squirrel collects seeds
in the backyard pumpkin patch
three shattered pumpkins
in front of the clinic
fallen leaves frolic with the breeze
on the still green lawn
perched on the porch rail
witch cackles at Jack-lantern
ghost dances in the tree
burning forest showers ashes
mimicking snowflakes in autumn
owl calls for good magic
window box mums pray
trees hold onto the red leaves
still hopeful autumn
©Byung A. Fallgren
Although healing has taken over a month, the vein surgery is successful. I still have to wear the compression pantyhose for a few weeks more, which takes a painstaking effort. It is so tight that putting it on takes me almost ten minutes. Thanks to the advanced medical technology and doctors, the bulged leg veins and the pains are almost gone!
–Byung A.
Pumpkin, yet to be carved
was me when in the first grade, waiting
for the teacher paints my face for the stage,
heart blooming, wondering,
trepidation,
was me at twenty, when on the airplane,
listening to the silent cry from
deep inside me, an exploring soldier,
bright-eyed,
was me at middle-age, fighting the war
of parental affairs, finance, wading
across the leech infested swamp, only to get
to another one, tenacity,
now, all is in the autumn pumpkin: seeds ripen,
crisp flesh, set aside for the next season, respite
in orange glow, wonder how my friends are doing,
occasional flare of reverie yet letting it all free.
©Byung A. Fallgren
(Here’s another spooky story.)
Sometime ago, my daughter-in-law sent me some videos
with unusual images caught in the surveillance camera installed
at her house. Some photos show ghostlike images flying round
in the dark rooms—they don’t show in the lighted rooms. She and
her friends think it is Jin or Gene. My husband and I think it could be
a video glitch or electric abnormality.
My husband has a night vision camera. He said, one night
he looked through the lens and saw the same ghostlike images
flying around in and outside
my house. He believes that there are electric magnetic field and electricity
are in the air all around us. Is he right? I believe so. What do you think?
What do you think it is that the ghostlike one flies in the dark rooms?
–Byung A.
Faces of Autumn
We reflect myriad colors of faces
we have perceived in the passing season
like a broken mirror does in each
pieces as our leaves turn many hues of
red, gold…
with full of emotion:
disturbed by the voices of stones
those ignore very essence of law of
Nature, being, living, which echoes in
the dew drops of night,
in our red leaves.
She rides in the September sunbeams,
in the smile of brave ones. We cheer the
broken hearts, despaired, which mirrors
in the scent of Mother,
in our golden leaves,
fallen, gather beneath it the ambitious ones,
enrich the ancient beds,
as the young forest-creatures grow and
fatten for the coming winter, as
the trees recite the story of the autumn night.
*
This first appeared in the issue of The Avocet, Fall-2020.
© Byung A. Fallgren
The Weekly Avocet, #408 is here. To read it for free, please click the link below. This will last for a week.
*
My poem Faces of Autumn first appeared in the issue The Avocet, Fall–2020. Thank you Charles for supporting me.
–Byung A.
Believe it or not, prose can be a form of poem, too. It is called
Prose Poetry. Its rule: write like a poem and do not break the line.
Its continuity with no break gives the poem strong feeling.
Prose poem is one of my favorite forms along with Free Verse and
such short poems as Haiku/Senryu, Gogyohka, Severed Seven Lining, etc.
Unlike Prose Poem, Free Verse has line breaks and stanzas.
*
To the new visitors, and sometimes not so new to my site, who
clicked like or follow: I tried to visit you back but unable to do so.
WP says your site does not exist. I know, most of time,
it is WP’s technical error.
—Byung A.
replacement, new puppy
the only thorn is the old cat
she will be gone too
©Byung A. Fallgren
Lady in the Dark Stairway
My law-daughter prays every night
in the room downstairs. She confesses me,
sometimes she sees a lady in a nightgown
in the stairway watches her before vanishing.
To help her not to fear, I tell her true,
‘She’s me. One night, on my way to the bathroom,
I watched you kneeled, bowed, and prayed.’
‘She’s a ghost or Jin, ma,’ she says.
‘There’s no ghost,’ I tell her. ‘Your sixth sense
lets you see me on the step that night.’
‘I don’t believe that, ma.’
‘Okay. She’s your Jin. Don’t fear.’
‘I don’t.’
One night, heading to the bathroom downstairs,
I saw a woman on the step slowly vanishing
into the stream of light. Or, did she? She might be merely
a manifestation of my sleepy psych, like the ghostly woman
on the step was the echo of me?
*
Jin, Gene in English, is a being whom Muslims believe as an invisible form. I would appreciate your opinion on the poem above.
©Byung A. Fallgren
photo by Phyllis Castelli–phylcastelli@gmail.com
COVID-19 blue
stands at the edge of summer
ponders to fly high
©Byung A. Fallgren
