The Shackles of your Mind

Look carefully now
Inside your own head
Look and you'll find
The shackles of your mind

Each word you've borrowed
Each thought you've read
Is a link in the invisible chains
That bond and hobble your brains

Those words are the easy way out
Each time that you're plagued by doubt
You let someone else's morals decide
And forget how to take your own side

But what can you do
Oh, what can you do
It's so easy to not be you
To just live your life by the rules
To be a part of this or that school

The formulas of fear that you spout
Instead of working things out
Are a much easier way to go
It's easier to stay stunted than grow

But those chains are so tiny, so frail
If you just examine them in detail
You can snip them with almost any thought
That your own mind has forged and wrought

So if you actually start to think
Be honest with your heart and head
And not fall back on easy things
On the words and thoughts that you've been fed

To your own surprise
You might just find
You've slipped the shackles of your mind

Twilight

In the morning grey
Your skin glows
A bead of sweat
Lies in the hollow
Of your neck
In quiet repose

My tongue reaches
Stretches
Quietly stealing
Gliding
Over your skin
To capture each bead
Which my eyes discover

As I complete
My twilight voyage
You stir, softly
I hear a happy purr
As your limbs find mine
I lie frozen, shocked
Taken by sudden surprise
My heart races
As I realise
For the very first time
How it feels
To have my whole body
Suffused with a smile

vagabond

Ensconced
In cocoons of sleep
Lie the sated ones
Their rumbling snores
Echo down the street
As the lone one roams
The wind is his home
It welcomes him
Caresses him
Holds him closer
Than the fitful sleep
Of dreams

As the sated ones stir
From restless reverie
The lone one finally rests
His soul rising
With the greying dawn
On the streets below
Empty rags lie still
Where once the wind had blown

If

If you were born
to be ash
Or food for worms
would your life be lived
on vastly different terms

If all you stashed
Were to rot or burn
Tonight
What would you learn

Would you change
Could you
Even if you tried
Would you find
Your mind had lied
And things remained
Quintessentially
The same

Sailor Love

The sailor lives
For the kiss
of the spray
It calms his mind
and hurts his hands
As he strains
For control
Over the weapon
he uses
to hold his love
To slice through
His only love

The sea
Yoked
She bleeds
Salty tears

Each tear
Kisses him
And stings him
With salt poured
Into open wounds
His raw hands
His reddening skin

And so we are
My love
Caught in that
Deadly dance

I sail over your body
I worship your mind
You'd take me and crush me
If I wouldn't leave you behind

Touch me then, my love
with every tear
Rock my boat
With just a hint of that fear
With your salted spray
upon my lips
I kiss
Each moment away
I ride every storm
That erupts
from your bosom
I sway
to the shudder
Of each wave
Of emotion
I dare not let go
For if I drown
We will dance no more
And the wind will blow away 

All your tears 

in vain.

passive

the lazy smoke
curls and rolls
Reaching for the ceiling
in slow motion
your lazy lips below
curling too
so moist and red
from the wine
and the laughter
it all makes me feel
so lightheaded...

and the flowers never bloom

In the harsh city air
The plant grows
Explores
With it's stalks
and it's vines
Around pillars and
Inside cracks
It's arms intertwine
And the flower never blooms
As the vine begs for purchase
In non-existent rooms
Petals that will never
See the light of day
Stay firmly huddled
Within its bud
Closeted, fearful
And the flower never blooms
The plants mimic their masters
Within closeted rooms
Fearful, huddled
We stay
Packed tightly away
Within our buds
Petals in decay
For never having seen the sun
And the flowers never bloom...

knife of the night

The moon is the knife of the night
Crescent edged, silver bladed
It's the crack in the darkness
That sheds light
On our flaws
It is the world's excuse for being ugly
For in the night
Everything glows
And looks beautiful
A picture frame
Glamour grows
As the day lies forgotten
The harshness of the night
Is tempered in the softening snowflakes
Of descending light
As the inherent harshness of my sight
Is tempered by your exquisite prose
Your words the silent snowflakes
Of my soul
They are the smile in my morning
And it shows :-)

fevered dreams

The night descends
It's gaping jaws around me
As fevered dreams
Set me shivering

Come and take me, sleep
Do not taunt me
Puncture my skin
Let the world ooze
From me, let my madness
Feed you
Devour me
And in the morning
When the light comes
For you
And you flee
In agony
As my dreams puncture through
Undigested again
Just retreat
We shall meet
And strive again
Lovers in the night
Until fevers take flight
My dreams subside
And you are mine
Or I am yours
For the rest of time...

laughter on the wind

There's laughter on the wind
Tonight
Each gust is a quiet chuckle.
I hear dreams too
Whispering
In delight
Of things that never were
Secret thoughts
Take flight.

