All I Can Do

For the Nepalis and Indians up North, and all who are and have been severely affected by the Nepal earthquakes since April 2015

All I Can Do

A deep pain
Felt by the earth
The land
Is hurting and being
Torn apart...

I hear the cries of 
People wounded
Lives lost
By the land
Torn apart. ..

How much longer will it
Go on
Mother Nature's 
Punishment
Of the innocent ones?

A war between man 
And nature
A battle to know 
The frailty
Of one another. ..

Both are frail
Heaven, do you not see
Intervene and stop
The earth from 
Trembling
And lives from being 
Lost in scattered agony.

I pray, I plead
It's all I can do
From where the news
I Hear
And read
About the land
Torn apart
In the battle between
Nature and man
As both lose
The fight...! 

                                                 FREDERIKA MENEZES    

No Greater Force

NO GREATER FORCE

Echoes of a past

I never was part of,

Resound in my head

Images of what it must have

Been like

Flash before my eyes…

While I sit in

The present

Making a memory

Of the what is

Playing out

The what was

In seamless ease

There is something

I realize…

I am a warrior

A lover

A battalion

An army

I fight nothing and no one

I wish only for

Peace and friendship

Love and harmony!

Beside me

Are many others

But I do not

Clearly know

How they feel

Who they are

What runs through their minds

Flashing before their eyes...

If the scenes

Are like the ones which flicker

Before my gaze

And the sounds like those which resonate

In my head

Then I know

Alone, I am not

But part of the human army that

Loves to love

And hates to hate!

A greater force, there

Can never be in this world...

Picture a single soldier

Lover, a battalion

An army

Like me

Fighting nobody and for nothing

Merely desiring

Friendship and harmony

Love and peace

For the now

And tomorrow

Just like the heroes

Of the past I never saw,

Sang about and for…

Oh, what a world

It would be

That we’d be living in

A world that now is not!

                                                                                    FREDERIKA MENEZES

Outside From Within

Writing from my wishful heart...

Outside From Within

I awoke by my window
And caught a glimpse of the outside...

The sky was a dull blue
While billows of heavenly smoke
Drifted by...

They drifted East so I 
Made a wish...

That the day star 
From me, be not hid!

But then, the wind sighed
And them billows
Drifted westward and I cried...

'Stop and clear away
I want to be under blue skies not grey!'

As I whispered these words
The wind sighed again
Gently this time...
It kissed my cheek
Clearing my sleep laden lids
It told me a promise...

Sunny days haven't left yet
And hope is what I need, to be 
Outside from within...!

                                                Frederika Menezes

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