Two napkin poems for All Souls’

LONELINESS OF TURTLES

For a drink of water in the middle

Of night but whose thirst is this

I feed with kernel for my lonely

Turtle friend waiting alone

Under the old stair?

Whose whisper do I heed

In wrapping a sampaguita garland

Around the neck of my brown saint?

There’s the horde of the cold and hungry

Feeding on garbage out in our dirty streets

Drug killings a great go-go in all kinds of weather

The blind beggar Bernie waits

Everyday outside the generic pharmacy

There’s also the lizard waiting

For its share of leftover rice

In its own dark corner

Don’t fear or worry, my friend

It’s on with the show

We have old fools left

Out here who love turtles

ATOMIC NEWS

There’s a bit of news from the Internet

About a killing somewhere in Europe

It’s unbelievable, to say the least:

A mother killed her 5-year-old son

After she found out the angel

Had lost his new pair of shoes

This is not madness or cruelty, no.

It’s no longer that simple, the evil piece

Had been pulled out the same day.

Don’t ask me why, it only

Means that symbol or shocker

Whether the lost pair was bought on cash

Or credit. Fake news, whatever. That bitter

Item showed this loveless world

Is coming to an end.