Just chase the wind
And let emerge
The hiding words.
The silent mirth
Of the morning
Before the light.

River Moon

If you're a little ripple
In the fabric of the night
Wash your waves about me
And shimmer in my light

Let me be your moon tonight

I'll glimmer in the glamour
Of the laughter in your song
I'll catch you and I'll hide you
As you surge and swish along

Let me ride your waves tonight

I'll shimmer in every quiver
To the cadence of your tides
I'll splash along your river
And wash along your sides

Let me be your rhyme tonight

I'll highlight every crest and curl
Every furrow in your world
I'll play in every wave that sways
I'll be the glitter on your swirls

So let me be your light tonight

Let me vibrate to your flow tonight
While you pulsate in my arms
Surge against me as I delight
In your passionate billowing charms

And let us dance a duet tonight

I'll be the loon that glints
Off your rivers of disguise
I'll beat to the songs you sing
In the ripples of your eyes

If you'll let me be your moon tonight.

Anoesis

5 am 

The city sleeps 

As an engine hums 

A car door slams 

The leaves quivering 

Silently 

Waiting 

For a gust of breeze 

The stillness belies 

The restlessness 

That lies 

Within the breast 
Of this beast 

That murmurs and snores 

Unrest quivering 

From each of it's pores 

From within the ooze 

That this city excretes 

Furry noses emerge 

In search of cheese 

Of rotting delicacies 

To fill their little souls 

Their stomach's little bowls 

Of hopefulness 

That go begging in the streets 

We walked those streets last night 

A friend and I 

Words soaking up the miles 

Philosophies exchanged over smiles 

The throb of things unspoken 

Beating beneath our lives 

In the unrest we find 

The moonlight mingles 

With artificial yellow bands 

The breeze stirs the sands 

The waves stir the leaves 

That hang below street lamps 

A shiver up our cheeks 

A runnel of sweat seeks 

A goosebump down my spine 

Tracing a naughty line 

From nerve-endings to my mind 

Senses in harmony 

Our 5 am symphony 

Completes...

His Voice

He sidles,

                  His tail between his legs,

Wandering worriedly into the light

The yellow circle of jaundiced light

Cast by a solitary lamp-post.

And he stares

At his reflection,

That area of shadow that strangely resembles

Him:

His dog-eared, long-faced, panting visage.

And he lets out a sound

A slight, slow, halting, tentative…whine

And it grows, in volume, in size, in shrillness

Till his whining fills the night

With delight, in his own voice

Not his masters.

And he sits… there

And he whines

The lamp-post, the dog, and his shadow

In a circle of sodium light

A picture for posterity

With sound effects. 

Home

Deep down there, down in the underbelly;
In the place where people in their right minds never go
The darkest of the dark, and the lowest of the low

There is a strange kinship here
Born of that sense of fear
That comes crawling across your skin as you walk
Down the dark deserted paths 

Where silence stalks
You worse than any demon can

The spots, the stains, the scars of endless years
The rusted roads, the potholed steel
The upchucked remnants of each rotting meal
That spot the streets, and the soles of your shoes
As you squelch over the decadence and decay
Of a city...

A city...
That seems so familiar
From yesterdays nightmare
It seems born to life
From your own memories
Gone awry...

As your slow steps
Of remembrance
Turn to run
You start to recognise
The mutant memories
That come to life

Memories of other places
You walked at other times
You and I were younger then
More curious, more open

You ran then
To the excitement of places like

                                      ....this
Places never seen
But warned against
By those who knew better.
Son, don’t go there!
It’s not a nice place, that.
They sell death and drugs
‘Really, Dad!’

Eyes shining, we wandered
In search of forbidden fronds
Of Mary Jane,
And more dangerous
Pills, that sent you up
Flying into the sky
Around the world
Clothed in rainbow colours
Of ecstasy

I searched out such places once...

It’s strange
That today
Home does not seem home anymore
The places i frequent become stranger
As i stay there longer
And then...
In every new city i visit
I find a place just like this
Tarnished, broken, littered with the remnants of broken dreams
Broken screams
Fading screams
Fading, whispered dreams...

