5 Short Poems

Hope

Every day, regardless
of the night’s previous
sulks or arguments,

morning climbs into bed
breathless as a child
eager to play.

…..

Liberation

and, once you’ve arrived at the perimeters
of personality
that knot of contradictions, idiosyncrasies
called character

through the hall of mirrors
that comfort and distort

the liberation of undifferentiation
awaits the well-ventilated soul.

……

Circumstances

The mind is full
of elephants and mice
scuffling in corridors

The air is dense
with stray spirits
swarming for soul

Heart like a spider’s web
misstep, and one is caught
carried away, helpless.

Colombia

Here, in Medellin, what night lights –
like a resplendent necklace, glittering
against the bare throat of the mountains

Softly, coming in and out of focus
as though the mountains were breathing
between sharing a tender memory
of the city, with the valley and themselves.

…

The poet

In the park, this morning, a boy
bespectacled, gangly, impish grin
idly chasing a squirrel guarding an acorn –
both proceed in crouches and pounces
Trailing behind them, a man
bespectacled, bearded, bemused
Armed with tell-tale pen and notebook
the poet eavesdrops on youth and life.

©Yahia Lababidi, author of Revolutions.