Shall I not?

Shall I not

Come to you

On a dark night

When it is raining

A Bogor rain?

Shall I not look

Into your eyes

when they are moist

With love?

Shall I not speak

The music of my heart

When your footsteps

Sound on wet pavement?

Shall I not lift

A finger to touch

Resounding chords

In your heart?

Shall I not hear

When your sighs are

Filled with the sweetness

Of moon and star filled

Night?

Shall I not do

These things any longer

Or see the lightening

Flash and hear the booming

Thunder of Bogor rain?

Shall I not walk the

Crowded streets where brown-skinned

Men push thread through shoe soles

Rhythmically moving

Fingers gnarled by time?

Shall I not pass

Fruit stalls

While I look

For your face

Somewhere

in the crowd?

I shall see you when

I dream of

What might be

But is not

I leave you

Bogor beauty

Lost in night

Shrouded with

Dark mists

Waiting

For the sun

To rise

On a new

Bogor day.

By B.E. Russel

The writer is an American based in Bogor