Fate: Four Co-Incidences, Latest Poetry By Adolph Caso

Fate: Four Co-Incidences

By Adolph Adolfo Caso

1.

It is difficult to forget

The image of my aunt

In the back section of the house

Enclosed such that

Entering was easier than exiting

Through the ancient steel-gates,

Confining her to within the walls

And her soul to within her body

With no possibility

Of either one escaping.

Her white hair, disheveled,

Revealed a bald spot to the rear,

Her clothes, in dark shades,

Extended to the ground,

Concealing her feet,

Much as the loose kerchief was ready to hide her face.

Her arm and hand, drawn across her brow,

Covered less the blue in her eyes

Than keeping the light coming from the sun:

“What are you asking, dear nephew?”

She said, in a withdrawn voice.

“Are you hungry? She continued,

Referring those words to me

As she had done so many times

To her son,

Killed by a run-away automobile

In front of our house

While inattentively

Running to the other side of the street.

Why did it happen to him?

Not that it should happen to another mother,

She had reiterated in a previous conversation.

Her heart-wrenching words

Continue to tighten around my own heart

Then, as they do now--

That He,

Should have chosen her son

Or that of any other mother

Believing in the same God!

With no words worthy of consolation,

I withdrew in recoil

Into the inner chamber of my psyche

Without the possibility of extirpation

Or the ability to understand

Or,

Worse,

To give a plausible answer

To her, “Why!”

Or, to,

Why not me

Instead of him!

2.

An octogenarian

Having survived

Direct air and ground attacks

In World War Two,

Not to mention a helicopter crash

That should have killed me and fellow-soldiers,

I remember the day,

As a young boy,

When the Americans liberated my village:

Endless columns of tanks and trucks

Rushing tumultuously from West to East,

With thousands of soldiers marching

On both sides of my street,

Receiving loud cheers and flower-offerings

From our young women, and children alike.

In front of the same house of my future cousin,

I suddenly ran to cross the same street,

Without looking,

And no thought in mind

Except for the frightful look,

On the face of Nina

On the other side of the street,

Which became concomitant

With a whiff of air on my left side.

On plunging foreword, face down,

I felt the heel of my foot barely touching

The churning rubber of the truck’s front tire

Amidst the terrifying shouts of my friends.

Nina, eyes full of tears, picked me up

And held my head to her breast

Much as my mother did in quieter times.

Oh, how I remember that tender moment—

When,

In the single instant,

Fate saved my life.

Or,

Was it my aunt’s God that wanted me alive

So as to tell this and many other stories

Wherein fate and faith intersect?

On looking at the horizon at sunset,

Reflecting on the existence of our Creator,

My father revealed his inner secret:

“I am of You, not You of me,” he said,

To a consternation

That remains hermetically sealed

In my inner being,

As though I were my aunt--

My eyes are welling up!

3.

On stepping onto the deck,

A sudden thump on the window pane   

Caused my eyes to look down;

There, stunned,

With its eyes and legs quivering,

This young Robin lay,

Lifelessly,

Waiting for help.

“God!” I invoked,

As I bent to pick it up.

Its head to one side,

I placed it with its back

In the palm of my left hand,

Its breast toward the sky,

Its feet still twitching,

And,

Its eyelids,

Uncontrollably closing and opening

And seeing nothing.

I brought my finger to its breast

Caressing its soft feathers

And holding its head up

With its beak aimed toward heaven,

I beseeched him, in a low voice,

To respond to my caresses--

To come back to life.

Instead,

Not a minute later,

Its anguish ceased.

The two thin legs stopped twitching;

Its eyes closed as the head fell to one side.

“No!” I yelled uncontrollably,

Knowing the futility of my words.

On placing my right hand over its body

As if giving blessing of the Last Rites,

I walked to the red-mulched ground

At the corner of the house;

After making a slight impression on the ground,

I gently placed the Robin in its bed--

Its beak pointing to the sky.

That evening, light from the full moon ablaze,

I spied from the window:

A short beam of light grew behind the Robin’s beak,

And,

In an instant,

It shot forward into the sky

Quickly disappearing into the horizon.

In the morning, I rushed to the corner

And saw no trace of the Robin

Ever having been there!

     

4.

In a similar incident,

In my garage, sometime ago,

A thump at the window

Revealed the lifeless body

Of a red-neck Hummingbird

On the cement floor.

Never having been so close to one

Was my first great surprise,

As,

Amazingly,

To touch one,

Let alone hold one

In the palm of my hand

Even in death!

The sensation of lightness,

The luminosity of colors,

Shimmering as they do

With every slight positional move

Were more than any other experience

In my entire life—

Greater than anything

Including consummated love

Of the highest order between two beings,

As though,

Its spirit had entered my body

As light permeates air.

Its  body, needing re-generation,

To preserve its soul,

I moved my little finger, caressing the plumage;

My welling tears

Accompanied my anxious words

As a planctus on behalf of Mary

Seeking the Resurrection for her Son.

I was seeking a response

That was not coming.

Yes!

God!

Please!

In holding its long beak,

I moved it to the center

In the direction of the sun,

Beseeching to open its eyes.

On extending my inducing hand,

Suddenly and without warning,

And in one instant of rapture for me,

This little thing without weight

Rocketed itself

Out of my hand and in the direction of the sun

At the same time,

To my immediate and everlasting joy

Gratefully lasting

Henceforth

And sharing it with you,

Now,

As it is flying into your life.
                             ~~~

Adolfo Caso, 

Friend, Author, Photographer, Poet, Publisher

is a regular contributor to

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