POEM
by Erlie Lopez
There’s a poem
keeping me awake
begging to be written
while the rain sluices
on my windowpanes
and wafts the scent
of nocturnal flowers.
But my brain won’t budge
drained of thought
from cares of the day
a frail mother with baby
crying for milk
and an old man pushing a cart
of junk right on my street.
For what poem
can temper, even soothe rage
over thieves wanting
to raid further our land dry
and drive the hemline folks
down to the gutter
till they dream no more?
Sleep is coming
maybe I will snore
thunders on my bed.
Forget then that poem
for the lyre will spring again
when roses bloom
anew in the morning
in my heart
and in my country’s too.
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.
