September 2020

6th September

We’ve lost your rhythm,
September, but keep flying,
blind in changing skies,

like migrating birds,
on their way to their winters:
Reading the north wind,

praying to the south,
the elders in the front line,
youngsters right behind.

May we find our way.

————

9th September

The blackbirds have stopped
singing and nights are falling
silent and lonely.

Our lines disappear
on paper, on low horizons,
on faces and palms.

We‘re home but still gone,
unmapped landscapes of habit,
frightened but eager

to find new landmarks.

————-

12th September

Dusk without blackbirds.
Their fatigue after the long
summer saddens us,

leaves our nights naked.
There’s still warmth and green, but not
their sound of promise.

Oh how we ignored
this summer had no future,
stone on stone our wish,

ignorance our sin.

————

19th September

Unnoticed the leaves
keep falling softly in light
they no more reflect.

Like someone dying
of thirst in the sea, they faint
and go down, down, down.

Sometimes the wind saves
one on the top of a bush,
or a plastic bin,

they are not picky.

————-

23rd September

Last day of summer,
so they say and there are signs:
the clouds gathering

like vultures around
a dying deer; crazy wasps
invade our kitchens,

for a last sweet drink;
people sitting in gardens
even as the rain

starts falling. Who cares?

————

25th September

Leaves fly like letters
unwilling to reach addressees
with depressing news.

The world is too loud,
sinking boats, burning mountains,
where sunsets were due.

But as the pen slides
on the paper, old habits
of promise appear.

Friend, hang on in there.

——————

29th September

The sparrows gathered,
in groups and started flying
from the hibiscus

to the lilac bush,
maybe empathic for those
who must now migrate.

They flattered their wings
with great passion, competed
for the best places,

a shrill goodbye choir.

—————-

30th September

Will life as we knew
it ever come back? Will we
learn to remember?

I sat with my friend
on a bench, her son, my son
have birthdays to come.

The evening was mild,
she and I had been children
in a mighty world,

one not looking back.

————-