Author: Byungafallgren

Wait until It Grows Roots

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Wait until It Grows Roots
Tasfia Faizullah

The plant trimming requires no
less than its water to be changed weekly. I
ask my friend who gifted it to me: when will
I be able to transfer it into soil? She has never
tod me anything but the truth. I don't shut 
the window blinds now; my plant friend loves 
the suntoo much. I've been leaving the the doors 
open too; the spirits flit move friendlynow. Yes, 
of course. I'm afraid of death, but no less so
my own life. A friend can bring you 
back to sweeter senses. 

Tarfia Faizullah is the author of two poetry collections
In 2019, she was named a USA Artist Fellow. She lives in
Dallas.

Bereavement is …

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Bereavement is the source of Beauty 
  Han Yong-un (1879-1944)

Bereavement is the source of beauty.
The beauty of bereavement cannot be found 
   either in the priceless gold of the morning,
      or in the threadless black velvet of night.

Nor can it be found immortal life, nor in an unfolding 
blue sky.
Beloved, without bereavement, after the tears in 
agony of death,

How could I find life and laughter again?
Oh, oh, beauty is the child of bereavement. 

Han Yong-un was born August 29, 1879, in Korea.
A Buddhist monk, poet, and critic of the Japanese colonial rule of Korea from 1910 to 1945.

In Her Fading Voice

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In Her Fading Voice

I used to hear her in the drying river;
In the dwindling artic ice;
In the eyes of the ozone layer, as the tear drops.
Then her voice is fading.

I remember my mother's weakened voice when ill;
So the Gaea is in dire health. When I wander around in my dream, 
Thinking about what to do,
I hear her voice: Water issue; Global warming, the ozone layer.

They remind us:
1. Keep the Water Sources Safe, like protecting our children
Or, the food;  don't pour the hazardous wastets down the drain,
On the ground, into the storm sewers; this could foul the soil;
Ground water and surface water.

2. The ozone layer protects us from too much of 
the ultraviolet radiation from the sun, the Earth's Sunscreen.

3. Global Awarming: greenhouse gases warm the Earth by
Absorbing energy. And slow the speed at which the energy
Escapes to space;
They act like the blanket.
It heats the Earth.

Plants absorb carbon dioxide from atmosphere. 
Restoring vanishing forests helps stop climate change.
Protect Mother Earth, protect us.

She Settled There to be With Her Mother’s Eternal Place

~ Byungafallgren ~ 4 Comments 
She Settled there to be with Her Mother's Eternal Place

The old friend waits for me outside of the door
to her apartment, at the end of the long, dingy hall.
In recognition of her morphed figure, I smile.
"Come on in," she says.
Her beaming face lightenes up the place; yet,
her room, conforming to the rest of the place; dim;
is gray every senior's favorite color?
Gray hair; gray emotion.
Red mood is a taboo; a villain, the cause
of insomnia and heart failure.

I'm doing better than the shape I am in," she quips. 
I nod to be nice; stealing a glance of her pot belly and
missshaped eye lids;
for which she blames the recent Parkinson's.

I humor the subject: "Do you live here all alone?"
"Uh-huh." We both laugh. 
"I like a poodle," she says. "But I can't take care of it."
We continue on chattering; me, informing of 
my writing life; her, about the neighbor and 
the weekly card game, etc.

"My son is supposed to pick me up," she says.
"I am going to watch the ball game in the city."
"Your son moved to the city and you stay in this little town?"
She nods, matter fact.
I nod; her family's root is in this town and so this 
is their resting place; so will hers to be with her mother.
Something stirrs in my heart; melancholic;
her alonness at the somber place, waiting...until...
she a leaf in the wind?

Ah, just enjoy; this is the part of our life; like that. 

©Byung A. Fallgren