Photo credit: Rachel Chisholm
Metaphor Tree
By Samir Georges
Twiddling my thumbs you see
here beneath this metaphor tree,
just a few particles come to be
I’ve forgotten the rhythm, the rhyme, the one two and three
counting the turns, the seconds I am, twiddling free.
Twiddling my thumbs you see
dare I say thrice times, free, free, free
I am callous and jaded and utterly free
bathed in shackles as in light I have come to be
just a few particles hand in hand are me
a thought, a gripe, a moments glee
I am atom, I am tissue, I am man
I am she,
Adam and Eve, the seed, the tree.
Photo credit: Myriam Nehmeh
Once I Was
By Samir Georges
I was once a star
with all the distance of a photograph
all the heat of a sparkling night
that sets the soul alight.
Once I was a memory
lost amidst the chrysalis
that stretches the journey of the sun
in search for excitement in the cold
that settles upon the past
and stills our time in silence.
Never again will I be what was
the star has ebbed and gone,
though the ghost of its touch lingers more,
I am hatched and born to fly
and flit down upon the fragrant soil
chasing warmth in virgin nectar.
I am bracing myself for death now
such is the passing of youth
that the star can reach me no more
and the memory is but a shell
of all I can no longer be,
so I am free at last
free to fear and in pursuit of warmth
I am free to run
ascend my aging flesh
back against the hanging sky
with the jasmine’s nectar
hot across my lips
and death’s looming specter
the gentle persuasion of a broiling sun.
Photo credit: Matt Fortune
Merry Mortal Man
By Samir Georges
Rising in the wake of sun and champion
with the fervor of courage and vigor’s hymn
blood pumps and limbs rise in morning’s embrace
and before emptiness steals my thirst
I stretch for the sun dyed ale and triumph
quench my thirst with fire and breathe,
morning has broken and so has its spell
clanking ice on glass rings the night man’s bell;
With mortal rancor I invite stupor to my veins
ushering into this day the promise of shade
seduced by the obscurity of these lopsided reigns;
Step by idle step I yield my path,
enter night where I am returned at last
unto anonymity, where like a drop of rain
to the sea I wade, snuffed like candlelight
asleep I’m laid…
till sunlight engraves unto me distinction
draws me out like breath to lips is bade,
and so merry mortal man is made
the drunken moth to the flame he prayed.
Summer Fades
By Samir Georges
Summer fades
to my dreams it fades
drowsy as a sleepless thought.
In waking I rise, back turned
to heat my pale heart –
to face the dawn against the light
Such, I have known darkness
still reflections long cast on ripples
that flood these autumn dreams
So that when I fold these lids down tight
give calm my emptied, hallow sight
I yield my guard to foes unseen
a kiss so sweet, and death serene
It reminds me, of summer jasmine
where lips draw nectar in a drying grin
a portrait of me
pale and bare this misplaced tree.
I turn my back on death
beg my liege, bear my breadth
so that when my rest comes surging forth
faith casts my bark an etch in darkness
silent but for the prayer sharpened eye
burnt of all doubt beneath unborn sky.
Samir Georges is the author of the beautiful book “As I Write These Words”