Five Wonderful Poems by Milton Ehrlich

 

MISSING

 

Every morning I rediscover

something missing when I awaken  

listening to songbirds tweeting harmoniously

like we used to do.

I stare at the empty space next to me in my bed,

and even though the tree outside my window is not a weeping willow,

the leaves are shedding voluminous tears.

Loving ladybug of my mine, have you flown away for good?

MY WILD WELSH EYEBROWS

 

Grew as big and bushy

as the black forest grove

on the face of John L. Lewis,

head of the workers union

who appeared on newsreels

of the 1930’s Great Depression.

The older I got, the more my

eyebrows took off without any

warning, resembling a hayfield

before getting baled for a barn.

While I was asleep, I could hear

the snip, snip, snip of my wife

trimming my brows— the juice of

her loving devotion that lubricates

the wheels of our harmonious bond.

THE LOVE OF ONE WOMAN

 

You were a catalyst

who mesmerized me

with your radiance,

and the contours of your

elegant body.

You awakened me

in ways I had never

permitted myself,

allowing me to see

everything with the

curiosity of the blind,

to see the world

with new eyes.

I was a rudderless ship.

You were a guiding compass

who sent me on an adventure

with sensations of joy alien to me.

Your love will keep me feeling alive

for as long as I live.

THEIR FRAGILE PARADISE

 

Tweeting lovebirds swing and sway

by fitting together tongue & groove

like old oak floors with shiny patina.

They never cease romancing

no matter how old they get.

Their songs of love echo over

the mountain top of Kilimanjaro

in Tanzania where giant tree ferns

mingle with African blood lines,

yet all these two aging birds see

are one another.

TIME DRAGS WHEN YOU’RE ALONE

 

A genuinely sad face remains.

Clocks have all slowed down,

even the birds remain asleep.

The world is quiet as the tomb

that is waiting nearby for me.

I row my dinghy all the way up

tears of the Yalu River wearing

my Korean War veteran’s cap,

wondering where did my life go?

All I have to offer is the steel plate

in my head, frostbitten toes and

a heart made out of solid gold.

Milton P. Ehrlich Ph.D. is a 90-year-old psychologist and a veteran of the Korean War. He has published many poems in periodicals such as the London Grip, Arc Poetry Magazine, Descant Literary Magazine, Wisconsin Review, Red Wheelbarrow, Christian Science Monitor, and the New York Times.