Thursday 26 November 2015

#56

Yes
I believe
Everything you say
And them when
They tell me
Like a lamb
Lead to slaughter
You were manipulated
And him when he
States you believe
Everything
For you are too nice
Too much
Too less
Too little
To comprehend
How someone could be
All you want
And tomorrow they won't
Need you
But now
The nod
The wink
Is everything
And it leads me
Offroad
Into uncertain caves
To ashes
While I
Look for gold

#57

I return to your shores
And find you changed 
The thrill has departed 
And your smile doesn't
Sting the same
The old house
By the sea is gone
The tides took away
The things thatmade you belong

#58



You
Who I haven't met
In the light
Or moving like
An island
In the dark
I'll slowly
Kiss your
boundaries
That the waves
Couldn't wash away
you leave little room
For hands and feet
And the rest of me
But I will nudge
Till the cage of
your ribs
Gives way
And your palms
break open
But maybe when you
Let me in
hold
A mirror
And in your eyes
I'll find
Myself

Monday 16 November 2015

#59



Haunted, we meet
Broken, we speak
Like the town we birthed
now lies forsaken
Our language
needs no translation
And I'll never know
Who's waiting by the shores
You departed
Who's still feeding the fire
You started
Who still trembles
When you say the words "Let's go"
And who is saving your rain
In buckets by their window.

#60

Alone in a box of stone
Life is a lie we've known
Rolling and tumbling
Down the mountain
We are fire
We are the waters
Of the unknown
But we make
Haste, running
Through the sun's
Golden lace
And they say
Living is
just another
Waste of space.

#61



Your pixel heart
Your pixie hands
Cannot fathom
The phantom
As
Bodies fill
Your room
And you just gaze
At another day
Where people
Still don't
Remember
Your name

#62



Your heart rages
Like a tidal wave of water
But your eyes burn like fire
In your mind you say
You're married
But your heart knows
You've retired

I'm the light guiding your way
Through the promise and the pain
Through all consequences, dire
You're a glistening, deserted
Street in the rain
I'm the streetcar named desire.

#63



Rain a little
The tides are calm
The storm has left
Your eyes are dry
Rain a little
The coast is clear
The neighbours have departed
The shells have turned
Rain a little
The wind is soft
The sky is clean
The birds are silent

Rain a little
My hands are empty
Your back is sore
The seeds need water

#64



Reaching
Out to you
A spinning tire
Is tiring
The death of me
So I close my arms
And rain
I fill your house
I drown
You in your sleep
I flood your dreams
There will be
No islands
Just stones
That sink
When you hear the rain
A-coming
That'll be me
At your door

#65



*pop* *pop* *pop*
She popped bubbles for a better world
A forest fire
turned field
A field turned
parking lot
But all I heard was *pop*
The father came
Just the same
Took your tales
Heard you complain
Wished he'd make
You stop
But the bubble wrap
Is far too kind
And the squeeze is
Worth the *pop*
And I recede
In the same decree
You keep repeating
Like an old story
In different shades
And sizes
Like a key that
Never locks
But the air you
Breathe is pocket sized
And you pinch
My bubble
With a *pop*

#66

The disease of you
Spreads silently
Like a vine
Around my neck
And your
flowers
Touch no skin

#67



If I tied my life
To a fallen tree
If I died like the moon
By the sea
If I sang some songs of wisdom
Would you still carry me?
But little did you know
Little did I see, there are
Secrets behind your ear
And your regrets make a sea.

#68



Your endless legs
Forever eyes
Many fingers sprouting forth
From your
Countless hands
And your hair
Wild, in
The wind, blowing
Dancing
With your hourglass
Where the sands have frozen
Is far too little
For my misshapen feet
These crooked hands
My wandering eyes, my
Troubled heart
My mistaken mind
And the ticking clock
Of my hairline
All I have
Are words.

#69

Sure
Your irony is spot on
And words are
Your playthings
The gyre has come undone
Mere sarcasm is
Loose upon the world
For you
Give it all for
Other playthings that
Don't lose their sheen
Because
"What shines, sells"
And
"Glow and be noticed"
Are the bellowing horns
Of the 21st century
That drown out
Your sound
But
I don't believe
In flashing lights
In make up
Made up face
In a semblance of you
They only see
But not know
I don't care for
You devoid of tricks
And mystery
If you're not the
same underneath
In photographs
In autographs
I'd rather have
Something of yours
Something you
You.

