Crumbling Monument to your Beauty
Your skin, like shadow-kissed sands of the Arabian Sea
Face carved of dark, polished stone
Sunlight creates glistening patterns
Like a carpet of diamonds spilled onto moist soil-
If only I hadn't lost my vision,
Those patterns might have been read
Your eyes, like beacons keeping ships in calm water
Shining with beads of determination
Like drops of mercury in semi-fluid motion
Exploding into graceful dance with each smile-
If only I had an ear for rhythm,
I might have applauded those pirouettes
Your laughter, eloquent enough to transcend language
Universally intelligible celebration of trivial joys
Your voice, like a practiced bow over violin strings
Echoing the emotion of your muse-
If only mine hadn't left me,
I might have understood the words
Your posture, like a free stallion in new country
The embodiment of nature's pride in her creation
The wind sculpts muscle out of soft marble
It shapes the speed, the strength, and the grandeur-
If only I were a poet,
I might have adequately immortalized your beauty
Saturday Evening in the City
Above the bookstore by the grocer's
Is a tiny iron balcony speckled with rust
I find my feet treading that unpaved road
More often than they must
Sometimes I catch a smile in your eyes
As a wave is hidden by impatient headlights
Sometimes a hand gently keeps me standing
In the whirlwind fest of the noisy and bright
I let the hand guide my steps
Navigating asphalt meadows like excited children
People become wildflowers who chirp and chatter
Swishes of conversation, theirs rough, ours silken
Time ticks on your wrist but I pretend it stops
As my scarf and my heart fly unconstrained
We let old park benches keep our secrets
When inhibitions fall away like peeling green paint
It's a tiring, thrilling, wild journey
Through buzzing, colorful air and mosaic paths
But in stolen glances through hawkers' mirrorsThe only colors are our eyes, the only sound our hearts.
Battle
Look what you've begun
A battle in the doorway I guard
A battle fought by just you and I
Enough to leave humanity scarred.
As terrible as you act
Worse destruction I can bring
We sound shells to silence the hope
Which for years in this valley would ring.
Without thinking of peaceful lives
That fled this grisly mess
We both convince ourselves
That our side is losing less.
Neither of us will concede
And neither of us will win
As we douse each other's sinful fires
With water from the well of sin.
Outdoors
Take a breath
Sunlight calls
Awaken
Breathe, let the
World open
Through your eyes
After nights
Young mornings
Energize
Emerge from
Shells of doubt
Take a step
Forget fear
This is your
Paradise
Scatter clouds
Sprint on waves
Live in grass
Laugh and cry
Into sand
Love in stone
Challenges
Are old friends
Take a breath
Sunlight calls
Join yourself
Live your life
If I Were You
If I were you
With sights set on the golden peak of a mountain
Far too high to reach with ease
I would, at times, look back to see
Who followed silently,
Sad footsteps in the snow,
Brushed away gently by the wind.
If I were you,
With eyes that are dewdrops
Turned to diamonds by the sun
I'd let them glint and glitter
At every upward turn of my lips
Not the empty smile that hardship demands,
But the soft bloom of warmth
Amidst the ice
The flame still alive from knowing
There are two more legs making this journey
And another pair of hands to hold.
If I were you, I'd want to know
Who guarded me from the cold
Who draped a makeshift patchwork blanket
Of whispered words
Over proud, strong shoulders- lest they shiver,
Lest the stars in the two black holes
Which drew in her soul,
Begin to grow dimmer.
If I were you
I wouldn't suppress the drops of honey
Rolling into a song
That awoke the mountain birds
And made them chirp and flutter
In her heart
Their cottony wings beating in rhythm with
The determined steps next to mine.
If I were you,
I would feel alive in this cadaverous scene
I'd call out clearly to the cliffs
And sing softly to the streams
Making each moment
A memory, bright
Slow down the day,
And in a show of colorful lights
Illuminate every tranquil night
Like only you do.