Tag: Coffee with Ralph

Warp

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sitting alone at a round table desk,
emails are answered, schedules are checked,
and apologies and promises are made
on a metal bodied laptop monitor.

business as usual, the only noise in the air
is one from left corner where two people
snickers at something uneavesdropped.
someone coughs, someone shakes their leg.

Tears dropped from yawning.
As if to brush aside the tears,
I scroll down my iPhone mini
to find a single red dot of a notification.

it was the long waited message.
long waited, it had become a hope,
a dream and a legend, and then
a disappointing reality eventually.
So: “oh.”
the moments we dream seem always wetter
than the arid reality we actually meet.
11.6.2021

Fear

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white luminescent light
brightens this lonely bar stool I occupy
aqua-blue plastic bottle quietly stands
its liquid not wavering a bit

scratching the forehead,
a yellow subcutaneous fat tidbit ticks out
time seems a bit slower in a deafening silence
air circulation of this building just hums

waiting for your turn,
I open my door and walk into darkness.

11.5.2021

Shadow

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there is something sticky in my feet
it drags along the sidestreet
it’s not the smudges of dog feces
it’s not the dried skin leather of mice

it’s like a second layer of skin on my face
like a large red paint on my countenance
that I cannot see for myself
like a fermented smell that permeates

but did you know,
like a sticky gum in your hair,
there’s a trick to rid of its gloominess
either cut the hair for a new look
or get the ice and freeze it for awhile

bright sunny day isn’t too far away
just look up,
it’s right there.

11.4.2021

Pain

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I stopped smoking five years ago
but it’s creeping back into my memory
iron-rust like taste of cigarette tars
lung piercing acidity
is a luring trap against this pain

started chewing on colorful starbursts
it’s saccharine strawberry lemon
that soothes acrid pulses of this pain
but it’s a cookie trail to a slow diabetes
staring out the window of fall sky,
I wonder when this pain will be over.

11.3.2021

Inanimate

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I’ve come to embrace the silence.
Like a silent book on a top shelf
observing the world repeat in
dully peaceful pace,
I watched fireworks
of laughter, anxiety, and confusion.

Is youth a sin?
I saw youthful ones gnawing
at the rice bag sagged like
an old man’s belly, spitting at the sick,
lying through their teeth,
laughing at the ones crying for life.

who is wise anymore?
running from the shadows of pain
of loneliness, of criticisms, of judgment,
are we still making a fool out of ourselves?

11.2.2021

Sword

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live by the sword, die by the sword,
but the karma is a bitch
an eye for an eye, but
to do others as you’d like others do unto you

I had practice the way of the sword,
stabbed and smacking others
with keen words and sharp silences
I thought I had eliminated them
out of my life to face consequences

but the karma is a bitch
and I face torrential flood of silence
and rain of sharp swords
as I kneel down bleeding
from thousands of cuts

thoughts I saw clearer than others
see further into the future
deeper into the soul
but now a sniper has gotten me

haven’t I heard the phrase before?
do to others, as you want others do unto you?
have I been deaf? have I been blind?
yet why do I find myself at the shelf
of judgement, penalized for all I’ve done?

ah
now is the time for silence
and face the consequence
and pray for a providence.

10.31.2021