Wednesday 11 November 2015

#70

So you try and pick
Your brain
And you start a war
To shame us
You yearn for eyes so bad
You'll buy a blue
Raincoat
Just to make it famous

#71



Love was like a lesson
I never learnt
Love was like a candle
She sent for me to burn

Quietly she departed
Quietly she prayed
Silent, she walked
Silent she lay

Love was like a lesson
I never learnt
Love was just a table
left for me to turn

#72



Bid farewell
To directions of chalk
On the maps we found
Goodbye to
Her face that lures
And lies still
With no semblance
Of a smile
Or a frown

#73

"Son,"
"Do I have your attention?"
"Father,"
"Do I have you?"

#74



Dirty joke
And the world goes
For a spin
All fingers point to
The contrary
The opposite of you
The sea inside, calm
The storm, raging
For a minute
And the creatures
Hiding
Behind the structures
of man
In your mind
But no one and
Nothing
is a mirror
For your smiling eyes
I'd rather look at
Your face when you laugh

#75



Wake up the mannequins
The time is ripe for words
Time to kill the silence
With ink
Time to walk
And douse these blank
Pages with blood
Spilled in the middle of the
Night, full moon, owl's gaze
Dogs howling
Amongst sounds of scribbling
Amplified
By the candle burning
At both ends
Your house, on fire
The waves rising
Your mind,
Awake.

#76



It fascinates me
How a black pencil
And powder
Blurs out the edges
Of you
And how
Using brushes
And borrowed gloss
And sparkle
You keep the chisel
Sharp and blunt
And the hammer
Is struck with vengeance
To thaw all naysayers
And wrong wishers
Your youth, fading
Into a perfect circle
And you keep erasing
Till you remove
Yourself
And then it becomes
Clear, like your second
Skin, ironed out
Spread like a brand
New carpet
How easy it is
For you to brush
Aside, like a crooked jigsaw
Piece, a tiny
Flake
That seems
Out of place

#77



I open my eyes
And appear
Laughing
Into the world
Whimpers aside
The truth is
The world ends
With silence.
Silence of action, the waves
That never simmer
The silence of love
Of wanting and wanting
The silence of sight
Silence in your eyes
So I close my eyes
And disappear.

#78

The endless wheel
Turns and
Whirrs, spins
Repeats
And is born again

#79



Your first name
Is free
You don't even know
The meaning of
A bird or have wings
Or utter poetry
In the dark of the night
Like your name
Your aunt's cousin thought
Sounded 'aspirational'
The second one
Is a joke
Found written
On your school bathroom
Walls, on hard concrete
Etched at the back
Of desks and chairs
The one you can't erase
So you learn to live
With the same
The third is the one
You borrow
From someone much better
With a broader chest
Or better hair
And the smile that no
One forgets
Fourth is the one you believe in
Like a bad haircut
Or nipple piercings
Or a colourful tattoo
From a comic book
You read when you were 16
Others chime
'It's just a phase'
Fifth is a cage
You craft
And you stay in till
Your bones give way
Till age withers
And cracks, till you
Finally lose words
And letters
And meanings
Of all the people
And all the places
You used to be
Of all the names
You once had

#80



The winds carry us
Through lands whose name
We learn to pronounce
Thanks to a tattered book
With the cover of a man
On a hammock with a straw hat
We bought second hand
From a store we never visit
But we were pulled
By the hope
That one day we shall
Find ourselves
In a place where people
Wouldn't know
our name

#81



I've held you captive
On a page too long
So take my words
And go
I'll find my way through
Your mind's deserted streets
Places I can't touch
and know
It’s been ten years
But I found a home
In a town I thought was wrong
The rain will wash my dirty feet
And I'll keep singing my song

#82



I've stopped
Requesting
Wanting
Needing
Anger is a gift
They said
But pain is a privilege
And so is sadness
For those who can still
Afford to feel
And when the time is
Right
Choose to kneel
So when you say
It sparks nothing
When you say my arms
Are no shelter
Bereft of comfort
And my feet are more worn
And weary than the eyes
And the mouth that
Gave you away
You have only
Yourself
To blame

#83

Your eyes have a fire
You cauterise the sun
Your words only pierce the flag I wave
Your mouth, the barrel of a gun

