RANDOM HANDSHAKES - ALI H. RADDAOUI

Saturday, May 12, 2018

FOREST FIRE


Like sap oozing through the strictures

Of green offshoots to burgeon here and there

Into flower, foliage or Fruit,

Wild fire sweeps through crannies of the jungle

To quench thirst of a richly textured

Soil crying for cleansing every once in a while.



Long before the daises are pushed up

Let there be shuddering and cleansing

For a daisy is a daisy for but half a day

Fire is then a mere footnote

In the dog-eared records

Of some long-gone socio-sylvan historian



Ali H. Raddaoui

THE SHAMAL WIND RUFFLES THE LEAVES

The Shamal Wind ruffles the leaves
Of this one palm tree
Gives it a rest and curls on to the next
And the trees and the shrub
And the grass underneath
All sing to the wind
And the winds swings them
To the rhythm of the song
But the wind when it whirls
Doesn't just swing the trees
The fact is that the grove as a mass
Does some more than submit
To the whims of the Wind
It in turn sways the Wind
and has Him recast His course
Through divers sylvan wafts.
Think of it - They do not sing out at will
Nor does He roam out of will.

I sat through this spring day
Under a Najd palm tree
I sang through the Wind
And the Wind sang through me
And through the Najd palm trees.

Ali H. Raddaoui

Wednesday, May 9, 2018

IT AIN'T AS COLD AS YOU'VE BEEN TOLD

On the other side of the hedge
It ain’t as cold as you’ve been told
Shrubs chirp
Thrushes hum
Grass grows, comes and goes
Olive groves at this time
lie low with their goods
Ants and antelopes
Tread along with the two-legged
On the sidewalk
Not in a hurry to stockpile
And report
By the hour, every hour
Or clock out of the shop
And go home
Cook an omelet
And eat online
With a chance acquaintance
Whose friendship you transacted
The other evening
On the commute home.
On the other side of the hedge
There is reason to believe
This season will be back
The tide ebbs and flows
Underground water shrinks
And restocks
Regrets to walk back
A memory of time too far gone
To come back.
Altitudes, pyramids
Hierarchies and mountain tops
Recalibrate
And water, untroubled,
Passes beneath the bridge.

Ali H. Raddaoui