1. After chaos
Gaia lies wide awake
Her head upon the brown, bare rocks-
the sad Ouria
devoid of graceful nymphs.
Her thoughts amble
between the starry sky
and the hopelessness
of the deep blue,
lost in the blemished count
of her off spring
brought forth by will
or sin
The old woman sits on a mat
woven by her nimble fingers
when the olive tree
still handed out fruits
She watches the dark shadow
gather in strength,
scoop up the burning
desert sand
Spread it with black hands
upon the adamantine sky
She watches with vision
beyond her hundred years-
a feminine hand
snatch up a great sickle
from the flying sand..
Gaia spreads her wet locks
drenched with blood
and tears of her progeny,
to dry in the golden flames
while the infant gods
continued to war among themselves
upon her succulent breasts
The old woman watches
as her daughters
dig up the tapioca
for the evening spread,
their green hands
watering the newly-planted ones
and Gaia drinks thirstily
A few pomegranate seeds
escape from the hunger reinforced jaws
onto the ground,
her soul trembles with age
while a druid inside the red seeds
bursts into an ancient pagan song
Zeus smiles
as benevolently as ever
at the sensuous forms
cloistered in the courtyard,
in the sandstorm- lashed cavities
of weary, fertile wombs
Gaia and the old woman too smile
as a black axe cloud engulfs the sun
2. When time walked away
A cold silence reigns over the house
Water trickles down a roof slope
No fingers play with the shattering drops
A lifeless climber sprawls at its own feet
like dust settling into old picture frames
Little bells remain suspended in silent harmony
no longer nudged to pass on fervent prayers
The room remembers its lone prisoner
-a voice that shrunk into a face on its wall
Faded linen shreds itself on mahogany
The clock has washed its hands
off days and nights
Windows stare through cracks in their frosted glass
no bits of sky left in their memories
Someone would have been moved to write a poem
by these absences once
had he too not been removed from the pages
by passing time
________________________________________________________________
Reena Prasad is a poet from India, now based in Sharjah. She has several poems in English anthology collections published by Xpress Publications and Poets Corner, in eight anthologies by Barry Mowles and eight of Brian Wrixon’s anthologies, in online jounals: Carty’s Poetry Journal, Indian Ruminations, Indian Review, and in online magazines such as Youth Ki Awaaz. Angle Journal carries 2 of her poems in the Spring/Summer issue. Her poems have found place among the winning entries in contests by Writer’s Cafe, Ekphrasis India and Poets Corner. Forthcoming are some poems in the Nomadic Voices Magazine and First Literary Review-East.
