^{_{This piece was written for the Green Office’s Spring Poetry competition, on the theme: Environmental Guilt, which took place between the months of April-May 2022.}}

****

Love in the sound of my whistling,

Like the sound of birds

In the morning of an early spring.

Can you hear them sing?

Can you feel what they bring?

They bring love,

Bring joy,

Bring consciousness

of the greenness

in the grass,

and the flowers flowering.

If I was in love with you,

Now! I would get you a ring.

In old traditional demeanour

Rightly obeying the order

like the nobles in the Dynasty of Ming.

If this was online gaming,

then I had no ping.

Direct connection to the thing.

Communication without intermissioning.

Right in the flow of everything

Can you see the beauty?

In the vase that’s shattering?

In the sound of the breaking glass

just like pliing?

“Yes, Yes!” you say

“Oh beauty of the moment!”

“I feel you in my chest,

my whole body is tingling.”

Now cut the scene!

You are in Ukraine

You do still hear some birds sing,

but mostly you hear them pleeb in fear,

with every “boom” following the bombing.

Booom – Beeeeep – this was close

Your ears they ring.

Beeeep – do you see the beauty?

In the wound of your Mommas chest,

and how its bleeding?

Do you see the beauty in her painful face?

And in her horrified screaming?

Do you feel the significance of the moment?

While your auras touch

as her life is leaving?

Her soul reaches for the dark,

the source of all this thing.

Do you remain aware of the warmth of early spring?

Of the love in my whistling.

Or do you cling?

Do you feel a sting?

Sort of like a knife

that penetrates your heart

is pulled back out on a string?

Look over there…

through the hole in the wall,

in the debris,

lies a white dove,

with a broken wing.

What is her story?

What is the song,

which she might sing?

Do you remain in wonder?

Will you remain communicating?

When halve your family is dead.

And politicians start negotiating.

Will you accept the Peace?

Will you and your enemy be cooperating?

Tell me little child,

Tell me about your life.

What are the songs you sing?

They are so intricate and interesting to me

The songs of human being

Let the story begin…