USHA AKELLA

 (Two Poems)

 

Santorini Islands, Greece

The city in which I want to find my beloved.

 

 

Santorini is the city I want to wake up in when I die. From a long journey in color to the relief of white; it is the city in which I want to find my beloved.

 

In Santorini, my poems will rise like a seascape of white houses in which lovers will dwell. Their laughter will flourish like wild bougainvillea.

 

In Santorini, I know that dreams are ‘the real.’ I will knock their doors, enter to see walls are white pages filled with the ink of my soul.

 

In Santorini, reality comes undone like blue water running along the houses of our dreams.

 

In Santorini I will walk backward in time through houses of white till I stop where we met.

 

In the midst of these islands in the Aegean pressing down on water like paperweights, find me here. Here, I dwell.

 

In Santorini, find me again. 

 

 

 

 

Egypt

Another image for pyramids

 

Cairo, you gave us the pyramids and—

Alexander Siddig,

this is quite enough to be noticed,

 

city with a face of hazel eyes

and hint of  many bloods

coursing dreamily in your veins,

 

the sphinx, I agree is magnificent

inspite of the snubbed nose,

broken paws and gangly length,

 

may I be irreverent for once?

The pyramids could be viewed

as dunce caps on the earth’s head,

 

a prosaic lesson for mankind:

highest achievements when seen

from another view can be comical,

 

this is all I can think of now in

this night pointing to the stars

and my mind empty like your tombs.