My Three Poems and Three haiku published in Better than Starbucks

 RAINBOW

They color their hair
paint their faces to look younger
then speak aged lies
to emulate rainbows but stare
into the sky to find
which color follows which
before melding into one
they wonder what to do
with beige and indigo shades
that cloud their vision 

​

     CLOSED EYES

The faces appearing
and receding in
the darkness of closed eyes

don’t answer why
they aren’t winged souls
fading in the sun

I emptied before it set
in the gowns of girls
stopped from dancing barefoot:

they shake autumn in the rain
mist blurs the image
water spills in shady pools

​

     SMALLNESS

I live in a crowd of fakes
smallness rises with age

my mind has ceased to think
new metaphors hardly happen

hunger keeps me awake all night
I mitigate minginess

inner lives are emptied
and filled with fresh stresses

too many fault lines run through
to make sense of the divide

my passion itches and prompts
I nuzzle the virtual too

it’s the same virus replicating
the same hackers that hurt

the vigor and rigor of
the new, left or pushed behind

whatever the remedy
wounds take deaths to heal


Ram Krishna Singh, born, brought up and educated in Varanasi (India), has been writing poetry  for about four decades. Recently retired as professor of English, he has authored  forty-two books, including his latest collections  God Too Awaits Light (2017) and Growing Within (English/Romanian) (2017).

https://www.betterthanstarbucks.org/international-poetry

Haiku

with Kevin McLaughlin

Professor Ram Krishna Singh sent us haiku from Dhanbad, India. His work, at least this set, is especially eclectic, featuring masses of people and a wonderful image of “decaying fireflies.”

crowded streets

moving among the years

wretched faces

fingers feel

decaying fireflies

in night lights

slowly rising

from the cloud’s edges

autumn sun

Prof. R.K. Singh

​

https://www.betterthanstarbucks.org/haiku 

    Better Than Starbucks ,   November 2018 Vol. III No. IX