Poem: BEAUTY BEFORE DEATH

The Danube River, Hungary, October 2009

Beauty Before Death

Cheryl L. Daytec

Trees dance with colors like discotheque lights

through mists of white descending from the heavens

The light about to travel to another world hesitates,

begs for more time to kiss the vivid autumn shades

like a thirsty traveler who cannot drink enough from

the spring of sweet water in the heart of the desert

But it must go and its farewell walk alters the landscape

Into another dazzling form that holds my gaze

There is an orange fire in the sky, that seems to herald

A gaiety of every form blessed with magnificence

But tomorrow, the leaves cleaving to the proud twigs

Will tumble stupefied on expectant dull earth

Multihued petals will drop down on a pile of decay

In every corner frozen branches and twigs will cling

To the trunks like the near-dead rejecting the grave

Trees will stand like ghosts too unhappy to haunt

For now let me stay mesmerized by the sight before me

With Mont Le Blanc ahead and Lake Geneva behind

Let me forget that this soul-entrancing beauty

Is a flamboyant prelude to the colors’ sad demise.

/october2007,switzerland

Visegrad, 2009

"ONE TIN SOLDIER" and THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

on the bulk of the earth’s last frontiers- the remaining genetic diversity, minerals, forests, among others.

One Tin Solder

Listen, children, to a story
That was written long ago
'Bout a kingdom on a mountain
And the valley folk below
On the mountain was a treasure
Buried deep beneath a stone
And the valley people swore
They'd have it for their very own

Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of Heaven
You can justify it in the end
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgment day
On the bloody morning after who...
One tin soldier rides away

So, the people of the valley
Sent a message up the hill
Asking for the buried treasure,
Tons of gold for which they'd kill
Came an answer from the kingdom,
"With our brothers, we will share
All the secrets of our mountain,
All the riches buried there"

Now, the valley cried with anger,
"Mount your horses, draw your sword!"
And they killed the mountain people
So, they won their just reward
Now, they stood beside the treasure
On the mountain dark and red
Turn the stone and looks beneath it...
"Peace on Earth" was all it said

Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of Heaven
You can justify it in the end
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgment day
On the bloody morning after who...
One tin soldier rides away

Go ahead and hate your neighbor
Go ahead and cheat a friend
Do it in the name of Heaven
You can justify it in the end
There won't be any trumpets blowing
Come the judgment day
On the bloody morning after
One tin soldier rides away.
.