And here,
Among the silent whispers
The fading pictures
Of times gone by
Finally...


I find a place that feels like home.

Relentlessly

I can see the gulf
That lies
Behind your eyes
The lies
You sell yourself
The chasms between
What you need
And what you say
The games you play
Within your mind
The way you're unkind
With how you feel
Each crushed appeal
Of the child that died
Living other's lives

Won't you pretend
Just for a while
That it's alright
Won't you come out and play
Let your thoughts ascend
To realms untried
Won't you hold me and say
Things you've never dared
Act like you never cared
And leave that past behind

Won't you just try
To find yourself
In me
Relentlessly

Desert Song

Standing
On the cracked earth
Parched and broken
The vast desolation
Of once fertile plains
I can hear
The echo
Of waterfalls
The rustle of grass and leaves
The mulch fallen between the trees
As I walk among shifting sands
The memories of the land fill me
And I remember
You
Lush as you once were
Your tresses and your smiles
Cascading with life
Fertile

I tread now for the last time
On all that's left behind
As the echo of the wind
Dies softly on the hill
And ceases, forever still.

killing time...

Lets just kill then
The morning
And the night
With empty words
And artificial light

Then
When the evening's dead
Choked by the blight
Of borrowed words
From books you've read
That claimed to help
You help yourself;
When all that's polite
And right's been said.

Then perhaps
In the crying night
The absence of light
Might let us connect
In other ways.

festival of light... 2011

"What is to give light must endure burning"
- Viktor Frankl.


It is odd to remember that this festival began with the idea of fire as a force that would burn away the unessential, and return things to the purity of the flame. On this day then, and in those to come, I hope that some of us will find the courage to burn away the unessential from our lives, fan our little forgotten sparks to flames, and shine...


Here's a toast to the crazy diamonds in a world gone glam with glitter. May we have the courage to burn - as brightly as we can.

morning after

"You're so good at being bad"
She declares with a sigh
"The best I've ever had"
It's her excuse to fly

A smile flits across my face
Steel gates up around my soul
As my ears perceive
The words I've heard
Only so many times before

Her fingers trace a lazy line
Down the path of no return
Flesh responds without a sign
Of distance or concern

It's well-oiled now
The farewell show
A well-worn litany
Those final thrusts
Of unbridled lusts
Quenched in apathy

She looks at me with loving eyes
Carefully fabricated webs of lies
As we speak our final farewells
From our well-masked private hells
A lingering fragrance remains
Nostalgia inked in little stains
Upon the tapestry of our lives
Smiling gates shut with open eyes
They watch on,
Grimly strong,
As inside
Love dies

Freshly-picked words

Like the roadside morning blooms
Picked by the early rising lover
Who picks the early morning flower
Before it can be crushed
By the speeding trucks of doom
The cruel wheels of the waking world

Thus it is that I pick my words
For you in the morning
Freshly grown words
Dew-ridden in the morning light
Dew-written at the end of night

These words shall crumble away
By the end of day
But now they are fresh
My offering to you
Before the wheels of the world can spin us apart
A bouquet of hand-picked words from the heart

Echo

I throb
To the sound
Of the words
That you speak,
To the caress
Of your breath
Upon my cheek;
As we walk
Arm in arm
Down deserted streets
Our laughter warms
The nightly air
That makes others shiver.

Our breath is frost
But the words are warm.
Bodies resonate, we quiver
In time, together;
Braving the weather
In search of the sublime.

Secret

There
Just beyond
The edge
Of consciousness
It lies

Good!
You found it
Your reason
For being alive

It spreads
Across your eyes
Home again
Your secret smile

Look Up

With two strong hands, my friend,
You could reach out and touch the sun
Yet you root around in the dirt
And you're slowly coming undone

With your two strong legs, my friend
Your race could already be won
Yet you hobble yourself, and refuse
To ignore the potholes, and run

Your eyes are watering, my friend
From looking at the filth for too long
Raise them just once, and you'll see
Out there is where you belong

We're all of us stuck in the mud
This gutter runs slick with our tears
And above, the lonely sky waits
For one of us to confront his fears

The choice lies with you, my friend
Whether to sink with them or swim
Just raise your head and meet my eyes
This world really isn't all that grim.

Let me be your Rollercoaster

Let me be your rollercoaster
Let me take you for a ride
Into worlds you've never fathomed
Out of worlds that you deride.

