by

Nostalgia 

~

The rusted metal shingles dared time enduring storms

now home to playful pigeons loudly cooing their freedom.

Skeletal wooden arms reaching towards the sky

revealing the rotten underbelly, a dying creature

refusing to let go but slowly fading.

A broken path now covered by overgrown bushes

still retains ghostly footprints of healers and conquerors

of forgotten people and pain.

~

How to endure the passing times

a child’s play in broken rhymes

of dreams and pain,

what I lost, what I gained.

.

I see my ghost in crumbling places

in silent sounds and wrinkled faces,

counting time in one more breath

I defy life and welcome death.

-

HRios
by

Birth

~

My grave in your thoughts

a final resting place,

no dirt but ashes on a distant shore

my name to be spelled on a salty taste

of a stranger’s tongue.

And what will remain

but the fading memory of my face

in the soft cradle of your hand.

Nothing lasting forever,

nothing ever needs to stay

only ashes on a distant shore

scattered across the sand.

–

HRios

March 17, 2021

“on the eve of my birth”

by

Lover

Smooth black down the seam of her dress-

A hundred years not enough on a grave

when a kiss resurrects your desires for a stone

decorated italics marking all that was done.

Shame and greed, but how love one more kiss

on these lips old and dry, to embrace

one last dance of a beautiful end with no trace

of the who I became and the what I’ll become-

–

HRios

by

If I Ever Fall

~

Who will break my fall

If I ever do fall.

Who will gather pieces

if I ever break

and becomes my glue

or will sooth my soul.

Who will calm this ache

burning deep within,

where would they begin

If I ever break

or If I ever fall.

–

HRios

“The splendid thing

about falling apart

silently…

is that

you can start over

as many times

as you like.”

― Sanober Khan, A Thousand Flamingos

by

Flock

Flock

~

The parrots came back today.

A pandemonium of green feathers crowding the feeder

pushing, squawking for a taste of sunflower seeds.

My mind wanders, the feathery sound clouding thoughts

of time and place, adrift, my heart weeps.

How do I grasp life when it seems to slowly slip away?

Words mute in my throat do not follow

the path of my pen, building up, choking a voice

of freedom and love, the sound hollow

while I feed my needs, pushing, amidst the noise

around this flock of lost souls, to find my way.

–

HRios

 

“Demented by uncertainty,
Fidgeted by certainty,
That’s how we abide by what we call destiny.”
― Komal Paudyal

by

Dreams of Sand

~

How easy the sand shifts it shape

at the mercy of the waves it transforms

around rocks, and this hand like a god

changed a course drew by nature.

My imprint tells of me when it’s caught

in the rush of the water and the sand

to remain for a moment, just a moment,

‘til the waves come along once again

and erase all I was in the sand-

–

HRios

“Sand lines my soul which is filled with the breath of the ocean.”

― A.D. Posey

by

I am

I was a light, along a path to seek

I thought I was a light.

I was of love, a kiss upon a cheek

I thought I was of love.

I was the ink, for words a soul to speak

I thought I was the ink.

But I’m but flesh to age and rot

and turn to dust,

a flick of cells I must

for all the above I’m not-

HRios

“I don’t know what keeps me mingled—
in excitement and grief.
I know no name of this fire I burn in—
but only that it is and I am.”
― Rafy Rohaan