Ever a Child

I’m no longer a child: I’ve been a child all my days

When I wailed and cooed at mother’s breast

Demanding milk, seeking warmth

When I stamped feet and cried tear buckets

To force submission, meaning to manipulate

Or blithely forgetful in failure, awaiting another way

When my dolls breathed and dreams bloomed

Giving wings to thoughts sweet and wild

When my eyes moistened at tales of glory

And heart swelled with pride for Motherland

When I loved smell of roses, flirted with breezes

Flying to castles and vikings on seas

When I believed in Prince Charming and white steed

And waited for touch of lips to rouse my slumber

When Sun rose and set at glances from a lover's eyes

When heart fluttered and blood sang songs of ecstasy

When eyes shut to naked truth, I burrowed deep rabbit-like

When heart break came and days numbered, I clung

When hair grew gray and eyesight dimmed 

I know I’m no child now, but am still that hungry child at play 

Song of Life

When winds change

When storms blow

When shadows grow long

Look up at the sky

Look up to the stars

And you’ll find where you are.

When leaves sprout

When flowers bloom

When weather turns fine

Look down at your feet

Look deep in the earth

And your roots you'll reach..

When days drag

When nights chill

When life becomes a bar

Look in your heart

Look for your path

And you’ll reach your hearth.

Call to the Mother

Mother, what brings you home this year?

Do you come with hope, or in fear?

They’ve bound us on four sides

If we transgress no place to hide

You’ve come and gone as we endured

They grew bold, more space they gained

This time will we see them slain?

The lot beheaded, freed from pain:

Or one more useless battle fought

With words, rhetoric and froth

Lip service all- posturing galore

Each an eye wash, nothing more.

Mother, you come every year

Promising to wipe our tears

In pomp, grandeur revelry is lost

Your pristine presence, we pay the cost

Our tortured bodies they discard

Game over, like a deck of cards

We live on with mutilated minds

Searching for home we never find.

This time let's do something new

With drum beats welcome another You

That roaring lion in our mind

Your presence in us we will find

Then battle ground we'll extend

Hearth to hearts that spew pretense

Together we'll slay demons wild

Those that roam and those that hide.