Let me be your ferris wheel
Let me take you up into the skies
Out of the murky underworld
To see where the wild eagle flies.

Let me be your guiding light
Let me lead you deep inside
Into that maze which is your mind
And I'll show you why you cried.

Let me take you off your merry-go-round
And find you other ways to fly
Let me sweep you off your ground
And show you my world up high.

Come with me, my love, this time,
And let your fears all fall astray
Let me be your starship now
And you can be my stowaway.

All you need is to say the words
And we'll be off in the blink of an eye
If you let me be your rollercoaster
And you let me take you for that ride.

flashback

I lie awake
Consumed
By the memory
Of your smile
For a while
My body throbs
And resonates
To that low growl
In your throat
When I heard you gloat
That night you had me pinned
How we laughed as we sinned
And how you called my name
Softly
In your sleep
As I lay awake
Listening to your heart beat

I lie alone
Thinking of the tears
It's been years
Since they intermingled
And we cried
Trying to dry
Each others fears
As we ripped apart
Our very own selves
The fragile world we'd built
From the fabric of our hearts

I lie awake often
And think of you
I wonder if you do too...

City High

Hustle
Bustle
The city life
On steroids
When the sun rises
We're rats racing
In search of new mirages
Each oasis we see
Is just an overflowing
Bursting drain
The debris of our dreams
Spilling at the seams

And when the sun sets
It's the glow
Of blow
As we inhale
Each others
Frenzied cries
Powdered sighs
Regurgitated lies
Our nostrils flare
Eyes narrow to slits
And we dare
The looming darkness
To dampen burgeoning spirits
We're all high
Inside
But outside
Strangers see
The lies
We lead

And our illusions
Become their dreams
The cycle completes.

Reality strums
To glamour's beats.

‎"Thick skins sold here"

‎"Thick skins sold here"
The sign declared
"Buy one, banish fear
Look like you never cared"

I ran into the store
I paid with hope
And a little bit more

I walked outside
Eager to try on
My armoured hide

I blinked once, then twice
Something had happened to the light
The skies were all in shades of grey
And there were no colours in sight

We all now wear them here
Our cloaks of impenetrable skin
Boundaries are drawn, lines are clear
And only the naked are kin...

Fool, Child

Be a fool, child

Let your hair grow wild

And your senses sharp

Roll in the grass when it rains

Come back muddied with stains

Wearing the smiles of a saint

Without a care in your heart

Stay awake when it gets dark

Learn what it feels like to bark

To laugh like a loon at the moon

And to howl at the twinkling stars

Be a wild child

Do not be mild

As your elders advise

Play the games, child

But only the ones you devise

Not the ones that they

Would have you play

Their games of sadness and lies

Be the mad child

And do not live out life in empty sighs

If reach you must, reach only for the skies

And be not beguiled

Be the one who smiled, child

Just be the fool, child.

;-)

My life is free verse

It doesn't really rhyme

It's rhythms are hidden

It likes to play with time

My life is a prose poem

That makes very little sense

To all the lovers of structure

And those who're a little dense

My life is like a metaphor

Your reason will not believe

Unless you can perceive

The smile within my simile

spiderweb

Delicately
Poised

The film of sanity

Sits upon my brow

It's gossamer fibre

Shimmering

In moonglow

The tenuous

Nature of our beings

Lie uncovered

Reflected in night

My sight

Is clouded

In a film of starlight

And tears

twinkle

on the strands

If you could reach

Out and touch me now

My masks would melt away

Somehow

And you would feel me

Beating against your hand

Indistinctly fragile

The child beneath the man.

Beggar

The girl on the street
She's 16, sweet
as she finds a morsel
Discarded
She dabs at it
With relish
Her morning's made
Half a burger
Makes her smile
The mayonnaise dripping
Happily down her cheek

The girl in the car
She's 16 too,
Rouged and ready
Scowling
As the beggar eats
She cannot understand
How the meat
That made her gag
Could make a beggar smile
Her day is ruined
She drives away

The day
It begins too
For me and you
What shall be found
And what discarded
By us two?

