I hear your voice amidst the maddening crowd
where people talk in strange tongues, unaware of others
but themselves. I am alone, talking only to you
though we are miles away.
I see you behind the voice;
your smiles, guffaws in something I mention
or as I grumble about the traffic,
your gestures, combing your salt and pepper hair
with your callous hand that I once felt on my skin.
I wonder how it feels now if you caress me as I
speak nonsense, just to make you smile and hear your
voice amidst the maddening crowd.
But it is time for me to go back and we both
say goodbye miles away.
I enter the gates of no return
and you also in my imagination
enters the opposite gate
parallel but would never meet.
We accept it as we both laugh
from afar, saying promises
in the wind,
amidst the maddening crowd.
I never look back because
you are not there but only
a voice in my mind ?to calm me down
as I walk on amidst the maddening crowd
towards the gate of my reality.

# # #

Eunice Barbara C. Novio, is from the Philippines and presently residing in Thailand. She teaches English and Psychology at Vongchavalitkul. Aside from teaching, she is also a correspondent of Inquirer.Net US Bureau. She has also published poems in various anthologies and at the Philippine Graphics one of the oldest magazine in the Philippines. She just recently published a book of poetry entitled: Maps of Dreams and Memories.

Photo credit: Terri Malone