magnanimity

i stand in front of your wide face

facing, day after day, your magnanimity
to permit tiny boats to fearlessly float
beside massive ocean liners

but i still not have learnt that art

of nobility, while you in spite
of your power and your volume
you still respect your neighbor’s line

and you never intrude into that

boundary except when angry
while i with all my smallness
always try to push my reigning

even into territories belonging not

to me expecting others to leave
room for me, with that absolute
freedom to move and reign
 
henry victor     10.06.2002

crab in the kitchen sink

i am a Dungeness crab with my claws

now strapped with rubber bands, my food
and my hiding hole taken away, leaving
me seated in someone else’s  kitchen sink

sinking with my manuscripts, pens, papers

and pencils to my death like a doomed rapist
murderer ready to walk, nay, sit on the electric
chair, soon to be flushed out as staunch stink

but even here i have not lost my control

to give, to give self as food, age old whine
my writing in heart, that poem, my protest
against being a puck in the skating rink

henry victor     09.04.2013