Sailing
(7.12.2001) by Irene Hernberg
Trees were bending in unison with
The wildly tapping compass while
The girls were watching the tennis ball-yellow reflection
Of the flame that filtered through the empty wine bottle
The sails flapped like yesterday
Against tomorrows surface while
The girls clenched their teeth as they let
The candle wax melt on their palms
The salt from the foamy ocean danced against
Darkness of the light, bonding itself with the
Fast going spiritual segment of now while
The girls rubbed their eyes and lay down
The lines were taut and the wind chill factor
Stronger than the girls had bargained for while
Getting ready to burn out the candles and
Calling it a night
The Spruce
(4.4.2001) by Irene Hernberg
The flamboyant mirror of his soul reflects
Yesterday�s well-groomed lawns where
Many critters chew on the sapling of a
Spruce
The roots entwine with the impossibility:
Cones that could have fallen from the thick branches
One by one or in well-planned groups
Many would they have been
The flamboyant mirror of his soul reflects
The torn sapling that has ripped up the hope that
One day the moist soil he stands upon won�t be pulled off
His feet.
But little does he know curled within
The flamboyant mirror that reflects his soul;
The door or a Victorian house that
Leans against the scornfully molded lawn,
Is indeed ajar
Beautiful Places, Smiling Faces
(8.8.2000)By Irene Hernberg
He always carries a smile on his lips,
Sleeping at night purring like a mixture of
Joy and anxiety,
The dream must be genuine.
I often watch this smile moving from
High street to the misty grass where
Strong hands lift me higher than,
This must be it.
I see things in the eyes looking at the out-going fire,
Where the hidden thoughts show more than you,
But I know too well about the
Anguish that is playing on your wine-scented skin.
The combination intoxicates the
Imperfect proportions where I
Carry the thoughts of you and me
Making it all the way to the morning.
Falling
18.8.2000, Irene Hernberg
It dawned to me in the early hours
Rushed through me happy-go-lucky
And returned back to its secret place
Where I often smell lavender and licorice
It made me sure of the one sharing
Cold rainy moments in the hot and humid
Mixing toothpaste with ciabatta bread
Picking eyelashes from the high cheeks
In the darkness of the light where
Bedspreads mingled with small thoughts
I realized that there was no turning back
From the eyes that talk to me while I am sleeping.
Ghost
19.12.2000, Irene Hernberg
I think I know how it feels to be a ghost
Flying lightly through the rooms
Feeling the touch of breeze as if
nothing bad would come out of it
I think I could become a ghost
Getting glances of different faces while
Moving with the speed of light through
Destinations unknown, too well known
I know how to become a ghost
Don�t need to notice anyone
Can if I so please, but don�t have to
Am just able to float
Just monitoring the aimless lies
That entwine with ruthful unnecessarities
El Bastardo (Spring 1999) Irene
Hernberg
You are always freezing you told me,
Thought it was funny then but see no
Humor in it now
Didn�t I tell you not to?
�
I gave you no encouragement quite
The opposite tried to push you aside before
The freezing process
Took over.
Such nasty one, it was.
I felt for you then
Already, you fool thought you really meant what you
But carelessly tossed me aside like
Caesar�s salad:picked me up and
Shoved me on my face
I hate breadcrumbs!
�
So here I am slowly swallowing old lettuce, shut up.
Already.
�
Settling
(Irene Hernberg) 1998
�
Confusion, loneliness with late nights
Against the gray rain raping the windowpanes one by one.
And I feel so, where am I?
Tomorrow will give me nothing everything gives tomorrow
Crawling in mud could you please close the curtains!
�
Tick-tock time running away like quicksilver slyly disappearing to the
Sewage, I call it home.
Tick-tock
�
And who are you to tell me to pick up the trash?
�
Tranquil Thoughts
by Irene Hernberg
�
Cold tranquility
Covering the streets burdened with thick layers of ice.
Not a sound can be heard,
Wait, I think I can hear it whisper!
