STARS AND MOOON AND THE RIVER (After Tu Fu)

After a thunderstorm,

the autumn night is clear.

The river which was boisterous

is now peaceful as a sleeping child.

The Milky Way is like snow.

Against a stark black sky,

the stars glisten like ice.

The moon glows like a monkey’s nose.

I’ve looked at it a thousand times.

When I’m dead, it will still

be here for all to see.

No one will ever think of me,

or what I once wrote.

Does that make me sad?

I’m merely a human.

That is how it has to be.

APPROACHING OLD AGE (After Su Tung Po)

Having drunk too much,

I walk the empty street,

seeking relief in the night air.

But the past attacks me

like a hoard of vultures,

swooping from their dark lair.

But I can’t care.

What does it matter?

The stars look down

from unimaginable heights,

and look far beyond me.

Dead leaves fall at my feet.

I have no time for regrets.

I return home late.

My wife is in the kitchen

baking a treat,

and I still have time left

to enjoy it,

with a cup of soothing tea.

George Freek is a poet/playwright living in Illinois. His poems have recently appeared in “A New Ulster”; “Ink, Sweat and Tears”; “The Gentian Journal”; “Miller’s Pond”; and “The Whimsical Poet”. His plays are published by Playscripts; Blue Moon Plays; and Off The Wall Plays.