Weekly Photo Challenge: It’s Not This Time of Year Without…

location: San Francisco Bay Area, Northern California
 

Free Falling

can’t stop the leaves from falling
nature has the final say
even on a fair autumn morning
the wind blows them all away

brown, red, yellow, or green
their color doesn’t matter
on these grounds where they now lay
they are dead, they breathe no longer

the tree made leafless looks grim
branches pointing up to heaven
once again, it would need a trim
for next spring, so says the raven

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weekly photo challenge: intricate

location: cappadocia, turkey
 
a muslim woman is as intricate and beguiling as an e.e. cumming’s poem and i say that with utmost respect.

somewhere i have never travelled

photo courtesy of harvardmagazine.com

somewhere i have never travelled, gladly beyond any experience, your eyes have their silence in your most frail gesture are things which enclose me, or which i cannot touch because they are too near your slightest look easily will unclose me though i have closed myself as fingers, you open always petal by petal myself as Spring opens (touching skilfully, mysteriously) her first rose or if your wish be to close me, i and my life will shut very beautifully, suddenly, as when the heart of this flower imagines the snow carefully everywhere descending; nothing which we are to perceive in this world equals the power of your intense fragility: whose texture compels me with the colour of its countries, rendering death and forever with each breathing (i do not know what it is about you that closes and opens; only something in me understands the voice of your eyes is deeper than all roses) nobody, not even the rain, has such small hands – e.e. cummings

 

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Feeling under the Weather

I’m feeling under the weather. I have this chilly sensation that indicates the presence of a cold. I have a runny nose. I find myself sneezing, too, at the most inopportune time.

Last night, I was breathing noisily. I had problem going to sleep. when I finally fell asleep, I probably snored. Even though I didn’t hear it, I must have sounded like a pig taking a nap after a hearty meal.

I must have gotten this cold from somebody, but it would be hard to pinpoint from whom. Science has advanced so much that nowadays people can hide their cold symptoms by taking drugs like cough suppressants that prevent the cough reflex from doing its job when the throat gets irritated.

Since the incubation period takes about 3 days, I assume that I caught the virus last Friday. By coincidence, I had lunch on that day with a former co-worker and friend in a crowded all-you-can eat Chinese buffet. We were accompanied by another person with a small and bushy moustache with tips arching up. Could either one of them be the source of the virus? We were sitting close together. I wonder if it started getting into my system right then and there. I was in a vulnerable state enjoying the food and good conversation.

In fairness to my lunch companions, they didn’t show any symptoms of the disease. In my estimation, both were fairly in good health. They looked at me straight in the eye. They ate heartily, sampling most of the items from the buffet table. My friend might appeared a little bit down, but that was understandable since he just lost his job.

Well, I’m not going to blame anybody. It’s about time that I should get a cold anyway. The temperature has started to dip into the low 30s at night. Soon it’ll be winter. I better get used to it.

haiku catchoo!

 

for this week’s challenge, the mission is to write five haikus — one for each of the five days starting today and leading up to the friday.

1.
first the old tree wails
as the leaves are blown away
then complete silence

2.
funny the squirrels are
in a tree bereft of leaves
they run but can’t hide

3.
in winter, black cats
gobble the day with eyes closed
not when you’re in love

4.
i step on dead leaves
walking the familiar path
winter has arrived

5.
the lake’s blue today
like the color of her eyes
before they gave up

 

mad as hell

photo credit: philstar.com

it’s the 118th anniversary of the day when our filipino forefathers rose up in arms against their colonial spanish masters. it has since been declared national heroes day, a holiday observed throughout the philippines.

today’s celebration may prove to be historic as it coincides with the first massive filipino protest against the administration of president benigo aquino iii. it was triggered by a local paper’s exposé of the ten billion peso scam that made the people real mad. it involved several filipino legislators and their pork barrels and businesswoman janet lim-napoles.