Ramzi Albert Rihani is a Lebanese American writer. His poems have been published in several publications including Poetic Sun, Goats Milk Magazine, Last Leaves Magazine, and The Silent Journey Anthology. He is a published music critic, wrote and published a travel book The Other Color. He lives in Washington, DC.
Eyes With Fear
Drumrolls are heard from behind the mountains
People prepare for the festivities to start
Little do they know that the end is near
As the rage of war fills the eyes with fear
Lovers pick up daffodils in the prairies
Oblivious to the sound of rockets
Warmongers pledge an encounter with God
Negotiating contracts broad and flawed
At the edge of the battlefield, they claim duties
Playing judges to ravel their cronies
Covered with masks, they preach commitment
To a cause filled with mire and ideas malignant
In their rocking brown chairs
Old men and women try to remember
They forgot to die when the rockets flew
Into their beds, they did not surrender
Twilight, dawn, dusk, night, all mingle
As if their contract from above was a symbol
That all times must pass and a new day will rise
But will it be at dawn, dusk, or sunrise?
Feathers
In a forest of lush shades of green
Like a Rousseau painting
With ferocious lions, apes and tigers
And children’s imagination
Wider than the vastest canyon.
Ideas float, carried
Like feathers on the surface of water
Can’t sink, vanish or disappear
Stronger than the wildest lions
They bloom into gigantic creations
Like the Garden of Eden
At the end of time.
Unwritten Verses
The ink is dry
The poet hasn’t finished his poem
He repeats the unwritten verses
Like a mirage in a desert
Memory reigns
Scrambled thoughts rush like adrenalin
Waiting for the moment
To descend on paper.
Dust awaits the rain
To wash away glimpses of reality
A large river overflows with rainbows
And fills the city with make-belief fantasy.
Mirage
Abandoned by hope
A halo of fear sits on the throne
Like the stillness of a pond.
Herds gather to spell their vision
Legacy of comfort vanishes in the mind of the wanderer
Four, three, two, one, and the rocket launches to the land of belief.
A smooth sail is on the horizon
As the sailor’s whispers get louder
And the screams of breaking waves become mute
Expectations seek to enter the mind
Mirage seeks to enter the heart
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By In Parentheses in IP Volume 7
32 pages, published 1/15/2022
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