Three Poems by George Freek

ABOUT BIRDS (After TU FU)

In the trees starlings chatter.
Their behavior is noisy
and erratic. Among birds,
they’re nasty fanatics.
Over their heads, the moon
falls like a feather
onto a frozen bed.
But they pay it no heed.
They’re like we are,
concerned with transitory needs.
And are their thoughts
also full of mindless chatter?
And like young lovers,
do they make poems,
which pompously pretend
to glean meanings
from such unpromising matter?

 

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GOODBYE TO ALL THAT, For Amy Roland (After MEI YAO CHEN)

The day was black as night,
only crawling things
were alive. Where
in it all did any God hide?
And then, before the sun
went down, the sky turned bright.
The blackness disappeared.
Could life finally be renewed?
From off I heard the song
of some wildly joyful bird.
If only this could last.
But as quickly it was gone.
Night descended, as it will,
and all was dark again.
And every bird was still.

 

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ON THE BANKS OF THE
FLOODED RIVER (After TU FU)

The Sun, like a deflated balloon,
sinks behind an abandoned
shoe factory. A black sky
releases its razor sharp rain.
Like blinded giants, trees bend,
as the light departs along
the empty street. Somewhere,
someone must be dying.
Across a distant field, children
are camped in a tent, rolling
in their sleep, over a universe
of ants, working through the night,
who never knew what hit them.

                                                       

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