In the Candlelight
the white curtains
lifted once
in the evening wind,
settled
like a thought
unspoken
a candle flame—
scents of gardenia,
magnolia,
Spanish moss
drift through the room
a voice
deep and tonal
softly calls my name
barefoot I run
across the bedroom’s
mahogany floor,
grasp
brass handles—
the door opens wide—
your eyes
in the candlelight
D. G. Vachal © 2026
Image by Melanie H.H. @pixabay
The Light by the Window
the doorknob felt cold
you stood there
your eyes—
I could not enter them
only silence
I waited
for your voice
to call me back
only silence
I stepped into the night
the light by the window
flickered
blocked by your shadow
D. G. Vachal ©2026
Love’s Return
thaw—
chameleon-clad hylas
swarm the moss-green ponds
and buds of water lilies
arise from stalks
among the mottled pads—
I thought you were gone,
buried under hills of snow—
now you return
in the low hum of bees,
the soft whisper
of butterfly wings
I feel you near
in the warmth—
yet I somehow know
you have always been
with me in the cold.
— D. G. Vachal 2026
Image: Seerosen (1915) by Claude Monet
Among the Jasmine Blossoms
a key opens
my father’s filing cabinet
locked
for so long —
the second drawer
overflows with my letters:
stamped envelopes
squiggly pen strokes
from when I was a child,
a teenager,
a young woman,
a mother —
every letter quietly kept
as a jewel
when they came to him
from far away —
now that I am near
I hear his laughter
while I walk in the garden
among the jasmine blossoms.
D. G. Vachal ©2026
Image Attribution: Mokkie, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
The Walk Back Alone
this poem completes the diptych, “A Stranger at Sunset” being the first panel …
the streetlamp stands tall,
a lighthouse guiding my footsteps back —
heartbeats pound my chest:
a rhythmic sound like horse-hooves,
from the tall grasses crickets chirp
out of tempo,
tonight I am bewildered
by this strange evening music —
at the dormitory
I pace the yellow tiled floor,
from a distance
young ladies sit at study tables
with their tea and textbooks —
the night deepens,
I tremble like a leaf in the wind,
gravity forsakes me,
I walk with the stars
light years away,
I am lost in a place
no map can locate —
after restless sleep
another day blossoms in the sky:
a seed within me
stirs from its slumber
awakened
by the stranger at sunset.
D. G. Vachal © 2025
Image by J. Plenio @pixabay
lilies, sparrows and grass 
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