OMG!

I have never seen the world change so rapidly!
was it a moment, an hour, a day?
certainly not love at first sight
nor will so easily come to pass away.

Plunged in this dilemma we count each step we take
window to window stalk the rising sun
sleep narrows to a halt and birds sleep late
governments crash and politics undone.

But in this vast pandemic while we weep
there comes a light within, our souls awake
our minds are filled with beauties long unseen
and things to do that never found their way

eat. sleep. drink. make art. poetry. science
make love and watch the stars bloom evening flowers
and wait forever learning how to pray

  E.L.Freifeld: 29.04.20__
__________

OLD AGE

OLD AGE wakes up one day
cups totter at the edge of tables
crumbs gather like dust on windowsills
a moment ago is already forgotten of all it contained
it was my whole world, a word
[from one minute to the next, another universe]
of visitations in dreams
of friends who have long passed in silence
where did they go looks back as overheard
each new moment filled with every memory you ever had

i miss the time that went
i mourn the time that came, afraid it will not last
i miss the long road unfolding its weary legs
i miss the cool nights and windy jazz
i miss the subways and side streets i walked cruising
i am still there [for a moment bathed] suffused in subdued light
i miss the warm bed and kiss goodnight
the sweetness rubbed in olive oil
of subtle emotions
of sitting on a bench eating a sandwich

you're getting morbid she says as i stir my coffee
with a pin

  E.L.Freifeld: 2015__

RIVINGTON

as the dream-crow flies
Rivington street is all busy pushcarts of apples
and apples to steal, bustling jewish immigrant
green horns, fresh tub butter cut from the block

and Joey the magician
and his mom bull dyke Annie cigarette
dangling off her chin in bell bottom trousers
she worked in coney island
and uncle Nate who stole pennies from children's pockets

where there's smoke
love is not always the cure
this poem hardly a pronoun simply pro-cures
it is the fact
the picture
the shot

hey, watch this
Joey's hands shuffling the deck in the hallway

illuminates

before dark

a new card trick!

  E.L.Freifeld__

© Susan Weiman: IMG 4936

WILLET STREET

i have mapped the streets of my soul
an aerial view with a legend
macro'd in on my brain via satellite
brought to you by cortext close-up shot

mists of time the dark place of it
as he swung left on Willet Street on his way home

there in dim twilight the killer, see him
so fast the youth of silence broken changing
hands money death and the lure of wisdom
old knowledge of heaven and hell
the image fades into cliché
the dream ends in fusions of colorless light
the screen now empty
and another 600 dead around the corner
and my friend a convicted pronoun

the carpeted green tables procure the essence of pool
snooker
plays

the light from within pours like spilt blood out
on the darkened street, gently
inviting in

  E.L.Freifeld: 04.2011__