As I clutched the lower reaches of an elm tree

As I clutched the lower

Reaches of an elm tree

This October eve

Recalling for a wink

The olive-green

Dreams of the springs

Of the kid in me

I looked askance

At the sickly leaves

And through the breeze

They whispered back to me:

“Do you chance to know

Where we’ve erred

To deserve to wither

And lose our vigor

And go so early!”

Ali H. Raddaoui

Time Pegs from the Coconut Kingdom

At times

When the time canvas

On which I sketch the times

Is torn between

The time at which I planted

The first coconut tree

And the next one

That should have been planted…

And hangs loose,

Then I scatter seeds

From past crops

Of the coconut tree

And spray them

With syllabary stored

From the time of first planting.

Then the canvas gets tight

And steady

And resists the wear and tear

Of fading

Time.