Magaya

Meet me in Magaya
on the hottest summer day
in your yellow sundress
and fedora straw hat

Let’s cool down
by the windows
watching the ferries
coming into Paros Bay
while sipping Sangria
and Watermelon Agua Fresca

Island Siesta

Pink blossoms whisper to the suntanned mosaic street
without disturbing the cat’s siesta
under the blue and white island breeze

Teleportation

I bottle the sunshine at Trevi Fountain for you
hoping the bitter cold melts at the corner of your mouth
like a child savours a limone gelato

Road Trip

The happy sun, the story telling clouds, the birth pain pink sky were inspiring.

Landscapes pulled me over with their outstretched arms along the highway. I read my book by the cows and sheep sharing their green pasture; I drank by the brooke with rainbow lorikeets; I hid from the storm under sugarcane plantation; I yarned with the locals at the grocery store.

The smell of the artificial ocean air refresher, dark roast coffee, MacDonald’s Happy Meal in the car brought me back to reality.

A road trip made my mind escape into the world outside the car window, some real, some imaginery, the rest was just an uninspired poet trying to make the most of a recent event.

Stormy clouds over Park Beach, Coffs Harbour

恋周庄 (In Love with Venice of The East)

Zhouzhuang, Venice of The East, China

在那里
忘了时间
忘了世界
深深地沉蕴在那里
历史的长河在呼吸间
显得格外亲近
当年诗人的情怀
似乎还如明月般
打动我的心
独醉在傍晚的暮色
情动在深夜里沉眠的水流如镜
薰香唤醒了迷醉的我
炊烟在潮湿的晨雾里推动我的泪
留恋那里与世无争的沉静
正如我默默思念的你

There
time is invalid
the world is far away
soaking in the long river of history
feeling close in one breath

The poets before me touch my heart
like a bright moon
drunk in the evening twilight
mesmerised by the still water
like a mirror reflecting my rest

The incense wakes me up in the morning
Cooking smoke brings on my tears in the moist morning mist
Nostalgia for the peace and quiet there
as I silently miss you

Rome

I only allow myself 
to be half full of Rome
untill nightfall

The ancient streets
are filled with mortal sins
of the modern life

In the shadow of the street lights
I take off my sandals
kneading my heels into the cold cobblestones
pressing my palms on the old walls

Now
I let the saints and ghosts
fill me with the rest
A scarlet rose in my hair
A bronze raven at my feet

Travel Away

The Living Poetry visual prompt

There is something about packing up your bag
to travel away from all things
unresolved, unresolvable, underserving of resolution

There is this escape to
an unknown, unfamiliar, understating place
where your story is new, fresh, mysterious
worthy of all the attention from strangers

The you on a travel trip
is you
is the you never expressed
isn’t you
isn’t the you known most of your lifetime

A plane carries you away
to a land of wonder
only you define it to be
when the troubled waters
flooded home

(Photo by Stephanie Katz)