Human Body and Mind, like children in need of discipline

After several months of suffering 
from insomnia, finally, it returned to normal;
practicing the right regiment worked,
I thought, but this time it goes oppositely: 

sleeping too much; like the more money 
we have, the more money we want.
Luckily, we have a choice 
 to control our minds.

©Byung A. Fallgren

Morning Where I Live

Oh, so much clamors
of Kaka-doodle-doo,
from across the pasture, urging:
wake up you dream-mongers;
time is flying ten years per your snooze.

Dogs barking at the usual old man
in the red cape,
walking with a yellow Labrador.
Blackbirds chirp wildly,
flying from tree to tree;
loneliness flies out of my window
to greet the world; cheers!

©Byung A. Fallgren

My Dead Relatives
Myrna Nieves

All my loved ones are gone

Those who inhabited my distant town

How I miss

Moment of glance
An enigmatic smile
That contagious laugh
The hand gently placed on a hip
The nodding head
The moment of empath
When I felt loved and accepted

My relatives

Pulsing of life that
Exploded in an instant
Then fade away
Twinkling, flickering
In the air of the times

I will join them one day
I will cross the veil
Between palm trees and flamboyance
I will hang them if they want me to
Or will watch them from afar

Now their memory
And sometimes a shadow passing by, gentle touch, tiny sounds

It’s what I share with them

They left a trace in my days
An unfathomable beauty
A slight sadness

My dead relatives

In effable testimonies
Of the love that permeates
Existence

(She is a writer, editor, and educator, born in Puerto Rico,
recipient of the Literary Award of the PEN Club of
Puerto Rico. )

Kimchi Stew Story

Stewed kimchi is mouth-watering;
Koreans love the stew, a bit morphed 
version of kimchi, pickled cabbage;
packed with such antioxidants as garlic,
ginger, onion, red cayenne pepper,
anchovies, oysters, etc., it is even more 
delicious when eaten with white steamed rice.

The smell of kimchi stew fills the air
far above the Peninsular, reaching up
to heaven, they say, they can smell it
even in the passing airplane. 
But who cares? The Peninsulans love it,
as the lover's fancy perfume.  

©Byung A. Fallgren

Lament
Rainer Maria Rike

Oh! All things are long and far.
A light is shining but the distant star
From which it still comes to me has been dead
A thousand years...in the dim phantom boat
That glided past some ghastly thing was said.
A clock just struck within some house remote
Which house? --I long to still my beating heart.
Beneath the sky's vast dome I long to pray...
Of all the stars there must be far away
A single star which exists apart.
And I believe that I should know the one
Which has alone endured and which alone
Like white city that all space commands 
At the ray's end in the high heaven stands.


Rainer Maria Rika was born on December 4, 1875,
in Prague. He authored numerous works in prose and
poetry. He died on December 29, 1926.