protest

you want to know why i am this way
can't give you every last bit of trust
but i give away every bit of me
when i love, it can't be any other way

so my only wall is this last protest
i refuse to believe you're all mine
i won't let you have all my trust
for i fear my own annihilation

part of me will know to wait for you
even if you decide to keep walking on
if i am lost or drowning out at sea
i will look behind to see you coming for me

even then i know i'll let my heart wait again
but for now i try to convince it so
i won't believe what i already know
so let me have this last indulgence

this last resistance, this protest i make
is a paper thin wall i build to protect
even when i know this dam will break
i'll at least tell myself, i knew better...


reena
may 25th 2016
++++++++

claims and claimants

so you claimed friendship
as if it were a mere ritual
all you did was break bread together
even then only the ones allowed

or claimed you had sat and talked
but such guarded lines stood at impasse
sure claiming we shared it all
but our bread and daughters never crossed

what kind of friendship was this?
where suspicions stood ready at the door
guarding your purity that one so frail
and your gods offended at every drop

an idol became an insult
a slight touch was a fatal defiling
who can claim a kinship then
with all at ready for an easy killing

what kinds of gods are these
that only accept the other's blood
so decades old friendship became
nothing but a shallow house of mud

own up to the petty slave you are
to your unyielding god's fiery calls
and maybe then you'll readily smash
your narrow faith's mighty walls...


--
reena
may 24th 2016

"we always had muslim friends, i don't know how the killing began or why it happened....we never discriminated..."

Life's lines

Do we slow down at this journey's end
Because the friction gets so great
Or because we're tired and too weary for speed
Or is it only because we finally want to savor all that we know will be lost to us
All that was ours when we flirted about focused on irritants, minutiae
That we can't recall but then loomed large

So in this hour we long to grasp the beauty, hold on to the love, 

soak in our gratitude for having made this journey
Is that what the slowing is all about?
A final plea, a gentle struggle, a begrudging yielding
And a salute to love and life's brilliant glamor
Our vanity sucked away, our final victory over what didn't matter, in what is our final defeat.

Oh this flicker, momentary presence,
Oh sweet life!


-----
Reena
May 3rd 2016