Two poems by Sara Aharon

“I don’t care if it’s not forever” 

Life chases me
And finds me in the kitchen
In the bedroom
In the bathroom
In my paintings and my writing
Sometimes
It’s hard to stop
Running
When life chases me.

I don’t care if it’s not forever
If life is not forever
Some moments
Are endless
Grabbing me by the wrists
Wrestling me to the ground
The bottom falls further away
And I don’t care because it’s not forever.

 And when the roses bloom 
Their scent knocks me over
Like a wrestler’s winning move.

 And when the sun peeks
And the music plays
I tremble
As the breath of life kisses my lips
And I don’t care if it’s not forever.

I do long for a
Forever
Bliss
But I know that being wrestled down to the floor
Gasping
Repeatedly
Is what it takes for the rose petals to smell like
Life’s Sweetest Escape
For
Vibrations of colors and music to take hold
The sun to shine brightly
And for me to miss your lips.

 

“Seven Plots”

We are of the same blood
of the same pain
of childbirth
grief
dreams
pleasures
disappointments
it’s all variations on a theme – which
one of the seven plots
did you survive?

Overcoming a monster?
No, that was your children’s story.
Voyage and return maybe,
you travelled the seas but did you return?
Comedy?
I doubt it.
Rags to riches, maybe.
Tragedy, sometimes. Losing a child counts.
The quest – what was your quest?
Did you think
you were allowed to have one?
Re-birth, I hope,
In me.

In another life
you didn’t see me
Yet.

Seems unfair
that I see you
you are in me
but in reverse it doesn’t work.

Do you ever dream what it might be like to hold
the last of the blood line
young blood mixed with old
hold the one that folds into
me
into you
into us
in an endless cycle of the seven plots.

***

Sara Aharon is an Israeli living in Toronto. She makes her living as a psychologist and is the proud mother of two adult daughters.

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