SHERVIN

fray

fold all your pain neatly

starched with stark crisp creases

criss crossing your facile face

where tears now flow

in wrinkled river beds

down your once rosy cheeks.

let the dust settle in

the hills and valleys

of your favorite armchair

where you measure time

in endless gray snowstorms.

let it settle deeply, since

time turns all colors gray

blazing suns set one final day

every atoms edge begins to fray

all light fades to gray.

this heart that like the mighty oxus flowed

now ends in dry rivulets

baked by the sun that wooed you

make all your sorrow neat

fatten the pillows, soothe the frayed edges

of your favorite silk sheet

and write unsent thank you notes

at dusk, after the office,

travel an armchair's ridges,

walk the valley of the shadow of avarice,

marvel at the drapes dead foliage

once loved, beloved, and now deeply loved

-Shervin Pishevar 2001

In the valley of hope
Springs stream silently
Invisible to dreamers
Who lean into the wind
Arched forward
As if they would rather
Skip the undeniable presence
Of the present
leap into an unknown future
they would rather invent
than resent.
The past and present seem to
Melt;
As if they never existed
refused like dirty discarded refuse
only to be recycled in repetitive
cycles; the reruns
whose writers never relent;
and never strike
except to pounce
on fancy future plans
like tigers leaping across
the enclosures
we think cage
the lesser devils of our nature;
who we taunt
drunk with the
false sense of security
our dreams give.
Pierce the veil
Of audacity
And find within
the humble
fusion
of
the
future
we
dream;
the
present
we
skip;
the
past
we
flee.

-Shervin Pishevar

Silicon Valley, Palo Alto, California

April 4, 2008