Remain, Begone (day 862)

You may think to yourself: “Here is a crazy old lady wandering through the birds
Feeding them like a cuckoo, a lady who’s gone off her rocker.”
Which may and alrighty be correct about myself
But alas! Do you not see the simple joys this can bring to life
Have you never held a poor animal in your hand and stared deep into its eyes?
A moment betwixt, no matter whom the beings, is the fragile state of my mind
I do not have the moments some of you may still have
I have born all my children, raised them as a good woman should
My own two hands most days worked raw to the bone
Scrubbing and toiling to send them off fed and clean
To get a better life than I could ever have dreamt about
And I, the lone patron of this empty house have nothing left to do
Save care for my own mind, my own sanity
Hence my pigeons. My bag of feed I carry endlessly around the squares
Making my home there home, sharing my soul with their souls
Until my children come back home
Until my memory remains, begone.

Istanbul - 23082012 (3 of 135)

Business, As Usual (day 267)

I wander the streets in a seeming cloud of confusion
Faces laughing, talking, swearing in my ear
Sometimes at me, most of the time amongst themselves
And I think: “How obscure this society is,
How little their lives seem to impact mine
Yet without their nonchalance about my business
I would have no business at all”
So it is this way, that I wander through town
Looking upward at the rooftops above
Smiling at strangers, that are confused with my gaze
I notice their inadvertent discomfort at seeing my own eyes
Staring right back at them, with a smile written across their lids
But mostly I notice their interest, behind the scenes

People usually have their own agendas
Scuttling here and there to get done what is to be done
Ignorance yells at me, through some of their gazes
Yet, in some, I see interest and kindness

Today an old lady stopped me in the street
“Isn’t it beautiful” she asked of me
“Look up” I directed
As we both gazed up at the high rise
Which just then, in that moment that we stood there
Had turned a magical gold
We both realized and were inspired by the act of sharing
What a few words of kindness can do towards a better tomorrow