Category: Poetry

Note to Thor…

I can’t reconcile-

the last time I saw you at Pinos Pizzeria on no day in particular “Hey, Aunt La,” when we hugged and exchanged pleasantries that always end in our family motto: “I love you.” “I love you, too, Thor.” 

– with the body that lay in the coffin.

How is it you came to be that picture in the corner of the living room, forever peter-panned by the tragic, dramatic colliding of a flying truck and a tree? The revered family member everyone talks about  at gatherings, the son, brother, grandson, nephew  cousin, lover, stranger to new family members, your existence known now through mythologies told and retold with deep love, humour and sorrow? Where is it you have gone, now that you’ve left us? My beliefs say, though you’ve shed your body shell, the essence of you remains. I wish I were a medium, able to sink deep beneath the surface of bodily life and hang with you in the ether-world:

“I love you, Aunt La.” “I love you, too, Thor.”

Spectre

A phantom lives in me, a ghost you cannot see Ignore her and she’ll catch you unaware.

The shadow in my sight, the darkness in the night, the demon who resides under the stair.

This thief unto the day, she robs me of my way awareness of my inner self betrayed.

I cannot keep her still, by effort, hope or will she wants to rise and shatter all I’ve made.

Who will win, she or I? Who’s the truth? Who’s the lie? The monarch of this body that we share?

We both want to be left, the other self bereft, of everything inside that’s good and fair.

We have been here before, her scratching at the door illusions that I try so hard to fight.

Of course I don’t give in and let the spectre win I banish her and thus she haunts the night.

Brace for Impact

Love comes down the mountain, avalanche of wonder
You cannot flee the slope, now that you’re snowed under
There was a moment once you had the chance to act
All you can do now is
Brace for impact

Lust roars from the ocean and rips across the plain
levels all the houses, a class five hurricane
Ordered to evacuate, still you didn’t act
There’s nowhere you can hide
Brace for impact

Betrayal hits the shore, a sweeping tidal wave
The life that you adored? Debris upon your grave
Your saw it from the coast, decided not to act
What else can you do but
Brace for impact?

Regret comes creeping in a fog on cloying feet
Emerging from the mist a beast you have to beat
Weeping for the moment you had the chance to act
There’s only one way now
Brace for impact

Hope, like sunshine dawning sheds light upon the day
Sift among the wreckage to find a better way
The smashing of your heart is not the final act
Open to that bright light
Brace for impact

Forgiveness is a breeze arriving from the west
It scatters all the pain, reminds you that you’re blessed
Listen to your heartache, learn lessons, make the pact
The good life’s there for taking
Brace for impact

Essence of Life

Sometimes I forget what’s important in life
kept busy thinking about next week, last week,
last year, or the week after next, kept occupied
recalling a moment gone or planning a moment                                                                    still to come. Sometimes I forget the essence                                                                      of life exists only in this moment. My breath                                                              brings me back to a single heartbeat, the space                                                                    between thoughts where my essence rests                                                                            at peace with itself.