POKEMON GO! (AMONG WOODS AND WISTERIA)

Friends who live away, say
England's green is unlike any other.

So I stop by the bridges,
and let the green wash me clean.

Eyes, ears, nose and... breathe.
I know I live in a conservationist's dream.

The birds mark time with me.
Chweet! Trreet! Prreet!

Have you ever tried to transcribe
the song of a bird? It is beyond me.

I catch Pokémon as I walk - the game
that reflects our real world biome.

On my phone, in the palm of my hand,
friendly creatures snarl and land

feet from me, greeting me.
Old worlds, new worlds,

we are the other, we are each other.

All it takes is a different sense of seeing,
that I am you, and you are me.

Captured now and then,
and now again free.

(c) Shaista Tayabali, 2019
inspired by Anmol for Dverse Poetics: On Wandering & Observing)

A LINE OF FIRE

It takes an eternity to decide
to move one way or another;
an infinity of maybes and what ifs.

A bird muscles her way
through a series of calls,
like twanging rubber bands on repeat.

Nothing helps a human
to make a decision,
with clarity.

Everything is obscured.
We are a series of obfuscations,
an infinity of chaos.

Yesterday, my tears were a hurricane.
Today, I am sitting in a stripe of sun.

Tomorrow, the purpose I sought
will greet me at my door,
and welcome me home.

© Shaista Tayabali, 2019
For Dverse Poetry

(Auguste Rodin, The Dancer, 1913. Kettle’s Yard)