POETRY FORUM

war, destruction, refuge
taken in shelters, if
you are lucky to stay alive

children in tears,
mothers exhausted hiding their fears,
trying to survive

she heard it said, to
leave your heart
behind

have faith, that
one day you shall return to
your ‘abandoned’ kind

until then, memories
linger, burning; unsure if
luck is what kept her alive

slightly unhinged, or
stupidly naive, hoping…
still…

that somewhere else
lives a better,
Humankind

– Andrea Damic

We name it life, unknown of what it is.
Within it, we exert some thousand wills
responsible for dullness, ecstasy, and craft.
Random ends in ignorance produced
by those whose only mission is decay.
We’re not, and then we are, and then we’re not.
Brief wearers of this chain of straw,
we owe no one. There’s nobody to owe.
When faced with choices, we can do or not;
for ultimately nothing parts the two.
We can manufacture ties of loyalty,
but these exist alone to test or break.
Unpalatable it is, perhaps,
but no opinion counts that’s worth the name.
This is the blood and bone of us.
Some it scares; others liberates.

– David Dumouriez

open your passport to Jamaica
two light-years from the Death Star

smoke a spliff?
Will spliffing take me to the dark side?

digest jerk-chicken
Will jerking capture the force?

bend your back under a metal bar
Will limbo-ing convert Luke-Sky-Walker to the dark side?

walk on broken glass
Will glass-walking make Leia love me?

put-on a lime thong
Will thonging release me to the surf side?

Darth darkens the war of stars
still the force lights the Kingston night

My hand goes through his fur as if it were sand,
his loose leaf skin water,
and he lays his large head on my lap,
snores,
his work as a dog done for today.
It is time to sleep.
He snores louder,
his body still,
all of his exuberance and noisy appreciation of life
idled to a list of breaths,
the warm sand of his fur,
the cool water of his skin.

Five hundred twenty million light-years far
from Earth a meld of galaxies has spread
its multi-arms wide open ‘midst the star
Orion cluster in its wedded thread.
With limbs outstretched, in stellar reach enmeshed,
the astral realms seem grouped in fondness spree,
by constant star formation e’er refreshed,
as if united through affinity.
Mankind’s subsistence may revolve around
embrace of nature’s procreations rife
in cosmic regions or on earthly ground
a wakened sense of reverence for life.

That human beings be humane is key.
Could spheres celestial teach us harmony?

Back road
taking it past the valley
up into the hills
smooth slopes of grass
spreading my long coat out
and laying back
on a pillow hill
gazing up
into the high and far sky
this world that I am in
has changed so
unrecognizable
happenings
beyond my sight
scaring me to death
realizing
this is the best place
to pray for an end
and accept the possibilities.

sun shining
dances in leaves across
the white paper of
birch bark

distance is a mirage
only the mind sees

birds are shadows
darting through consciousness
like streaks of wind

each leaf turns an eye blinded
by sun

trail open to the marching of ants
black specks like moving
cells of a brain

the sky is wide open like
a mouth yawning

all movement owes
a debt to stillness

the sky as always
owns us.