Embers

At night
Broken dreams
Ignite
Embers arising
From the ashes of the past

Broken words
Set aflight
They crackle in the dark
The fires and the schemes
That lived but did not last

I blow
With all my might
Fanning each spark to a blaze
Hoping it lasts beyond the haze
Of the morning light

The City Mask

Noise
Is the mask
Of the city

We hide within
The bustle
Safely

Behind walls of loudness
Of belligerence
We cower in the silence
Of sound

The city sleeps most
When it is awake

The city screams
Loudest
When it is merely asleep

But voices emerge
When the bustle dies
Testing the darkness
With unspoken truths

I write
Sometimes
You do too
Our words never meet
But tomorrow in the street
Our cries will mask
The wisdom stark
That emerges only
In the dark

The Weed

The rock is cracked
Parched
Baked and broken
In the desolation
Marking the absence of life

In a crevice sits
A seed
Lonely
Waking
In the stillness of a cold
Desert Night

Some weeks later
It lies
Budding leaves bruised
Broken
Pushing at the unyielding
Stone

Grasping
Green tendrils
For a sliver of light
Just beyond reach

The weed tries
Again and again
Ripped and torn
Fresh growth crushed
Against a rocky womb

Such weeds die
Across the desert
They lie stillborn
Hidden
Buried before Birth

The weed pulses
Weakly
For life
Reaching blindly
Brokenly
For the light

In the desert
In an island of brown desolation
Suddenly
Triumphantly
A flash of green catches the sun

Wordplay

Rhymes a little wry
Wrhymes oh so sly
Rhythms
Rapped or sung
Meanings
Wrapped in pun
Wordplay
On my tongue
Quips
that slip
and drip
off the tip
of my pen
Onto your page
I rant and rage
In verse
And worse
No flows
In prose
Are quite as much fun

;-)

On the wings of smiles

On the wings of smiles
I've flown
Over the sundered fields
Of dreams
Past the ravaged ruins
Of hope
On thermal gusts of silent screams

With laughter
I have staved off the years
The wrinkles in my mind
are refined
By the strange humour of time

I fly
Free
Now
Soar
If only for an hour
I have roamed the vastness of the world
I have seen
What there was
And what is to be

I have lived my life
On the wings of wanton dreams
In the arms of ecstasy
I have flown
On the wings of secret smiles

Woman Power

Shame
on the games
you play
Yes one day
No the next
You're confused
You say
You find a way
To keep absolved
Of responsibility
you play the field
With all your might
You're always right
Cause you're the weaker
Sex, you say
Is it really such a wonder
You have no one
To share your day
Your thoughts or your feelings
When you leave them reeling
With your power play
You do this
because you can
Because a woman
Holds sway
Over a man

How can you speak
Of right and wrong
When you refuse to belong
Let confusion
Be your swan song
I say...

Homeless we all are

Some in the comfort of our castles
Some lost in anonymity on the streets
As we wander through flashing lightbulbs
Or we wander through the rain and sleet
Our faces set in masks brazen and bold
We're all shielding ourselves from the cold
From the cold that seeps into our bones
Or the coldness that seeps out of our souls

We're all searching for meanings
Upon highways of sheer desolation
Morsels of food or spiritual gleanings
Food or freedom, death or revelation

A moment of contact, of heartfelt laughter
The thrill of lovemaking, the peace that comes after
A drop of clean water to satisfy your thirst
A cure to the malaise with which you're cursed

Homeless we all are
Wandering
In search
Of something
more
than words
or wisdom

The upturned corners of our lives

That little hint of sorrow in your eyes
Is what caught my attention
That day you turned your face into the sun
And laughed like there was no tomorrow
Now I always look past your infectious smile
To find the child
That hides inside
Behind a mask of delight
To feel my heart soar in love for you

Would that you could too...

Beggar

Hungry
the beggar before you stands
at the altar of your flesh
Begging for alms
One touch
One quick caress
His arms are open
You, his goddess
retreat in fear
for you know that
your charity
will cause him to devour you
complete
and you fear
being lost
in the whirlpool
of his worship
no God are you
but you enjoy a pedestal
take courage
step off
meet him face to face
and worship him as he would you
flesh to flesh
alm in alm

The knife-like edge of a dream

His scars carry scars, he says
The man on the brink
As he stands poised expertly
On the knife-edge of his dream

His words are rough and ragged
Worn down to the bone by being alone
The gravel of his tone
A rasp upon my soul

Each scar a prize, he says
Won in a hardfought fight
He comments on my scars
And says - one day you'll be there

I laugh it off, though I know it's true
I've looked into a mirror with a view
And only time will tell if the scars on my shell
Will cut deep enough to bite
Slice in and cut out the light

It could end my walk up that razor sharp edge
I have climbed with all my might
Every day of my life

I watch as he slides
The man with the scars
His balance gone
His time is done
He says nothing more, but
As he falls, I cannot help but see
That he smiles...

