Darkness-in-light poems

[dichroic]

These were written in 2009, but apparently I never published them here, so this is a post-dated (pre-dated?) entry actually written in 2012.

a winter’s hope

Wrapped in flannel, wool and fleece
a cup of tea to warm my hand
I sit, contented and at peace.

A cozy evening’s reading planned
yet I look up to hear the news –
disaster in a foreign land,

too many closer who may lose
a home or job this year, and still
the ones with power cannot choose

the wording in the latest bill
to bring the ship of state to port.
In my snug room, I feel a chill -

Will this sweet world be torn apart?
I nurture, still, a hope for light:
a focused beam from allied hearts,

to make the way clear to our sight -
so all find shelter from the night.
pkb, 12/31/2009

night change

My menorah is not a pretty thing -
an improvised row of cheap votives
(votives – how ironic)
lined up, eight plus one, in their
cheaper metal holders.

Yet their fire redeems even this -
(redemption – even here, can’t I
escape the Christian imagery?)
when the candles are kindled
and flames dance, there is beauty.

My city is like this
(my city, in which they make me dress
as Santa Claus, because
isn’t that what all Americans do?)
Ugly and blocky during the day,
it kindles into beauty with the night
when time comes again to light
the only Chanukiah in Taipei.
pkb, 12/18/2009

Mirrored from Dichroic Reflections.