POEMS

by Erlie Lopez

 

#1.Yellow Bursts

Yellow is the color of sorrow:

the ribbons tied around trees,

the shirts and pins from seasons

of arduous street protests.

Yellow is the color of love:

lovely flowers around the urn,

the flame that glows

in paeans and songs.

Yellow is the color of hope:

tomorrow’s sunshine rays

after the day’s unexpected storm

is calmed by many a prayer.

 

Yellow when it mellows

till no longer needing to be

Is when we can wave to the world

noble dreams fulfilled.

A nation worth dying,

living, and fighting for

a precious thought for keeping

till no more days to mourn.

 

#2. Witching Hour

The tears are not merely for the ashes in the urn

secured among spring flowers and streaming thanks.

We weep too for the coven of witches

prancing around voodoo embers.

I hear them in the hiss of the wind on funeral rain

shrill and slithering as they jeer at pain.

In the dead of the night I’ve often wondered

on that unebbing thunder in their breasts.

They are kin dragons spewing fire

out to burn crisp a gentle prey.

 

What has happened to them from caves emerging

faces defaced by rage, eyes from darkness squinting.

Who, what did this making the heart a mere bone

as they sing and cheer one just gone.

A glimpse of their soul black and doomed

future ashes un-mourned.

Witches of the hour may the curse end

and to a place of light and love they return.


About the Poet:

Erlie Lopez is a Filipina retired from the frenetic world of Public Relations and Advertising in Metro Manila. She was, in the last 18 years, head of a PR agency she co-founded. In her independent and sedate world now, she mostly reads, writes, stays socially connected, soaks in Nature, and develops new interests and skills adapting to the pandemic mode of life. She has also returned to a first love – poetry – which keeps her heart open to the grace and rhythm of the universe.