Back to Issue 5

What if we meet under a gray sky by Louis Burdi

Under a gray sky
With the chance of rain
As the sun perseveres Trying with each ray
To blanket us with warmth

What if this warmth was felt
Sooner rather than later
Cautiously wasting what sunlight is left
to live under gray skies
is to live under frustration and uncertainty But I'd live under gray
skies in two life times
If we shared gray skies together

We are not black and white
Though I try to make us
Like trying to make rose pedals
Wilt alike and fall unequivocally The beauty of it all
Lies in the unpredictability of the rose's nature
The thorn or the pedal
I'd gladly take the thorns of ninety-nine roses
Only to endow your hundredth pedal

My train of thought is confused
Even though I am not
What I'm simply saying
Is what if we meet
Under a gray sky?

Beautiful Concession By Louis Burdi

So hard and so far
but disguised by how close it really is
Beautiful concession

Amidst the misleading two tones
clandestinely tossing my conscience
to the destitute waters of romantic cataclysm insistent on the calm
after the storm Sweet tranquility
Beautiful concession

The words that separate the distance between silences
acknowledging the sounds
But finding comfort in vision
guided solely with the light of a flickering candle
all that you can handle
Beautiful concession

Quit, cease, abdicate
relieve the wearisome obligation
antonymous, antithetical Oh beautiful, beautiful concession