my roads

i have traveled many roads

highways and byways of varied size

and countless length

i have often journeyed with much load

and at times with none

hardly an extra change of clothes

many nights i have slept on roads

counting the uncountable stars

while being stung by beastly bugs

and malicious mosquitoes

in my sojourns i have met numerous spirits

including Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad

frequently in perfect harmony

and at times at squabbles and war

in these wanderings

roads that were not closed i cherished much

that i may reach home like a mother bird

to feed the nestlings

but now a road that is closed is what i desire

that i may never leave home

© henry victor     09.09.2003

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

living contradictions

she lives immersed in her own backwaters, smaller dreams

unspoken thoughts she is unaware of  like improper breathing
that is likely to kill her soul before freeing it to fly high in sky
to stand tall in that human mall of buying, selling and loving

occasionally like a playful dolphin in larger waters, an ocean

wide and deep, she props her nose as if fresh air breathing
is her top priority, for a moment making even ocean liners
to stop, to pause, to record in a horizon danger is brooding

this makes contradictory impressions in my own mind

constantly changing colours, texture and tones, freeing
fast, the previous image like a cooler evening firmament
completely dependent on that fire ball, the sun sliding

henry victor     15.09.2013