Frank Bana Poems

I thank You My Lord for this happy moment
Crossing my face with a half-moon smile
For the song in my soul and the tears of salt
This sacred melody draws from my eyes
...

Columbus sailed for riches
Pizarro and Cortes sought gold
The living slaves, the dead of Haiti
The Aztecs and the Incas
...

American lives
Are being wasted in Iraq.
It is entirely evident
Why, by whom
...

I don't drive and
can't see out
the corners of my eyes
don't want to bring a harm to
...

If I could be my ego death
The pain of love could be outrun
I could forget
The distance of your womanhood
...

I sat next to a blind young man
His hands upon a coffee cup and cane
The train lurched through the morning air
Sunlight danced across his face
...

His wars have failed
His soldiers die
No-one has ever
Seen him cry
...

Rushdie wrote of the concept and effect
Of shame, how it binds the feet and controls
The lives of families, pushes girls to arranged
Marriages, where fathers keep them bound
...

'Can I help anyone? '
Voice thin and high, Asian-inflected
Female, hints of softness and suggestion.
'Can I....? '
...

There must be a man somewhere
Who sees into the heart of things.
 
Ventricles clogged by secret lust
...