Juniper
Swaying in the wind, the cool breeze moves
The falling leaves that touch my nape
Green and orange with light veins on
The surface of the natural element
Autumn is an uncle with a beastly
A heart that causes death inside youth
The tree sunken deep from the roots
It grows down instead of geotropic up
The roots grow deeper to withstand
The trauma and the leaves turn red
During the monsoon season and winters
Making the blooming roses jealous
People beset with grief of the disturbance
Tree stunting its growth, until the snow comes
And sunshine blooms the roots up again
Making the tree fully grow into adulthood
Java Rickshaw Man
The Java Rickshaw Man has dark skin and strong limbs
Lean, full of stamina with his legs that cycles all about town
A Rickshaw man picks up two girls after school with books
In their hands and hair tied in a ponytail with pleated red skirts
Cycling and pulling the rickshaw along the rice paddies farms
Rickshaw man cycles through the heat, rain, or what comes
He stops by a small bungalow along the rice paddy farms
It was the street corner store that sells foods and drinks
He eats white rice with fried tofu and fresh cut watermelons
With some hot chilies made of red tiger peppers for might
Rickshaw man pays with his money enough for a meager meal
He picks up Grandma with some corn and peanuts in her bag
To go from the farms to the small village market fair
Unknown Java Rickshaw Man cycles to drive everyone about the town
From dawn to dusk he is the beloved Java Rickshaw Man
Breath
Speaks of life that seeps
Into our blood and moves
Through our veins, pumping
Oxygen in, carbon dioxide out
Lowering out tension from
Horrors of tragedy or trauma
Violence has no room for each
Inhale as our soul rests within us
Immersing our spirit with breath
Turning our sorrows to a still
Shoving out hatred and comparison
Instilling peace and serenity in me
What walk transforms suffering
Into particles of the Earth’s biosphere
Feeding our brain with antioxidants
Swallowing the next moment whole
Selah.
Diana Kurniawan, a writer and poet based in Berthoud, Colorado, USA. Her works have appeared or are forthcoming in Twenty Bellows, Words and Whispers Journal, South Broadway Ghost Society, Gypsophila Zine, RawLit, Ridgeline Review, Iceblink Literary, On the High Literary, and was featured in Glow, an anthology of healing and self-care poetry by Indie Earth Press.