Chronology in a New Town

A grey dog gaits past
The town’s pool water
Muddied by pigs…

The whirlwind spins dry leaves
Of a tamarind tree & wilted petals
Past shattered timbers
Around an empty bottle
Of Pilsner beer…

Seated in bamboo shack,
I look at the eucalyptus trees
++ In front of me
& my sight leaves them
As eucalyptus trees.

———–

A Bell

Standing in front of a trough
Half-filled with water,
& the spongy green algae
Floating above the water
Darkened by mud,
He sings a song in praise of the cockerel
He bought last year, and a new bell
For his white heifer.
He repeats the part about the sharp ring
Of his bell.
When he stops singing,
He uproots one of the green tufts of grass,
Growing in the middle of the trough.

———–

I Did Not Bite the Night

Boneless darkness.
All the sweet stars in me are the reason
You were filled and I felt twilight.

Like a bloodless mirage,
I unremembered everything,

From the jingle of cowbells in the rain
When cows return from grazing,

The search for a singing lark
In the cool plains,
++++++++To nothing.
Like the night with the moon
Fine-tuned down the horizon,
My passion dimmed against
++++++++My grasp,

But I have grown new palms
To let certain things go.
Even things I did not pick up.
Even things that do not exist,

But this is a new kingdom
Where every ache is replaced
++++++++With a ray of sunlight….
And a vast grassland roamed by antelopes
And deer.
———–
Poems: Marial Awendit
Image: Jr Korpa on Unsplash cropped