Emerald Dolls

Creature of the night
lights a cigarette,
"Do not forsake me,"
she whispers to glass
reflecting an emerald self.

"This is what I've become!
While night slipped in the valley
light on either peak
I slipped too
while attempting to cross to the other side.

Dolls, so pretty with porcelain skin
and sea blue eyes,
I put on lipstick and marched in line.
Served booze for dinner
to weary souls
a day's labor done,
night labor just begun.

'It'll rob your soul,'
raven hair warned.
The night or the life?
I did not know which she meant.

Dolls play
customers pay.

No it's not prostitution
not even stripping
but simply serving
a cocktail straight-up
rocks
shot
while humans sleep
and stars fall from the sky.

Oh it's the funnest sort of life
to simply be a doll
dolls play too
once boozers are turned out.

To kiss a pole
We jump so high
hopscotch in the sky
the bar is all ours."

Abed with the rising sun
Awake with the rising moon
soon life becomes darker
as time slips away.

One doll chasing the sun
rises above
never sleeping
two lives meet.
Servant of the day
King at night
he is worshipped
as others fade away.

The night is a time
suitable for some
but most creatures
eventually need sun.

Skin turns emerald
while searching for light
oh emerald
emerald
the color of night.

Emerald
emerald
the creature
comes out of a trance
tap tap tap
she begins to dance.

For she notices light
still on the peak
and swears she'll get back up
no matter how steep.

"I don't know how," she says,
"But I'll find a way."
and suddenly glancing at her hand
indeed finds hope
in a product of the day,
for there something bright
is shining shining

a cigarette flame.

She takes one last drag.

"Light has so many forms,"
She declares
"So it's not about how
but to scale this mountain
I simply begin with now."

The creature begins to climb
emerald skin fades away
it no longer matters who she is
or what she is
as long as she found day.

Copyright © 2009 Chaya Silberstein

Journey Past the Backyard

A long journey the poet took
without ever leaving her backyard.
She left one day and wept;
a whole wide world still to explore.
Tears turned to rivers
she swam across
and conquered an island all to herself.
The poet wept tears of joy,
the world was hers
yet to explore.

Copyright © 2009 Chaya Silberstein

Way of Destiny

Just rescued the following poem from the trash. I had scribbled it on a cocktail napkin and accidentally thrown it out.

Find the road of destiny
uncertainty stabs your back
hesitation bars your way
about to give up
something makes you stay
at least one more day
and the next
and the next

Destination's clear ahead
before you know it
you know you might blow it
but you try anyway.

Copyright © 2009 Chaya Silberstein

Rainbow Splash!

Children play inside a rainbow,
imaginary doors
unlocked by giggles

splashing summer from a fountain
the balding man looks on.

A perfect moment
of a day unfolding
lazily lolling on the edge
of couples kissing
somewhat missing
a rainbow dancing with the kids.

A photo man
installs a tripod
far far from the fountain's mist,
he captures the fountain,
children splashing
but misses the rainbow
inside the bliss.

Later that night
the fountain is quiet
yet people loll along the edge
unaware of the bustle earlier
of a rainbow dancing with the kids.

Copyright © 2009 Chaya Silberstein

The Land of Forgotten Time

Puzzles your mind
The 4am stage
Reveals tonight’s find:
Drunk man in a cage

Hollering, hammering
“Please let me in!”
Choked with stammering
Coked with tin

Caged in plastic
Flapping and flipping
A man gone spastic
Drunk and tripping

Open bar he drank
Like a fish underwater
4am he sank
Quicker than a quarter

Into swampy land
Where all time’s forgotten
Fresh swept sand
Fields of cotton

White expanse of nothing
Nonsense makes sense
Fighting for something
Something so dense

Denser than plastic
Thicker than night
The man gone spastic
Continues to fight

The set is all wrapped
The audience gone home
Silly man trapped
Now all alone

Thrashing and wailing
He’s committed no crime
'Cept senses failing,
Stuck in no time.

Copyright © 2009 Chaya Silberstein