Nayiri: In the Fall of Life

Golden leaves, sweaters and chills
Winter sliding down the hills
Arthritis, medicine and pills
Are somebody else’s ills.

Attaining three scores and ten
(when did this aging happen?)
Hit me like an absurd farce
Who? Me? I don’t grow that fast.

Shaky knees that disengage
Bones turning to cartilage
White hair growing on my crown
Are happenings I disown.

My heart beats much louder now
More than I care to allow.
I get sensational thrills
Sans those damned blood pressure pills

And if I were not so shy
I would write to Santa dear:
“Next time, please, when you stop by,
Knock louder, ‘cause I can’t hear.”

Nayiri: In Reality

“Sorry,” you said, “bye”
and abandoned ship
as if our friendship
was only a lie.

“How fickle you are!”
I wondered aloud
searching for memoirs
of the man I loved.

Ghosts of sentiments
in a twilight dance,
strings of instruments
of discordant sounds,

wishes, illusions
heaped into a mound,
unrequited love
was all I could find.

“Where are you”? I screamed.
Echoes filled the air.
It was just my dream
You were never there.

October 2008

Nayiri: Hindsight

On that fateful Spring night
the music was so loud
that I could not quite hear
your whispers in my ear.

I nodded with my head
Feigning to be polite;
Little did I know that
I had signed up for life!

Fifty years together
were not an easy ride;
we have had our fair share
of taking life in stride.

I think it’s only fair
That I should now confide;
‘wish I’d heard you better
On that fateful Spring night!

March 1992


Nayiri is the pen name of an author who wishes to remain anonymous.

Nayiri: Bye Lines

Hi dear!

Your linen is clean
And the bed is done
I took the mail in
And left the den light on.

Coffee is in the pot
(you always liked it hot)
A meal in the oven
Just turn the button on.

Sorry could not linger
Wrapped around your finger.
It’s time you mind the store!
I will be home no more!

Bye dear!

1990

Nayiri is the pen name of an author who wishes to remain anonymous.