The Songless Guitar and the Flower

The songless guitar on a far star said to the flower

(Growing in the earth of another world)

A stranger you are, O Flower, yet nearer to me than any love

I wonder with wondering heart

Can ever you and I, come together

You so far away, in your distant world

Blooming fragrantly, radiantly

I, alone, in this desolate land

A songless guitar

There you are, O Flower, with a question unspoken on your lips

And here am I, a songless guitar, a question hidden in my silent strings

We stand facing each other – Worlds apart, Worlds apart

I know with the knowledge of the knowing heart

Whatever I can give you, Whatever I can offer you

With both arms outstretched, Will be less than it should be

If I offer you a song, a song loses its meaning

With time falls silent – falls silent

If I offer you a poem, written with the tender petals of my heart

Petals fade and wither, Poems get lost,

Hearts stop beating, in the dusty pages of lost time – lost time

And time itself, Crumples into the dust – into the dust

There you are, O Flower, with a question unspoken on your lips

And here I am, a songless guitar, a question hidden in my silent strings

We stand facing each other – Worlds apart, Worlds apart

-by Rita Putatunda