The No Date, Date

The No Date, Date!
           Frederika Menezes

So here I was, sitting with a friend who among many adjectives, I use ‘interesting’ to describe him and a thought crosses my mind asking me a rather bold question.

Why don’t you ask him to go out with you…as a friend!

I pondered this over and then once he left my presence, put it across to him over a rather brave text. 

Well, it was a yea sure why not response and I applauded my own braveness – it was short lived!

I forgot that I live inside donkey heads. In fact our society needs to get a brainwash and it starts with those closest.

So anyway, there I was all smiles thinking that I was going out with this guy friend and I looked forward to it. First date or time out of home with a guy friend – yay!

Now, I am no wild thing but it’s always exciting to try doing something new and prove a point while at it. After some indecision as to where to meet, my friend chose a place. I said fine.

I didn’t think Superman and Louis Lane would prove an obstacle!

See, Superman and Louis Lane live in the present day and age but are stuck in the past. They wouldn’t hear of it. To see their daughter out with a guy they barely knew….unthinkable! Didn’t matter if the daughter trusts the guy or that they are friends – no. I wished I had some Kryptonite and strong powers of persuasion but as much as I tried, I got shut down.

Finally feeling like Marvin the robot, I canceled the friend date.

The point never got made but it awaits its time…

An Appeal For Peace

An Appeal For Peace

Seated in a corner
Away from all eyes
She cries...

The rainfall of
Her tears
Nourishes her soul
Wherein seeds of 
Fearful abandonment
Grow...

She is, but lives
Unrecognized
Just a shadow of 
The true purpose 
Of her life!

Sought, she is
Though in vain
For them who seek her
Do so with intent to destroy
Her real sense...

She is calm
And harmony
In this world of
Violent treachery...

Now she stands
On unsteady feet
Her tears have not
Ceased!

She wanders, at any
Moment she could fall
Forever to 
Be lost...
A myth, a once was...

Find her you who 
Fight and war
Before you yourselves
Lose the very reason
You are fighting for...

Stop the nonsensical
Behavior
Or Peace, never will
Be found
And when it's too late
You will remember  
Peace's once 
Harmonious form...!

A poem about the violence and unrest in Gaza and the warring Middle East.

                                                                          Frederika Menezes

DESERT WORLD WANDERER

DESERT WORLD WANDERER

Not alone
On this desert road
I stand…

I have walked miles to
Where I now am
To be met by stale breaths
Of a forgotten giant
That slumbers
Upon my arrival to this
Arid land…

My soul is parched
I yearn for the thing
That owns the promise
Of quenching solitude…

My eyes perceive not
What my heart seeks
My sight grows weary
I blink tears!

Life in tatters
I start to walk
Swirls of dust at my heels
I head for the one place
I know…

 I creak open the door
Stepping in, I am aware
I am lonely
No longer just alone…

There are some drinking
That water which drowns pains
And helps forget mistakes
Or so, I have heard it said!

I think I shall try it
Have a swig of
This water
Maybe I’ll like it
Might be I will join the many…

I desire it not though
How can sipping the drink of drunkards
Soothe my wailing
Thirsty soul…?

A misfit in this desert world
I walk out and on the dusty road…!

                                                                     FREDERIKA MENEZES

Gratitude

BEAUTIFULLY POWERFUL

I have a friend
She is awesome
She can amaze, and make
One’s day
At no charge
But by just the calling of her name…

There was a time
When this friend of mine
Was estranged
From me…
I did not know it then
But I missed her dearly!

She was and always has been
Beside my own self
Quiet and waiting
For me to speak her name
Meaningfully…
This I did, though only casually…

I spoke her name as if it were
Just another word or two
It never brought me real joy
When I said ‘Thanks’ or ‘Thank you’…

I often heard many others
And how  they gushed joyously
When they
Said my friend’s name…

It would strike me as odd
That I felt not the same…

I also wondered rather irritably
How could others be good friends
With my friend?
She was my friend, mine, my very own
Wasn’t she?

I let this thoughtful question
Slip out loud
And she heard it…
In answer she said very simply,

“Call on me with sincere feeling

And to you I shall give reasons to smile
I merely am Acknowledgement
To every good thing in your life!”

I understood my wrong
Accepting my friend’s wise words
From deep in my heart
I summoned her
To the forefront of my everyday life…

Gratitude
This is her heroic name
Beautifully powerful
Simply and marvelously weaved
In my life, by my side she
Now forever, stays!

                                                   FREDERIKA MENEZES

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL HAPPY DAY!!!

HAPPINESS

I walked down the street
As though in a dream…
Around me life passed by
The hurry, the worry
The unending strife…

Before my eyes
I saw none of this…
My mind had received an urgent
Message from my heart
Saying ‘Dream!’

Loyally my head began to work
My eyes saw a baby elephant
Trumpeting aloud as it ran
Between the traffic’s ins and outs…

I crossed paths with cars and buses, bikes and trucks
And as they went their way and I went mine
Smiling, I told myself,
‘What a variety of scent bottles these are…’
I breathed in smells of
Lavender, Jasmine, Rose and Lime!

In this way
I went on
Street to street
Block to block
Dreaming a happy time!

Every whiles I set my eyes on
Scowling, bitter and secretive faces
I pictured the folks wearing these expressions
As living posters of them whose happiness had been stolen!

I waved and said hello, pretended to not know
Which way to go…

They told me, each one in turn
Curtly, grumpily they spoke
But then I smiled in thanks
And when this I did, their faces lit!

And from my heart, I made a wish
That their happiness to them
Be returned quickly…

Then I walked home
Happier than before
My mind at ease, my heart dancing
With every beat…

To bring forth happiness from
A single wish, a fun thought
What a gift to share with oneself
And an unhappy lot!

                                                                FREDERIKA MENEZES

for...Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is just a day or two away...so, I thought about it anddecided it was not only too commercialised  but also a rather cheap occasion people use to use those they claim to love, be in love with...  I wrote this poem.
Happy Valentine's Day in advance!

THE THREE WORDS

Three little words
Scrawled on a no longer
Blank page…
Words so small
Yet they take up every inch
Of space…

 ‘Where are you?’
Is what they ask
A hidden sentiment
Behind a question mark…

‘I await you…’
Is what they subtly say
With emotion
Heavily veiled…

‘How much longer…?’
It is what the words
Long to know…
Should they go on
Without the other half
Of the whole!

The words have life
You see
But of course, they in themselves
Are incomplete!

Like a drawn bow
With no arrow…
A lyric
But not a song…
Lips that blow kisses
That never are returned…
Arms that hug a self
Not ever a someone else….
A heart that beats and feels
Inside a soul
Who’s thoughts no one knows…

Such is the life
Of the three words
Scrawled…

On a page
Across a face
In a thoughtful sigh
On the lips of a quiet smile…

Three words that hold
So much meaning
But are used wrong
In today’s world
If spoken or written at all…!

                                                            FREDERIKA MENEZES