Tag: Writer

War by night

Moon shone a light upon the silence
Of a countryside night like many others,
People cuddling their beloveds under
The shelter of welcoming cosy abodes.

Seated on a comfortable handmade sofa
Creation of her father a little eight year old
Heeds the anchorman’s tone as he presents
His fellow reporter leaving him the floor.

Using the blue tartan rug as a shield before
Her eyes the squinting child innocently asked
Her mother, ‘Where is this happening, mummy?’
‘In a country named Syria.’ replied the loving woman

Dreading where the conversation might take
Them yet unwilling to hide the truth from her
Daughter. ‘Do they kill each other for real?’
Questioned the girl as she usually did when

Watching people die in movies. ‘Yes, my love.’
Answered the adult ashamed to confess
The atrocities of which mankind is capable.
The girl went quiet and reflected for a couple

Of minutes more. ‘Does the war take place also
at night?’ she finally enquired. Endeared and surprised
By the bizarre question the mother reluctantly explained,
‘Yes, my dear, it never stops.’ With a sad look

On her face the girl went quiet for the rest
Of the night motionless on the edge. She usually went
In the arms of one of her parents after the news.
This time she did not.

[Featured artwork: Gala Mirissa 7 by Syrian artist Omar Delawer]

by aurorakastanias

As I wait

As I wait for our encounter I listen
To the rain outside pouring over green
Gardens effusing scents of wet grass
Mimosa orchids roses toxic oleander

Anticipating the feel of your warmth
Reminiscing the bewilderment of my lips
Shivering under the tender passion of your kiss
Whilst my mind obfuscated I realised

How many I had wasted on others unable
To convey a sentiment they could not feel
Mechanically twirling tongues in mouths
As if delving in search of something

Insignificant, I am unwilling to give
Even less so to take. I wonder
If I will feel the same thrill when you’ll return
From your exotic voyage how you will greet

Me and my body at the disposal of your intentions
Inviting you to apply the grace of your mastery

On me.

[Featured artwork: Title and artist unknown]

by aurorakastanias

Unifying beauty

She seldomly came out of her abode
Her innate extroversion long caught
In the contorted nets of people’s personality,

Human condition of earthly perditions
Questions of marvel brutally answered
By a succession of experiences revealing harsh truths.

Yet with distance came deeper observation
A reflection in touch with intuitive sensations
Something engendered in the guts of spirit

Suggesting a glorious beauty to be found
When looking beyond the ability of sight.

And so she gazed at her surroundings
Emerald fields yielding crops of abundance
Blossoming shapes and colours of fascination

Motion orchestrated by winds as birds sing
A soothing melody of endless hope.

Like a mammal awakening from hibernation
She walked to the sapphire lake to rekindle
Amongst her kind wallowing in waters of delicacy

Caressed by the enveloping warmth of a mighty star.

Overwhelmed by an impulsive sense of love
She saw herself in each and everyone
Ineluctably recognising the unifying beauty

Of their fragile nature, enduring strength
And winsome vulnerability.

[Featured photograph: Weeki Wachee, Florida by Toni Frissell, 1947]

by aurorakastanias

Blissful Idleness

Time slows down when fatigue overthrows
Intentions lost in chaos of frantic surroundings,
As all spins and twirls energies in motion
Uncountable directions countless choices,

Surprising outcomes in a world of possibilities.
Roaring planes and trains iron colossi carrying
People towards destinations, to meet others
Get things done escape, search for something else

Elsewhere, speeding through streets and avenues
Clogged by jams, traffic lights directing pace
White rabbits screaming they are late,
While phones ring the beginning of a new day

Church bells are silenced not to disturb
Nor endure the humiliation of not being heard,
Roller shatters as curtains on a stage
Pulled up to open businesses, greet an eager public

Creating crowds blending odours, the tram is delayed
My intentions fade, heat corrupts the mind,
Teases it with promises of soothing taste,
A cold beer a reclining chair midst a garden under

The caress, of a delicate cool breeze
Indulging in blissful idleness.

[Featured painting: Sweet Doing Nothing by John William Godward]

by aurorakastanias

My talent my flaw

A familiar aftertaste I chanced upon once more
Roused my alert commanding me, to swiftly escape.

In the opposite direction fast and far
Evoking poisons I ingested thrice before.

Survival a mere benison of my purity.

Though my mind and spirit often dwell
This time I ineluctably recognise the recurring signs,

As the world appears to be revolving
Solely around him leaving me, outside.

A magic of his doing as he masterfully neglects
The existence of myriad creatures except his,

Flaunting highlights of his character the zeniths
Of his life, as he desperately seeks to hide

What he hates about himself.

An improvised narcissism imbued with egocentrism
Flouting others to feel better about himself.

A clumsy extroversion concealing
A need for recognition to which I perversely respond.

There is my flaw! With sophisticated compliments
I praise his intelligence, a sensibility, sham compassion,

Give him my time, inundate him with tender emotions,
For he likes feeling loved yet hardly ever believes

He truly is.

What an extraordinary foible I crystallised last night
As I retraced the inclinations of my past lovers.

On this fourth round I finally identify my talent
In making people feel loved.

Impulsively feeding their weaknesses and pride
To the point they start believing,

They adore me in return.

