dust to dust

i read collecting novel dreams

and additional information with breaking news

for my students in classrooms to beat

every dust in way to their becoming

greedily push my offerings

into tiny minds like huge gunny bags

assuming a smooth

and successful sailing in this world

i read collecting novel dreams

and additional information with breaking news

for men, women, and children of dust

with pretentious and pious faces in holy spaces

they sing and dance my offerings

into hardened hearts like multi-holed paper bags

assuming they now had in hand

their passport to a nether world

with neither a smooth sailing in this world

nor a hope to enter an after-world

of gods and goddesses

i with a firm conviction of my being dust

and to dust i return i now pause

to look at the present moment, soon to fly away

like dust on the surface of this world

before another present, yet another dust, is present

henry victor      07.05.2007

Note: Picture here is a photograph of my two-year-old granddaughter Josephine Victor’s artistic creation!

To My Eternity

Your whistling

I clearly heard

Your colour

I see not

Your name

I know not

But

To my eternity

I take you

Note: This poem was published in Songs of the Street, Volume V, edited by Arlene Williams & Ron MacLellan (2002) with the following editorial note:

Henry Victor is a published poet with two collections of poems No Tears (1998) and Frail Floret (1999). He uses poetry to promote more humane values, social justice, cultural pluralism and communal harmony. He believes that his task is to give “some voice” to the “voiceless”. “To My Eternity” was the winner of the “The End of the World” category of the Songs of the Street poetry contest, which was sponsored by Inner-City Pastoral Ministry. Other poems by Henry can be found on pages 19 and 46.

dew on my lawn

like my mouth watering after a spicy dish

when my stomach is empty, last evening
my heart craved that highway leading
to nature’s carving the million-year-sculpture

that unambitious hard work, Grand Canyon!

but my sober soul suggested something else
to run around prompting a Nikon, or a Canon
a pair of better eyes and mind, a larger book

to photo-write, to note, to store to play later

and with others, also advertise my, already
overweight and extra-large ego lost
this morning like the dew on my lawn!  

21.07.2014

with clowns around

seated beside the lake with no waves

beating the shore, or above the surface
bleating fish i see neither wrinkles
nor the need to crusade for life

neatly pressed while clowns pass by

at times nodding at me to acknowledge
my absence elsewhere in the market
and crowded malls and other clowns

mere passers-by, often with sombre face

and more of others with firm intent to mask
face true, rooted to their heart, with more
to tickle faces stuck to glue of the past pain

henry victor      03.04.2014

 

 

All a Yard Sale!

The Mongolic King
And the Burger King
Facing each other
Tanning
With Vo’s Nails
And Super Cuts
Sharing the same yard -
One Parking Lot
Ricky’s All Day Grill
Grilling
Night and day
While Booster Juice
Doing the rest
For those walking
Into Liquor Depot
Claiming
To Save-on Food!

Henry Victor 11.11.2004