Myself To Keep (+3)

Social Distancing not so strange,

I’ve been doing it for years

 

The world a feelings length away,

old lovers left in tears

 

I shared what I shared early,

with my short pants not yet off

 

Trusting in my family first,

I learned—but Oh the cost

 

For fifty years I’ve cloistered,

my psyche left to roam

 

Acquaintances to come and go,

true feelings mine to own

 

As harbormaster of this port,

one ship is anchored deep

 

To sail the inmost seven seas

alone—myself to keep

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2020)

 

 

The Light Of Ibalon

 

Return to the sky,

our moon, Bakunawa

 

Masked Haliya has been called,

the tree circled again

 

Balyana is dancing,

the heaven’s in darkness

 

By the goddess of moonlight

—you’re condemned to the sea

 

(Villanova Pennsylvania: April, 2020)

 

 

A Last Adieu

 

The sentence was death, malignancy sure,

to pack my bags, adieu

 

As reds have never looked so red,

and greens, the greenest hue

 

The wine the sweetest on my tongue,

as birds sing sweeter still

 

The children’s laughter I embrace,

their joy I’ll keep until…

 

In thinking back on what I’ve missed,

my mind then draws a blank

 

Every wish and every hope, twice over,

with my thanks

 

A hundred days to say goodbye,

and voice my first hello

 

No tears have I for broken dreams

—as I prepare to go

 

(Bryn Mawr Pennsylvania: April, 2020)

 

 

 

New Memories Rehearse

 

Deeply hidden within thoughts
that linger

A centuries old message
to know and then feel

Remembrance crying out
from the darkness approaching

In a voice so familiar—our fortune
to steal

It calls to us silent
as it waits for an answer

It calls to us closer
as all distance revokes

It calls from within us
in a voice our breath fosters

It calls us beyond all past
anguish and hope

The air now grows heavy
with a mist that induces

Words mate in the fog
as the letters reverse

The ending comes first
as the beginning still chases

Sleep only forgiven
as new memories rehearse


(Villanova Pennsylvania: July, 2016)