Islander in the City by Pablo A. Tariman:

THE YEAR THAT WAS

Island sunrise by Floyd Evangelista Flores

What can I show
After 20 months
Of lockdown?
I simply went back
To the labyrinth
Of my mind.

I recall uncanny memories
That I didn’t know
Were there.
What did you have
To forsake
After 20 months
Of lockdown?
You look
Inside yourself
And what passed for love
Was actually pure sensuality
A natural heaving
Of the flesh
That metamorphosed
From lust to friendship.
How did I cope
After 20 months
Of lockdown?
I learned to live life
In another plane.
I learned to accept death
For what it is
That loved ones
Come and go
In this life
Without signs
Or warning.
How do I want to be
After 20 months
Of lockdown?
I want acceptance
To come easy
I want guilt
washed away
With your own dose
Of repentance.
It is the time
Of the last season
I want to mark
73 years of existence
With inner solace
Happy and fulfilled
That I came to terms
With life
Such as it is
With joy and sorrow
With lambent longing

For a past
That will never come back
Again.
* * *

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