Designer Bag

10/05/201325/05/2019 ~ poolsidelaureate ~ 1 Comment

It’s the fishnet stockings. I always try to figure out if there’s some message that they’re intended to convey. This morning, it was someone waiting for the bus. Black fishnets, not particularly sexy old black shoes. A non-descript dark knee length skirt. Holding a Louis Vuitton logo tote bag. And then she turned around. A unhappy wrinkled face, a cheap cotton foulard, and OMG, faint pink streaks in her partially fading blonde over grey dye job. This was in a higher income neighborhood, she was obviously not a homeless person. Just someone who seemed to have given up. And the first line came to me:

The remains of a well-kept wife walked by me yesterday. Her dye job has been slipping, since her husband ran away. Her bag is still designer brand. Authentic (I can tell). Too bad the plastic surgery Did not hold up as well.

The red plaid pants

12/12/201225/05/2019 ~ poolsidelaureate ~ 1 Comment

Treasures. This city’s sidewalks are full of treasures. He was impossible to ignore as I walked past him this morning. Barcelona has a silent dress code that makes anyone who transgresses it suspicious.

The gentleman in red plaid pants

The gentleman in red plaid pants stands waiting at the light. I wonder if he's dressed for day, or if those are from last night? A younger man approaches him, and whispers in his ear. Hand in hand, they walk away. I watch them disappear. Too soon to draw conclusions, unless you factor in the fact his absence is so short, and it happens all again.

Rain come down

07/12/201225/05/2019 ~ poolsidelaureate ~ Leave a comment

As I mentioned in the previous post, rain is infrequent enough in Barcelona so that you really notice the difference. There are some beautiful gardens I pass every morning just before I arrive at the office. They have olive trees, pampas grass, and very healthy hedges to separate them from the sidewalk. And on the first rainy morning in a long while, I noticed that the hedges were animated! They had all their leaves reaching upward and looked like they had grown taller overnight. They looked happy! and that gave me this poem.

Rain

Look at how the plants reach out
to drink the welcome rain!
I envy them their simple life
that passes without pain.

Their leaves, like hands,
lift in delight.
They do not ask for much.
I wish my life were more like theirs –
to be content with such
a thoughtless gift come from the sky –
to simply live, and easy die.

Change of season

07/12/201225/05/2019 ~ poolsidelaureate ~ 1 Comment

Two striking things happened in Barcelona last week: it rained, and then it got cold. We’re talking hats, scarves, gloves, and boots. So it’s kind of ironic that I wrote this poem last week, inspired by a house I passed on my walk home from work.

Bougainvillea on a whitewashed wall

Bougainvillea on a whitewashed wall, hibiscus in November. It doesn't really look like fall, at least not like I remember.

Where I come from, it used to rain, cold wind would rake the sky. One day you'd take a look outside, and trees had turned to fire.

Such beauty there, such beauty here, I try to love it all. Eternal summer has its charm, but I really miss the fall.

Bird watching

17/10/201225/05/2019 ~ poolsidelaureate ~ Leave a comment

I pass him every morning, and one day finally stopped to LOOK at him. I found his perfection moving, and at the same time was disturbed by these thoughts:

Wings raised

Wings raised, the noble predator
will never know release
(unless some cataclism come,
to set free every beast.)

Untried, the females of his kind,
no nest was ever his.
He guards a garden and a house,
for him, that’s all there is.

I wonder if he chafes within.
Can iron have a heart?
It’s my suspicion that he does.

How cruel of Vulcan’s art
to freeze him there on someone’s fence
before he could depart!

City walker

27/09/201225/05/2019 ~ poolsidelaureate ~ 2 Comments

Back after a long summer break. Walking to work again. Since I get lost in my thoughts as I walk, I’m known for tripping (not that kind!) and occasionally taking a glorious fall, garnering lots of attention and immediate sympathy from any old people near me. So intermittently I have to remind myself to “walk consciously”, “be in the moment”, pay attention to where I am and the fact that I’m in motion and not to disconnect from my feet! Once again, this poem is an ode to my city, Barcelona.

City walker

Walk consciously, and keep your gaze
fixed on the path ahead.
Discreetly dodge the dog shit
and any pigeons lying dead
upon the sidewalk that you cherish.
Keep on walking every day.

A city has its faults and flaws,
and some have history.
This one is built on Roman stones,
has two mountains and a sea.

The sidewalk bears an artist’s stamp.
Another artist draws
with wind and leaves and cast off flowers,
an ephemeral collage.

Such beauty more than compensates
for anything I dodge.

Unknown Disorder

04/08/201225/05/2019 ~ poolsidelaureate ~ 1 Comment

One morning on the way to the office I saw a banner hanging from a lamp post that said: Unknown Disorder. It made me think of the way I am filled with poetry as I walk… and suddenly I was back in a highschool English class learning the names of figures of speech.

Unknown Disorder

I have an unknown disorder,
a type of poetry.
Susceptible to metaphor,
sometimes, synecdoche.

A simile can be an axe,
but with a sharper blade.
Who takes the part to mean the whole
by words may be betrayed.

A hand in marriage does not mean
a heart and soul for life.
Nor “silver sails all out of the west”
prove ships are just in sight.

The sweetest words need grains of salt;
Don’t take them literally.
Be on your guard for metaphor
and shun synecdoche!