A solitary raindrop falls
On the neighbor’s rooftop
Echoing on the metal
Like the fragment of the thunderstorm it is.
© Cindy Lapeña, 2012
Category Archives: Poetry
because you are mine (poem)
0maybe i should say goodbye
and maybe i shouldn’t
i could write to you
and tell you everything
i could trace the past for you
and maybe later
much later
you will understand why
you are you and where you are
why you are who you are
and maybe one day
when you feel angry or confused
and you think you might hate me
you won’t
will you still believe me
if i told you
how much i love you
still
as always
and how i never stopped
flesh of my flesh
heart of my heart
be happy where you are
inspite of
all that has passed and all that will
no regrets should tarnish your joy
can you find it in you to forgive me
and love me still
maybe in time
only you will know
maybe in time
maybe you can ease my mind
you can tell me in your time
look at me kindly
only forgive me and
visit on me peace
everything else will
settle down easy if only
you are happy
© Cindy Lapeña, 2012
attic memories (poem)
0maybe it wasn’t really meant to be
as it was wont to be tho’ now and again i
remember once it happened i can barely recollect
reality has a way of fading away
into the past into the dreams like photographs
anyone can see how happy it was perhaps was it a dream too
gathering in the cobwebby corners of attic memories
enveloped in clouds of dust
insipid memoirs of forgotten pasts
somehow surface from bottomless cavernous chests
(never before disturbed)
opening pandora’s mysteries escaping
tiny creatures flitting fleet shadows
echoing echoes of murmurs from murky prints
aspirations caught in time frozen
silenced by the settling dust spiders spinning webs around
you stepping stealthily trying not to stir the memories.
© Cindy Lapeña, 2012
insomnia (poem)
0sleep
quiet sleep
but restless
not quite
so quiet sleep
toss
turn
mumble
stare
not empty eyes
troubled eyes
terror sleep
reach
higher yet
farther yet
what star where
impossibly high
shot out of the sky
winking earthbound
to sleep
© Cindy Lapeña, 2012
speeding down the narrow (poem)
0you race along the narrow way
over cracks and stones and ruts
unmindful of the cracks and stones and
ruts beneath that race along the narrow way
can you see coming
along trailer speeding
racing too
© Cindy Lapeña, 2012
april showers bring summer (poem)
0the crows call on the day
and night turns into
daylight
streaming through windows
chirping
twittering in leaves that
drop in golden showers
april showers strew the ground
golden ground in piles
that brown at night
© Cindy Lapeña, 2012
…and papa was there (poem)
0it was a dark and stormy night
and papa was there
to put me to sleep
i had always wanted to be a girl scout
and everyone’s mommy and daddy
was at the induction
to pin the tiny girl scout pin
and tie the white kerchiefs on
i thought no one would come
and just when they called my name
papa was there
mama brought me to my grade school graduation
but didn’t stay
and somewhere in the middle of it all
as i strained to see the tiny faces in the crowd
papa was there
with his camera and his big almost-smile
and when my tummy hurt
really bad in school and
i had to get an appendectomy
before the anaesthetic got to work
papa was there holding my hand
and his eyes and shining eyeglasses
were the last thing i saw
floating next to the iv bottle
and when i walked down the aisle
papa was there holding me
like a little girl again
and smiling and crying
as i was
and when bianca came into the world
i thought i saw papa at the window
in a green surgical smock and cap
and when i woke up
there was a bag of sweets and cakes
and papa
and when i die
wherever i go i’m quite sure
the first thing i see will be papa.
© Cindy Lapeña, 2012
thunder and lightning and papa (poem)
0i was as proud as a little girl could be
at six
with my very own room
and my very own bed
and my very own closets
and a door i could close
to be alone
until the big storm
when thunder roared
and the lightning
turned the shadow of
our neighbor’s caimito tree
into grotesque arms
swaying and reaching
in the blue-white glow
of the stormy night
and the wind
lashed at the windows
and left an open one
banging
and banging
and banging
i lay awake
crouched under my blankets
trying to shut my eyes
not to see
the monster arms
reaching for me
but they did
and i forgot
how nice it was
to have my very own room
and my very own bed
and my very own closets
and a door i could close
and i screamed
until papa came
and papa stilled
the thunder and lightning
so i could sleep.
© Cindy Lapeña, 2012
scented talc (poem)
2i love
the scented talc
my mother kept forever
in the round can
with orange
swirls of flowers
and a soft fluffy
powder puff
and the yellowing
waxy paper
covering
the yellowish
scented talc
kept for special occasions
she never used
© Cindy Lapeña, 2012
scented soap (poem)
0sifting through my mother’s things
i remember best
the black and white terriers
sitting by an empty pool
that cradled
a bar of scented soap
that broke into waxy chips
each time
i picked it up
to smell what scent
it used to be
© Cindy Lapeña, 2012
Cindy Lapeña: Creativity Unlimited 