Poetry from Karen D’Antona

Talkin’ to my Son

 

Talkin’ to my son today, he all weird’d me out/

When we was done, I didn’t know if I should cry, scream, or shout/

 

He’s says he wants to move to Brooklyn, with no job or plan/

But he needs a car, ‘cause he’s a young man/

 

I says how much does an apartment cost/

He say two thousand grand/

 

He’s only fourteen/

God, how do I make him understand/

 

You don’t move to Brooklyn/

With no job or plan/

 

He’s only fourteen/

God, please give me a plan/

 

A fourteen year old/

Is not yet a young man/

 

Now don’t get me wrong/

It’s not what you think/

 

I want you to follow your dreams son/

Do what you think/

 

But son, if you make one wrong move/

It could be over in a blink/

 

I thought writin’ rap would be fun/

But this really stinks/

 

It’s four a clock in the morning/

He’s restin’ in bed/

 

I am sitttin’ at this computer/

Bangin’ my head/

 

At least I know he’s safe right now/

God, please look over him/

 

He’s only fourteen/

Not yet a young man/

Poetry from Vijay Nair

Vijay Nair

Vijay Nair

The Candle

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tallow wax in slender

Rare corpulent in shapes

Peppy she a burning bright

The way of spreading light

Her moments are in delight

Never knew the plight

Grief no for the life span

Brief than an hour;

Her fleeting existence

Is no one’s concern

Since, she melts to cast the shadow,

To show her celestial beauty

Before she dies without sorrow

Poetry from Joan Beebe

 
VACATIONS

I think we all look forward to that

Break in our daily routine, whether

We work or we are at home.

In this busy world of rushing back and forth

Our dreams of fun and relaxation take over.

We browse through travel brochures and

The urge to leave our cares becomes stronger

 as picturesque thoughts take flight

 and our imagination soars.

Waving palm trees, glittering white sand,

Soft and soothing.

The ocean sparkles with the rays of the sun

Reflecting the beauty of the ocean rippled

With colors of azure blue and shadowy green.

Nature has brought peacefulness to one’s mind

And the stresses are carried away on the

Poignant sea wind.

Poetry from Mahbub

The Torture and Death You Brought About

 

They are the Rohingyas

They are the Muslims

They live in Rakhine of Myanmar

You, the armed forces,

You, the angry mobs and the hungry Buddhists

What have you made to do such monstrosities?

I hear the sound of cries and pains still now floating on the wind

I can still see the sight of torture and death on the screen

I can see the fully naked women tightly tied in a tree with ropes

The screaming, howling and growling with pain touches my heart

Sinks into darkness

Animals have also the rules to prey

More furious than they living in the darkness of forest or jungles

You, the killers play the role of demons

When I see the cutting of legs and hands of a living woman

Before blowing the knife on her throat and separating her head

Keep it on her hip

My eyes lose its power to see any more

When I see a man sitting on a stone fixing his hands and legs

Standing three with their black head from back

Suddenly started to blow the knife on his throat

Separating his body from head leave the track with the head

Numbs my body in the silent morning after rising the sun

When I see the boys and girls are mangled

with the axes in their mouths and foreheads

Immediately the land is flooded with blood

How can I keep my eyes open to the blue and rainbow sky?

When I see the children are held hard and beaten with sticks and rods

And shoot and cut the bodies and hung to the wall

How can I take my breath?

When I see the human bodies are lying on the ground

And the armed forces and mobs are beating and chopping them to death

How can I sound any more?

When I see the young official play with a young lady in the jeep

And tear her breast and vagina with weapons

Laying her flat on the road jump on her body

How can the world be silent?

When I see the live persons are burned to death by petrol

Pouring on their bodies

How should the green be the green?

When the houses are burning with the dark smoke

And the people are running to escape themselves

People of all ages; children, young and the old

Rush to Bangladesh crossing the river Naf

The water of the river has been red, the red blood

It is groaning with rage

Hundreds and thousands of dead bodies are floating on the river

The Rakhine land has already been cultivated with the seeds in this way

the so many silent dead bodies

Genocide! Overcomes all the savagery in the history of the world

O Aung San Suu Kyi, what will be your answer before our Creator

When along with them you will again open your eyes

to the Judgment’s day?

Would it be able to save you your prestigious certificate?

The Nobel Peace Prize?

Does it bear any more the honor you achieved?

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Poetry by Neil Ellman

Dragon Knows Dragon

(after the painting by Shiryu Morita)

Ryu_chi_Ryu_(Dragon_Knows_Dragon)_by_Morita_Shiryū

 

 

 

 

 

 

Only a dragon knows another like itself

the brutal heart of it

beating to the rhythm of the same taiko

and sharing vengeful memories of villages

pillaged, burned and laid to ground.

 

Each can see in each other’s eyes

a murderous intent

and knows the purpose of their tongues

and flaming breath

red with the malevolence of their resolve.

 

A dragon knows another

as it knows itself

a soldier fighting for its kind

with its sword and lashing tail

like a flag

caught in the winds of war.

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