Category Archives: Poetry

mars (poem)

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welcome to the red hot planet

where the lights dance with wild abandon

like the girls on the ledge

and writhing figures on the floor

step to the wild beat of drums

like a primitive ritual dance

where dancers in costumes gyrate

passionately

or listlessly (or lifelessly?)

under multicolored flashes

sometimes white

are they paying homage to the screen

where more figures writhe

silently screaming at them?

welcome to the red hot planet

where pale faces

accented by garish paint

more garish in the dancing lights

scream at each other

yet can’t be heard over the wailing

and the drum beats

and the priestesses in black

(against white flesh

made paler by the lights)

offer themselves to the screen goddess

while satyrs dressed like men

try to catch them

is this the new world

the space age

where men go when earth dies?

i’d rather stay on earth.

 

© Cindy Lapeña, 2012

 

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moscow (poem)

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i always thought that tanks

were heavy artillery

meant to fight other tanks

or planes

or other armored vehicles

not people

i guess it’s true

that they’re not meant for people

because it seems

people can stop them

after all.

 

© Cindy Lapeña, 2012

 

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tiananmen square revisited (poem)

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i was not there in tiananmen square

not in nineteen hundred and eighty nine

i remember

a huge square

and huge square buildings

and a long red wall

with a portrait of mao

i remember a monolith

a statue

(maybe it was somewhere else?)

i remember smartly dressed guards

around the statue

and we climbed it to take pictures

and they couldn’t stop us

because we were tourists

who didn’t know any better

i remember some hotdog-like stand

and people in blue and white and brown and black and grey

walking around

staring at us

because we were in tight denim jeans

and tucked in tee shirts

and high heels

and they were in pajamas

i can still see the flat stones

covering the square

square stones laid end to end

and side to side

hundreds of them

a greying white in the sunlight

when i try to see the squares now

i see thousands of heads

not squares

and people in blue and white and brown and black and grey

and red

and when i look again

the stones there are

greyish white in the sunlight

some blotched it seems

with brown that might have been red

but still square stones

laid end to end

and side to side

hundreds of them

and no different from each other.

 

© Cindy Lapeña, 2012

 

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war (poem)

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when little boys fight

they kick and push

and pull each other’s hair out

and scream at each other

threatening to call their older brothers

or their fathers

or their mothers

and they promise each other

they’ll never talk again

never play

never share their toys

or secrets

or the little pond in the backyard

or the little frog they caught

or the nice shiny stones they’ve collected

when big men fight (or are they little, like boys?)

they kick and push other men

who can’t kick and push back

because they’re littler than the big men fighting

and they don’t pull hairs

they pull triggers

and they scream at each other silently

through microphones and cameras

and in the newspapers

and they threaten to call down the wrath of God

or Allah

or whoever else is stronger than any of them

and they promise never to talk to each other again

or share their guns and tanks and planes

or secrets

or the little black pools that spout into the air

or the little submarines floating there somewhere

or the shiny yellow stones they’ve collected.

© Cindy Lapeña, 2012

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Sonnet: To the One I Love

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No precious metal on this earth e’er found

Can bind the hearts of lovers; never will

The mighty oak stand closer to the ground

Nor seasons changing ever yet stand still;

No summer love eternal e’er stood fast:

Like cryst’line snow it trickles down with time;

Tho’ many try in vain to make time last,

All snowflakes cling to glass and turn to rime.

‘Tis wedded bliss they say that tightly binds

Two lovers’ hearts; but all too soon, alas

They break apart; each lover erstwhile finds

That wedded bliss has all but come to pass.

Ethereal tho’ my love may seem to you,

Defy all time, I will, to prove it true.

 

© Cindy Lapeña, 2012

 

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Sea Song (poem)

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i sit listening to the sea as it sighs

echoing and moaning with mournful cries

i sit watching the sea as it washes the shore

in the same endless rhythm as ever before

i sit watching the sea as it comes rolling in

with white-crested surges that dance and sing

i sit watching a saga of slow song and dance

an unfolding tale of ageless romance

i sit listening to the sea and its song

and i find without knowing, i am singing along.

 

© Cindy Lapeña, 2012

 

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dreaming (poem)

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sitting in the shadows of my room

it isn’t dark at all

by myself i really am not

alone it seems

soft music engulfs me and

thoughts permeate the silence and

you engulf my thoughts

i hear your whispers

all night my dreams are you

and days too

are dreams

i wonder

perhaps too much

that life is all a dream

and then i wish

i’d never wake

 

© Cindy Lapeña, 2012

 

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Mirror (poem)

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i see you

or is it me i see?

i hear you talk

and it sounds like me

or am i merely echoing you

or is it you echoing me?

we can stand together and

but one shadow falls

it’s strange

there’s two of us, you know

and yet there’s only one.

 

© Cindy Lapeña, 2012

 

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between hello and goodbye (poem)

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what comes between hello and goodbye?

what comes after now before then?

how long is it between tonight and tomorrow

or are there any tomorrows?

how much farther is there to go

between two points when they are near;

and how near is near

or far is far

between two points so far

and if they are just so far

then is it really near?

 

© Cindy Lapeña, 2012

 

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shadows (ii) (poem)

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standing between two lampposts

is difficult

you don’t know where your shadow falls

grey shadows overlapping

you can’t tell which one

is really yours

or from which lamp it came

but you know it comes from both.

 

© Cindy Lapeña, 2012

 

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