I Live Where Strangers Smile.

I Live Where Strangers Smile.

Bob Komives

::

I live where strangers smile--
where we acquire kinship-by-encounter
on common paths with crossing points--
where the names we seem to have forgotten
are those we have yet to learn.
Rather than meet
up-and-down
ear-by-ear
by elevator,
we meet
face-to-face
on ramp and stair.
Our doorholding
gets traded among old and young--
so we need not know which we are.
Our thank you
(if warranted)
gets given.
Our information
(if needed)
gets exchanged.
Our frivolous word or friendly observation
(if it might fit)
might get fitted.
I live in a place with public smiles for private eyes
on common paths with crossing points.
If you know such place,
perhaps you too know me.

Bob Komives :: Fort Collins © 1998
I Live Where Strangers Smile :: ,9819

Victory

Victory

Bob Komives

::

With early victory come sun beams.
Later, come smoke and ash that hide defeat.

We now retreat,
but first we won
over.whelm.ing.ly.
We thought we knew
to administer our place,
to celebrate our art,
to hand our wisdom
to generations that we would save from history.
Soon, we end retreat,
regroup and wait,
to remember how victory came
and forget which way it went.
So, let us post now an order to govern our attack
when we take back the larger part.
Some of us
(duty bound)
must turn coat
to defend retreating enemy
--and there defend our victory.

Early victory brings sun beams.
Total victory portends defeat.
Let us stop this time where the sun shines.

Bob Komives :: Fort Collins © 1998 :: Victory :: ,9816

Szent Miklós

notes on pronunciation and meaning:.............................
Szent Miklós is Saint Nicholas in Hungarian
and is pronounced Sent ME-cloh-sh.
The Hungarian word, sír,
is pronounced as the English word, sheer.
It has two meanings: burial grave and to cry.
A village named after Szent Miklós sits on
the Small Plain of Hungary--near Austria.

Szent Miklós

Bob Komives

::

I came by the long way.
You stayed by the hard way.
But we came out together
to this small fertile plain
--Szent Miklós.

I would not have known you.
You would not have known me.
But we found out together
I was lost on this plain
--Szent Miklós.

Boy of a past son's boy.
Girl of a past son's girl.
But of one great grand father
and his grandfather's home
--Szent Miklós.

To "sír" is to cry here
by "sír" where they lie here,
where they bore us together
from this small fertile plain
--and village.

You stayed with your village.
I came from my village.
Then we found us together
midst these flowers and stones
--and candles.

I came by the long way.
You stayed by the hard way.
Almost nothing in common,
almost no common tongue
--nor story.

We would not have known us.
Man of past daughters.
Woman of past sons.
Till now in our village,
embraced as one family.

To "sír" is to cry here
by "sír" where they lie here
in this small fertile plain
-Szent Miklós.

Bob Komives :: Fort Collins © 1998 :: Szent Miklós :: ,9813

Passion Runs Against My Fear

Passion Runs Against My Fear

Bob Komives

::

Passion runs against my fear,
but who now rules my vein?
I vote for this passion
but bet on my fear;
welcome passion,
rent room to fear.
'vow to change,
'swear by change
to rearrange my fluid.
But when will passion reign?
I vote for this moment
and hope for next year.

Bob Komives :: Fort Collins © 1998
Passion Runs Against My Fear :: ,9810

Where Universe Divides In Two

Where Universe Divides in Two

Bob Komives

::

We can, I suppose,
think of a chemical reaction
at the nucleus of a tiny amoeba
as but one reaction
in
a
chain
that
extends
from
this
amoebic nucleus
to the farthest reach of the biosphere.

We should rather, I propose,
notice this amoeba has a surface,
its working edge,
where universe divides in two;
where biosphere divides into
what-is-this-amoeba
......................... and .........................
what-this-amoeba-is-not

Bob Komives :: Fort Collins © 1998
Where Universe Divides In Two :: ,9806