Auden

Your words flow like
A citrine drizzle of
Sweetest honey
And like honey
I want to taste them
One

Drop

At a time

Forever

I will remember this moment
Forever
Sitting on the cement steps
Looking at "my" dog
Not really mine at all
Though we both seem to think so

The yellow pom-pom tree
(Ill-knowing the fate that will befall it
When the typhoon comes in two weeks)
Stands
A scenic backdrop
For my nostalgic bliss

I may be leaving soon
Never to return
For all I know
But this frozen moment
This precious
Crystalline droplet of time
I will remember
Forever

Beggarman

Ragged he was in his tattered grey
With a real hunchback
Rattling his cup
And crying out those ubiquitous words
"One dolla!"
"One dolla!"

I beseeched my mother
And she handed over the chunky
Silver coins
Two or three

His smile
Toothless yet brilliant
Delighted me and I pled for more until
My mother
Confronted twice over with beggars
Assented

When the cup had clanked seven
Or was it nine times?
I'm not sure who was happier
Myself
Or the beggarman

And now
I look back across the years
And shake my head.

There's one born every minute