Chrysanthemum Refrain

This poem was inspired by a music composition by Branic Howard entitled "Chrysanthemum Hours" and the work of Fernando Pessoa.

"I am going to Exist. To ex-ist...To ex-ist. Give me something to drink, for I am not thirsty!"
~ Fernando Pessoa

Chrysanthemum Refrain

I hesitate to write

the chrysanthemum song,

one of timbrel possibilities

amidst an oblique rain.

"Should you ask me if

I'm happy, I would

answer..."

a cascading gold,

a bronze bow

toward sunlight,

a lithesome lean

into a tremulous summer.

Yet, these are disquieting hours
beneath a tacit moon.
Have I failed?

I require short days

and long nights to tempt

flowering, to bloom

like the Emperor's seal,

the Queen of the Fall.

Do I really exist
in this occidental mystery?

Will days neatly line up

like cheery chrysanthemums

in the Festival of Happiness?

Or will I ex-ist

like a funeral bouquet,

lamentations and incurves,

burnt-orange requiems
of yesterday?

Should you ask me,
I have no answer, as yet,
but I have not failed ~

only, I am thirsty.

Will you water me?