#84



If levitation
Is a crime
You won't catch
Me flying
But if walking
Is proof
Being grounded
Has its use
Come on over
I'll rhyme a step
Or two
With you

#85



Trying to write myself
On a page
But the arrows in
Her eyes keep
Me glued to
A mirror forgotten
A reflection, lost
The wine, spilled
Through these lines

#86



The four walls of my house
welcomed
Three new lives today
Packed in four suitcases, five bags
And six cartons
Four more yet to arrive
Lost in transit
Like official affidavits in
My uncle's name, we tremble
When we cross his path
Three humans, flesh and bone
Three new lives minus one
From a desert of death, ignored
Where their language is as sweet
As summer dates and grapes from Turkey
They are known to sell
And yet they sharpen their blade
On their tongue
A land where women have turned
To shadows turned to dust
And the dust goes with the wind
Blowing nowhere and gathers in this
Desert with no shelter and home
Three new lives
Waiting to become one

#87



So up in smoke
Or in the land
In a barrel in the ocean
on a boat
Down the hatch
Wherever you may sleep
Or meet the tears
we weep
Know this
You didn't pass through
These hands
Like the crystal grains
Of sand

#88



You're searching for the exits
Looking at the clock
Your bastard heart still keeps rolling
Down life's mountain like a rock

Tumbling through the air
You find what you believe
You spin and dance and hold the hand
Of all you came to need

And when the end comes
You save not a sigh
No letters with letters that make words
No songs for goodbye

#89



Today i am okay with not meeting you
to watch you trudge slowly towards me
and beam a large smile
you walk so slowly
dragging your feet
like a slave of obligation
I, your lowly master
or so I think
millions of years between us
turned to sand
And broken like rocks
we dragged to build a monument
we never visit
today i am okay with not meeting you
is perhaps
what you tell yourself everyday

#90



My house has numbers
you cannot fathom
Marooned at edge of a city
On the verge of collapse
The cracks get wider
As the 11% coalesce and converge
The veins jut out like a
Badly made old painting
And sure its washed by a sewage river
Far away from
Your picket fence, your
Friendly neighbourhood dog
And air conditioned, 24x7 power backup
And high-speed internet connection
Another ghetto full of spells and curses
For mothers and sisters and often I wish
It would just flow away in the river
Or get swallowed in its own tide
Of ineptitude, when they raise
Six story tall broken dreams on
A 50-square foot plot
I'm not leaving till I
Leave for good
I will not step out of what
I call my home
Until I step away
To a town drenched with tales of my mother
To a city drowned in time
Come see me instead

#91

I beat the wolves
Blue and back
Now I'm famished
As my claws dry
And my fangs sleep
The night is
My disguise
While you run
hide and flee.

#92



The flame has changed shape
Put on colours
Now it dances
In the dark
Swaying in the wind
And now the rain is gone
Into seven shades
And the sun of the day
Has has its say
The light burns at both ends
Its here to stay.

#93



You used to cut yourself
And send me pictures
Of your bleeding arms
Now you click
And put up pictures
Where you're
Cutting a heart shaped cake

#94



I like watching
Women bob their head
And the men
Dancing on the spot
The people losing
Their minds and
Not their money
And friends
Having full bellies
Everyone smiling
At least once everyday
And 4 second hugs
I like time balanced
On the scale of
Silence and
Proportion
not distance
For lengths can only
Cover so much
And our arms only
Reach so far
But I am here
And so are you
So let's forget
About how tomorrows
Will comprise of us
Gazing out the window
Flicking a pen
And recalling
Each other's voice

#95



I'll forgive your armies
Of loss, of giving no love
Of the sorrows and sorry
You surround yourself with
Of the sound you don't make
As you approach
With your
Head held low
And your fears
Rising to the fore
Your sunken eyes
Forever lie
You smile and say
The place where you stand
Is alone.

Tuesday 10 November 2015

#96

I'm trying to pack 27 years
Into a suitcase
And the memories
Keep spilling out.

Monday 9 November 2015

#97

The world dances
when you're in a train
The hills turns to mountains
Plain fields rise and fall
The tracks converge
In X and Y
Divide and become
Two and then one again
The locomotive salsa
Spares none
Stirs you like tea
In your sleep.

Friday 6 November 2015

#98



I've never understood women
Who don't wear
The same clothes twice
And men who check their hair
In the wind
Fighting repetition
Feigning perfection
Forgetting human.