Frank Bana Poems

The boardwalk quivers, carousel lights go out
Jesus in sand guarded by the devout
Summer crowds jostle by the ocean side
Kids scream for tickets to the carnival ride
...

That was the joyful moment
The seafront at Brighton Beach
Sunny,7am, July
A Filipino couple, I would guess
...

Date my Ex
Pimp my Ride
Trick my Truck
...

Can you believe those two, the whole day
Sitting by the screen door window
Staring at the sunlit green
Waiting for a gopher
...

['In Gaza, Fiery Insults to Jews Complicate Peace Efforts' - New York Times,1st April 2008]

['Here lie the killer and the killed,
asleep in one hole' - Mahmoud Darwish]
...

If Israel stood before me as a Jew
And I had the chance to interview
I would ask, why did you become
The very thing that hated you
...

Where are you hiding now, Miss Pearl
Where once we lingered hand in hand
The streets of youth and joyous dance
The beach where names dissolved in sand
...

You Glow in Me

I can't express, can't visualize the shape
And colours of my feelings, touch the words
...

Bryant Park, October, hard against
the granite fence of New York Library, exotic
and home foods in autumn trade,
The sun insistent by its weakness
...

There is a moment of reprieve
A pause that you might call a ‘grace'
When you are reaching for a pen
Reaching for the sky as for a rhyme
...