Enchanting April (Satis Shroff)

APRIL, APRIL (Satis Shroff)

April, April,

Er weiß nicht was er will:

After a short summer shower

The sun laughs again.

* * *

ENCHANTING APRIL (Satis Shroff)

I live in the Schwarzwald

With tall pine and birch trees.

The chattering of the finches,

Thrushes and sparrows and titmice

Wakes you at dawn.

Swallows, pigeons and crows

Dissect the evening sky,

Interspersed with darting jays.

Blackbirds sing melodies across rooftops,

And the nightingale enchants the evening.

* * *

WILLOW (Satis Shroff)

The lithe and slender drooping willow branches,

Sway with the Dreisamtäler wind:

A storm is underway.

* * *

CHOREA HUNTINGTON (Satis Shroff)

 A young blonde I fancied

Suddenly can’t coordinate her body.

‘It’s in my genes,’ she apologises.

Memory loss, inattention, dementia.

* * *

FRAGRANCE (Satis Shroff)

Giverny,

The artist paints Monet’s garden:

 Beautiful flowers, a pond, bridge and shrubs.

Ah, if only the flowers could emit their fragrance.

* * *

‘UNWORTHY’ LOVE AND LIFE? (Satis Shroff)

She was a simple, lonely woman

Wrote passionate love letters

To the much honoured Reichskanzler.

The Gestapo looked into her life.

She was transformed into ‘unworthy’ life,

And sent to the psychiatry ward.

* * *

MEDITATION (Satis Shroff)

I see your countenance

In deep concentration:

Meditation.

* * *

UMBRELLA (Satis Shroff)

You are my umbrella

The water pearls  drop away

My angst fades.

My mother.

 * * *

The very thought of you

When problems sinister came,

Rescued me many a time.

* * *

AMSEL (Satis Shroff)

An Amsel takes a long bath,

Flies to a nearby bush.

Smoothens its swarthy feathers

With its long beak.

Glossary:

Amsel: blackbird

* * *

HEAVENLY SONG (Satis Shroff)

I sit and write a poem,

The blackbird sings from a rooftop.

I drop my pen.

Heavenly song.

* * *

WORLDLY ILLUSION (Satis Shroff)

Nothing is everlasting

Lobe, hatred, poverty, prosperity,

All a worldly illusion.

You come with a scream

You go with a whisper.

Taking  the memories you’ve gathered.

* * *

TWO LEAVES  AND A BUD (Satis Shroff)

A Nepalese mother devotes her life

To two leaves and a bud.

Arthritis gets the better

Of her once dainty, nimble fingers

* * *

RUHETREMOR (Satis Shroff)

A suave man I admired

For his writings,

Has now Parkinson’s disease:

Ruhetremor.

* * *