By the old Moulmein Pagoda, lookin' eastward to the sea,
There's a Burma girl a-settin', and I know she thinks o' me;
For the wind is in the palm-trees, and the temple-bells they say:
"Come you back, you British soldier; come you back to Mandalay!"
Come you back to Mandalay,
Where the old Flotilla lay:
Can't you 'ear their paddles chunkin' from Rangoon to Mandalay?
On the road to Mandalay,
Where the flyin'-fishes play,
An' the dawn comes up like thunder outer China 'crost the Bay!
......
When I was a windy boy and a bit
And the black spit of the chapel fold,
(Sighed the old ram rod, dying of women),
I tiptoed shy in the gooseberry wood,
The rude owl cried like a tell-tale tit,
I skipped in a blush as the big girls rolled
Nine-pin down on donkey's common,
And on seesaw sunday nights I wooed
Whoever I would with my wicked eyes,
The whole of the moon I could love and leave
......
I prefer red chile over my eggs
and potatoes for breakfast.
Red chile ristras decorate my door,
dry on my roof, and hang from eaves.
They lend open-air vegetable stands
historical grandeur, and gently swing
with an air of festive welcome.
I can hear them talking in the wind,
haggard, yellowing, crisp, rasping
tongues of old men, licking the breeze.
......
warm green days have come
and candy striped rainbow skies
buttercup surprise
bee visits red rose
near the house of gold treasure ~
sweet beyond measure
purple lilies please
through sparkling emerald days
......
Now as I was young and easy under the apple boughs
About the lilting house and happy as the grass was green,
The night above the dingle starry,
Time let me hail and climb
Golden in the heydays of his eyes,
And honoured among wagons I was prince of the apple towns
And once below a time I lordly had the trees and leaves
Trail with daisies and barley
Down the rivers of the windfall light.
......
warm green days have come
and candy striped rainbow skies
buttercup surprise
bee visits red rose
near the house of gold treasure ~
sweet beyond measure
purple lilies please
through sparkling emerald days
......
haiku : turtle dove
turtle dove landed
love sought crumbs on green grass dew ~
heart cracked so open
————-
hiku : turtle dove
//_________\\
t e
......
Rich, pink magnolia buds, lush in a deep green world ~ heartbeats of spring
Continue reading
pastel spring's coming
ushered in by fresh fragrance
lemon blooms sunning
posh pink flowers peep
pearl snowdrops left with the clouds
blue roses still sleep
buttercups, lilacs
green ivy resumes its creep
......
Sleeping in blossoms, plush pillows!
Fleeting dreams, of pink, cloud billows.
Red, orange, purple and golden,
spread over green park, so olden.
Soft, the sighs, as hummingbird flies,
Oft' plagued by purple martin cries.
Falling through petals ~ deep, downy.
Crawling time, scented and drowsy.