Three Poems by Tina Ehrami
Gnostic Turpitude
by Tina Ehrami
I am invited to a beheading at dawn.
-"Whose beheading?"
My own, and no, my fears are all gone.
-"What for?"
Haven't you heard, it's the Gnostic turpitude.
-"What is that?"
It's a social crime, vague and in multitude.
-"Who accused you?"
It was Ignorance and Distortion, you see.
-"Who are they?"
Those who blindly search for the key.
-"Which key?"
It is the one that opens their eyes.
-"Then why accuse you?"
Because reflections are what they despise.
-"And now you die?"
Only tomorrow, but I will rise again.
-"How?"
Like a verbal phoenix of my pen.
-"And then?"
I invite Ignorance and Distortion for coffee,
Gnostic turpitude will of course haunt me,
And beheading and rising will just maybe set us free.
L=The Markov Chain
It was an evening in June
When like a monsoon
Liberation came (with the capital L)*
With a single name (for which I fell)
Though now a different moon
Has come so soon
It remains the same (of the capital L)*
And no way to tame (the enchanting spell)
Every day is a day in June
In which we maroon
Without a trace of shame (for the capital L)*
For our burning flame (in our every cell)
*L=Pr
Pr(Xn+1=X)I Xn=Y) = Pr(Xn=XIXn-1=Y)
Wind Brings, Wind Takes
Do not torment me, oh wind
With your restless remembrance
Of menacing soft whispers
It is not fair to make be wander
Dancing in fantasies and illusions
On the faint melody of mercy
Do not seduce me, oh wind
To follow your infinite destiny
On a single fallen orange leaf
Let me sit in this darkened room
That from time to time lightens
With the fireflies of simple joy
Do not leave me, oh wind
Drifting in this endless ocean
Without stars above to find me
Let me cling on to your last breath
Held in a rapture of autumns tale
To float on the horizon of a rising sun