxiety, children, war,
Form: Free verse
Nothing do I have of him except some post cards
and the one picture of himself he sent me once he’d gone away.
No piece of clothing do I have to press against my face
and breathe in the wonder of his essence.
Stored in an old worn treasure chest are the picture and the postcards.
Rarely do I take them out; I do not need to
because his beautiful face is imprinted forever in my mind.
I knew him but one week of my young life.
Old Buick Rivieras remind me of
our final night of glorious romance.
Is he still out there somewhere in this world
remembering me as I remember him?
This I cannot know, but I imagine it is so.
The picture and the postcards – tucked away -
are the tangible pieces of evidence that he existed in my life.
But the image of his dark, tender eyes fixated on me,
and the memory of his smooth kisses and sweet caresses
one magical September eve
are my favorite mementos
of the boy from Quebec.
March 13, 2021
For Malabika Ray Choudhury's "I Remember" Poetry Contest
Now for John Hamilton's Your Best Free Verse So Far This Year Poetry Contest
Categories:
rivieras, lost love,
Form: Free verse
Here I am laying my
Soft bed down I'm
Thinking about tomorrow
Wishing for yesterday
when days before
I savored the banks of the
French Rivieras undisturbed
Soundlessness solitude of the
Quiet waves rolling placidly
Seemingly beaches ago a
Flock of fair feathered friends
Soaring being admired
Categories:
rivieras, beautiful, bird, day, earth,
Form: Sonnet