Poetry: Selections from Maria A. Arana

The Treasure

all the color in the world

won’t brighten a smile

or weaken the knees

 

it’s a cursed weight

on the shoulders

cradling fear and loneliness

 

from what was found

I wish I had lost it

before this consuming void

 

darkens the world

and I cannot see

the treasure you left me

 

I call it a head

Shy Moon

my heavy feet

trod

this unforgiving orange

patch

streaked with two green

lines

leading past your cabin

 

the lights are on to the

right

the porch

dark

under this shy moon

 

the tall trees

are bars to this prison

and the only solace

is the pink

blooming tree

 

whose yellow trunk

holds

the only hope

a landscape

inside my heart

can bear

a photograph…

a photograph is supposed to unlock 

all the secrets your Self portrays in reality

but pictures can be altered

changed

cut

mended

and who is the wiser?

Maria A. Arana is a teacher, writer, poet, and editor. Her poetry has been published in various journals including Spectrum, Big Windows Review,

and Aromatica Poetica.