A Day And Another

POEM

 

 

by Erlie Lopez

I catch the sky

pale pink and blue

on a late afternoon I walk

around the block.

Such fitting canopy

on a nearly empty street

where hopes hang

on frozen air.

The scrawny man

pushing a kariton of fruits,

the regular vendor in the corner

squealing a choice of penoy or balut,

the tricycle driver

halting for a possible passenger,

the wriggly gay in the salon wooing

to try their new hair treatment …

how they all must have looked up

once out of their doors

a face mask and shield

hiding struggle and fear.

 

While I walk on,

not a peso bill I remembered

slipping into my jeans pocket,

doubling to tripling my steps

as a thunderstorm jolts

and the sky grays.

What a spoiler I gasp

thinking above all

getting oxygenated, limbered,

and sheltered.

 

Back home, un-masked and cleaned,

I linger in the balcony

wishing for the red orange sunset

to still show up,

make a poem out of the day,

waft hope in the heart:

tomorrow is another day

when one and all

can try, take chance again,

pray and plead.

Live a miracle.


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.

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