Is love visceral? Is love political?
We elect emotions as tyrants
Dictating the rest of our history
While I hold your hands gently
Walking down the parliament
Of desire throbbing inside.
Do you still believe in democracy
Or are we doomed to fiasco?
Listen to the waves inside my chest
As if they are laws mandated
By the highest order, I surrender
As they surge back and forth
In a rhythmical harmony I thought
A crime. Embrace society’s whims
For this is voting for us, a vetoing
Against solitude. When we ended
This dictatorship, you thought
I was a communist, so we share
Arguments about it. You never
Succumb yet I never capitulate.
This dying evening, we relive
My heartbeats rallying, mobilizing
Against this but you acquiesce
With a governing kiss. I kiss back
And we begin chronicling love.
April Mae M. Berza
April Mae M. Berza received an Honorable Mention at the 19th HIA Haiku Contest and the 7th Akita Russia-Japan Haiku Contest. Her poems and short stories appeared in numerous publications in the United States, France, Canada, Belgium, Romania, India, Japan, Great Britain, and the Philippines.