[Featured painting: Entropy of Love by Adam Howie]

by aurorakastanias

A thousand red roses

A thousand red roses drizzling from the skies
Thornless, velvety as snow albeit not cold nor white
Blanket the land with a subtle veil of sudden joy.
Inexplicable euphoria pervading a populace

In dire straits and little hope, Pandora’s box looted
Long before, now all indulge, in bathing in petals
As scents invade beings meld with their lymph
Resuscitating vital energies sparking new-found drives,

As tablets and phones and cars and traffic lights
Prescription drugs and clocks are deeply buried
Under the shame of what they brought we let
Them bring, while we exalted them to gods.

Raising eyes people marvel at the sight
Of countless faces noticing traces, of adventures
Misfortunes, grand oeuvres and failures they recognise
Themselves in others and begin, to speak with each

Other exchange, not a tweet nor a selfie but a story
a joke a smile, a gleam of compassion, a genuine
conversation, between humans instantly feeling better
about themselves, their peers, their brothers, their world,

Re-acknowledging their humanity for an infinite moment,
until days go by and petals dry, slowly fade then disappear
and we exhume the brilliant genius of those inventions
that turned us all into lobotomised undaring mute slaves.

[Featured artwork: Dreamy Rose Field by Dark Hat Design]

by aurorakastanias

Squirrel cheeks

He was famished hunger embodied
To many solely an idea, unempirical concept,
To him a physically painful reality as the groans
Of his stomach became audible to all

Throughout the bar.

Drooling over the glass sandwich counter
Fluttering eyes twitching lips a chicken cutlet
A leaf of salad between two whole grain slices
Of bread enticed his palate awakening instincts.

Three euros and fifty cents he counts the coins
With tangible hope and anticipation until he dares
Timidly catch the bartender’s attention to order
The golden brown feast as he sighs.

Digging in with rotten teeth mastication
Is now the challenge, though he literally bites
Off more than he can chew, he stores pieces
On the sides improvising squirrel cheek pouches,

Grinding as best as he can I ineluctably stare
Cross his regard and smile whilst groans turn
Into pleasure moans of gratitude, to the divine
My guess as he only has himself to thank

For enduring yet another day.

[Featured painting: The Snack Bar by Edward Burra, 1930]

by aurorakastanias

The Accident

Her smile used to be contagious
She ignored how to display sadness
She had been taught not to disturb
Never to be a burden to others.

Through thick and thin she hence beamed
And all were ecstatic, sublimely enthusiastic
Her arrival greeted with joy as she lightened
The rooms she entered saluting everyone,

Regardless of appearances or status quos
All deserved a piece of her or so she thought,
The sweeper the usher the pauper, the bus driver
The sweaty waiter, the peasants the blue and white

Collars, the kings acquaintances and friends,
Hyenas in disguise, singing Hendrix foxy lady
Turned more than a regard, over melodies of Brown
She claimed she was feeling good and oh so well

Hid her desperate moves. It was January
But it was warm, rookie mistake she took
A pill too many listening to R.E.M loosing
Their religion and proved them right,

For everybody hurts and she was but
‘A hurt lost and blinded fool’
No morphine could have ever sufficed
To relieve the profound wounds,

Excruciating pain caused by the harshness,
Of the brutal reality she wanted to ignore.

Featured painting: Boundlessness in bloom by Duy Huynh

by aurorakastanias

Endless metamorphosis

A warm cocoon a womb to mirific opuses
Quiescent chrysalises await their dawn.
Energy constricted in a dot of purity
Infinitely hot and dense dreams liberty.

Unfolding dark canvas conceiving colours
Dynamic space reveals sublime omnificence,
Moulding matter into bewildering creations
Particles recombining to spark abundance.

Swirling spheres of dust igniting fusions
Give birth to myriad elements composing all
That exists within a Universe immense
Ceaselessly transforming to beguile.

Whilst loosing heat an earthly globe
Receives heaven-sent gems of H2O,
Sculpting a land of rarity to evolve,
Into a home. Drops of water a rivulet flows

Down from mountains replenishing oceans
Where atoms coalesce to engender creatures
Of breath, microbes unveiling life an oeuvre
Unfathomable marvels of corporeal substance,

Given time of spiritual essence, witnessing all
In awe to grow, develop, exist as an entity
Of awareness gazing the wondrous spectacle,
Enlightened vibrations mutating shapes

Granted a lifetime an instant in infinity,
A note elegantly orchestrated by nature
The twinkling of an eye encompassing
Multifarious mystifying conceptions,

Of endless metamorphosis.

[Feature painting: Universe by artist unknown]

by aurorakastanias

Indulging in Poison

Nostalgia a bittersweet poison, black potions
As I indulge immersing in pervading liquids
Violently inundating reminiscences and fantasies
Carried by the flow I listen to wisdom melodies

Of Green on matters of Love and Happiness
Nineteen seventy two the texture of fading squid
Ink colouring my skin with shades of memories
Of others bequeathed upon me by the elders

Anecdotes and history of a past when candles
Were blown by electricity neighing horses traded
In for roaring engines wheels of wood turned
Into synthetic rubber tyres humanity fitting

In a box of sounds and colours when reaching
The moon was but a dream and wars appalled
More than a few, collective movements exhibiting
Last drops of antidote solidarity clinging

Onto the drying rivers of hope before streaming
On ethereal worldwide webs of flimsy substance.
Nostalgia for a time I have not lived yet recognise
Longing to return while gazing at the runway

Afore me destination Future I know,
I should forget relinquish my luggage still held
Hostage at the lost and found in the enticing
Terminal of ephemeral epochs gone by

And long gone.

[Featured painting: The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dalí, 1954]

by aurorakastanias