Two Poems published in Moko, Caribbean Arts and Letters
My November blog features two poems published in Moko, Caribbean Arts and Letters. I am proud to share this space with fellow Caribbean writers.
https://mokomagazine.org/
Eye Catchers
My reflection in a window
shows me camera in hand,
shows me another woman,
the one I would rather be.
I snap three photos of myself
in that alternate universe,
standing in front of
a building reaching
for the sky, not scraping it.
On a side street
someone who loves antique cars
has parked an old-timer,
a Chevrolet Impala.
It has defied time,
refused to become scrap metal
in a junk yard
.
It is making someone happy
with their hobby—one that
keeps an old treasure
shining and running.
We are reminded of another time,
decades past,
some guy,
some gal we knew,
their first car,
the mischief they got up to in it,
the places it took them.
The memory plasters joy on faces.
And moving on,
a showcase window catches my eye.
Its display makes me pause----
the gray skull of a cow
reminds me of cadavers,
relics of a killer drought,
death in a desert.
The skull sits in a gold tray,
surrounded by
silver folks, knives, spoons,
all sizes, well designed,
all polished and glistening.
Above it, a mirror, similarly adorned
reflects the scene,
the shrine to gleaming argent,
and, too, the slimmer version of me.
And to think that this is
a window in the second-hand shop,
a place where former addicts
serve as salespeople,
that there is an artist
behind this captivating exhibit,
someone whose talent
may never be discovered,
someone who might never
be in the right place
at the right time.
But this could be the right place,
the right time.
© Althea Romeo Mark
Summer
Dragons
They visit
more often.
In summer, insatiable orange dragons
rage, devour all in their path.
We say goodbye to cremated neighbors,
neighborhoods, creatures and ancient trees.
In piling embers, we see reminders
of their existence and imagine their cries.
The dragon’s
falling ash
snatches our
breath away.
Fiery fangs
turn the wind
into a
sizzling, deadly force.
Those who
flee into the sea
await a
boiling ocean.
Do not pray
for Neptune
to rescue us
from Vulcan.
He too is
angry,
will drown
us in his tidal arms.
© Althea Romeo-Mark
She was awarded the VincentCooper Literary Prize to a Caribbean author for exemplary writing in Caribbean NationLanguage, in 2023 by The Caribbean Writer, and the magazine’s Marguerite Cobb McKay Prize in 2009
A world citizen, she has lived and taught in the USA, Liberia, the UK, and, since 1991, Switzerland.
Refreshing.
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