�
She approaches from the distance
With
heavily perspired air that
�
Makes my hair alive.
Walking right towards me
Crooked smile on her steely lips
I am not anymore.
�
Heartbeat against my chest
It belongs to me like
�
A newborn baby clinging to her mother.
Smother me, devour my existence
I do exist but I am invisible!
�
�
Freezing point
(December 3. 1998) Irene Hernberg
�
I walk through your breath
The steam mingles on my cheeks
The warmth that I feel is very,
And then it�s gone.
�
Wonder how you did that
Again how could you?
�
I feel nothing tomorrow will be quite ordinary
Yet the breath is still there,
Damp on my cheeks
Freezing me, warming me up.
�
How could you?
��
Fall 1999, Irene Hernberg
�
Green flashes passed me in a shape of a tram that
Makes my toes itch while I tighten the scarf around my
Neck without it doing any good anyway because
The wind is there, always,
�
Leading me on taking away from me
The necessary portion of my hair that,
Flows in several interesting angles,
But that is so very and so it goes,
�
Who would have guessed that the green
Flashing me, penetrating my privacy would
But I knew there was something extreme
On the lips of the man that spoke to the child
�
�
THE BEACH
(Jan 2, 00) Irene
Hernberg
�
Fine sand between my toes
Stuck there for a long time,
So fine that even the water won�t rinse it.
�
Hot pavement underneath but I�ll walk it because I have to
Feet don�t get burn marks easily,
Do they?
�
BEAUTY
(fall 99) Irene Hernberg
�
What is beauty but a false interpretation
Of a human being.
Bad breath asks for tolerance
Receding hairline needn�t be combed back.
�
Bunch of flowers lay dead in a vase
My grandmother smiled just before she passed away.
�
I sweep you under my mat
And keep you there
A few days
Just to make sure
�
I then move on taking the vacuum cleaner
Out and sucking you into the
Stuffy bag with the rest of the litter
I keep you there for sometime
�
Oh oh, the vacuum bag is now full
And off I slightly swing
It into the waste bin
Outside my apartment building
�
The next day, I already set my alarm the night before,
I wake up extra early and watch the
Garbage truck dump you in
And drive you away
��
�
What�s the point of
Having a few pieces of chocolate
Knowing they�re only going to melt in your mouth
And then disappear?
�
Freezing your nose in the icy rain
Feels good when you know
That�s the worst
It�s going to get
�
But when the chocolate is served to you
On regular basis and the frostbites
Leave permanent marks on your nose
You have to repaint your room
�
EARTH WORM (Irene Hernberg) Spring 99
�
Did you ever wonder how things would go if� they went just� the
way you wanted
Them to go? Would you be content or would you set more goals or demands
to
Yourself or to people close to you?
�
I know one thing. I would not be happy nor content. I would want more
all the time
And by doing just that I would be miserable and feel out of place. I
would look for a perfect harmony, which is an impossibility. Yes, I would
fiercely strive on impossibility and when I would realize that that really is
impossible I would sink very low.
�
Low to the ground where the worms feast on dirt and the word cocktail
party is surreal.
�
In search of something
Inconceivably stunning I
Roamed through the streets
Covered with dirty slush
�
My shoes sank into it making
My socks damp and my feet
So cold, I looked around me
But couldn�t find it like others
�
Around me I heard laughter
The bus was waiting for me
On the curb but I was afraid
To get on it
�
I refused to be the one laughing
And preparing a barbecue
In a summer-tendered island
Because I didn�t want the
Mosquitoes nibbling on my shoulder
�
Sudden surge of energy ran through
Me when I had just decided to
Be meaninglessly empty
The eyes listen to my lips doing
Jay-walking across a fresh smelling bush
�
There is a hare silently monitoring
The closeness of two strangers
Exchanging powers of
Exes and love that might exist
Or might not between
�
The gray against gray
Matching souls to some
Extensions
We might call each other collect now
But that�s ok.