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Thursday, March 29, 2012

A moment

I take a long walk today
on a brick path along a street, busy with early evening errands:
mothers walk children home from school,
fathers pick up cigarettes on their way home from the office,
grandmothers usher diaperless toddlers in split pants, bare baby butts abound.
This is my new home called China,
where silent electric scooters fill the streets,
except for all this honking -
a defensive measure against swervitude -
and fruit vendors hack up pineapples
with tiny machetes
into intricate, alluring designs.
There is a slight breeze as the sun inches toward the horizon
and the evening is cooling. I am walking
into the breeze, into the sun
and I can't help but smile to myself,
to everyone passing by.

"All we have is now."
To hear these words is one thing,
to say these words is another,
but to know the truth of these words at the core
is something else
that melts away yesterday and tomorrow
as if they have never, will never
be.

A woman walks by with her tiny dog.
A mother walks by with her tiny child.
And all of us realize, in this moment of smiles and laughter,
that cutie-wootie-patootie noises are vibrations
fused to our DNA.

A poetry prompt from Theme Thursday

11 comments:

  1. Is this poem by you? It's really good and really give me the feel for China. By the way, I have a few sentences about Hainan in the end of my novel. Are you familiar with the tall statue of Guanyin in Hainan?

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  2. Thank you, Giora. Yes, this poem is by me, I wrote it after seeing the Theme Thursday blog prompt. I haven't seen the statue yet...where is it in Hainan? I live in the center of Haikou.

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  3. It's called "Guan Yin of trhe South Sea". It's on the south side of Hainan , near the Nanshan Temple of Sanya.

    www.nanshan.com/en/sightseeing/hsgv.html


    I guess it isn't close to Haikou. But it looks impressive. Youmight want to visit it.

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  4. An everyday moment described very vividly.

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  5. Great poem that totally made me feel like I was taking that walk with you. I guess we never think about other countries possibly not having disposal diapers. We just seem to accept it as the norm. Thank you for sharing something important with us.

    Happy Theme Thursday. Thanks so much for sharing this poem with us.

    God bless.

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  6. Thank you so much for stopping by to read and comment. I am new to the poetry blog community and have been reading your blogs and love them. Thank you for sharing your writing!

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  7. Very nice work. You have indeed captured the moment.

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    1. Thank you, Kris, and thank you for stopping by!

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  8. I enjoyed this very much! I could easily visualize the scene, the moment. Some things are universal, aren't they?

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    1. Thank you, Denise! Yes, I agree...every day here is a new experience in universal things...making me realize more of our similarities than our differences. Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

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