Primal

The dog
And the crocodile
The hog
And the little child
Do not think
As we do
They act
When in heat
They love, hunt, eat
Without thinking
Or feeling
They don't make up meaning
Like me
And like you

Adrift...

set adrift
Lost
Are we
In the company
Of each other's sighs
And our lies
Weave inexorably
The fabric of our fate
Sometimes I wonder
If it isn't too late
To unravel what has passed
and face you again
Naked and real
Ready to feel
Again...

Dreamer

Everyone dreams
Everyone sighs
When all dreams are

Just ifs and whys

But the big dreams are
Reserved for just a few
Those insane dreamers

Like me.. and you??

confetti of your mind

Pick up your thoughts
Shuffle them
Toss them around
And see how they fall
Upon common ground.

Sprinkle your feelings
In the spaces between

Observe...

How do you feel
About them now
Laid about
Like confetti

Would you still defend them with your life?

Pick up the ones you would

And do with them as you should.
As for the others, leave them behind

They're just the confetti of your mind.

Dream

Spend some life on your dreams now
Quick, before they die
Dreams need to breathe too
Just like you
Do it today
Nourish a dream or two
Before they fly
Away

Murder song

my fingers
touch your throat
and you sigh
my mind divides
i want to touch you
or throttle you
my fingers itch
for an answer

you say something
sweet
my heart melts
our lips meet
your teeth draw blood
my fingers tighten
as the red turns to gray
yet again...

Anonymity

Do not tell me your name
Share with me instead your breath
The whispering of your voice
In a million different keys

Infuse me with your self
Do not cheapen this act
By giving it a label
Do not call it love
Or lust, or any of the myriad
Millions of terms we use

To make ourselves feel better

Share in my guilt and my fear
Be anonymous with me
Rise with me over common bonds
And be with me, in me 

Let this moment be our forever

Moments...

Long slow kisses that never end
and poetry by the fireside
are sorely missed...

Fingers interlinked
As we walk through the rain
laughter sprinkled through the air

by random thoughts expressed...

Cheeks that have been kissed
by sudden flushes, sudden charms
the sudden intertwining of arms

and other happy accidents of chance

as serendipity sets in
and joy pervades
our mutual worlds
in mutual whorls

of colour

i wonder
in wonderment
about those moments

and where they went...

Love-worn

I've loved too many women, too hard,
And each took too much, leaving a little hole
In my once indestructible heart
Till it looked as it does now - a begging bowl...

So here's my plea to the girl that comes next:
'Oh, you of the womanly wiles...
Would you, could you, instead

Of taking, fill my heart with your smiles...'

Talk to me with your touch

Talk to me with your touch
Speak to me without words
Words tire me
They say nothing
Let your lips
echo in my being
with silent speech
it's time to let sound rest
and speak in other tongues

What you do not voice makes me tremble

Let me worship at the altar of your skin now

Hush...

In the arms of the night...

I am the one who writes
Writes in the arms of the night
3am songs, doused in dew
Lubricated by alcoholic brews
Poor substitute for a muse
But they’re all I have
For inspiration...

Love Paean

the shape of your fingerprints burnt into my skin
each ring is a whorl-pool to capture me in...

Dawn

I'm enamoured with the dawn
The red in the skies
Lends wings to my eyes
And lets my imagination roam
Eclipsing the morning gloom
Of overcast lives...

Ode to darkness

I'm flying with the moonlight in the face of the rain
I'm riding the wind, treating the darkness with disdain
I'm singing to waves above whose clamor my voice cannot rise
I'm consecrating my songs to stars that live beyond our skies

I know not much more than love, and laughter and longing
The yearning for freedom and the need for belonging
But it's all I need on my journey to the other side of midnight
The darkness is mine, it's the blindness that gives me my sight.

Sparklin'

I was complimented on my sparkling wit
I said it must be the bubbly in my soul
For I was born with a Champagne sorta Spirit ;-)

Cripple on a crutch

I'm now a cripple on a crutch,
It's an experience overrated,
but not by much
No swinging legs, no toes that touch
How one muscle pull, one calf in trauma,
Can cause such a hell of a lot 'a' drama
Is rather unexpected,
Calves are deceptive
Walking without one is like writing without grammar.
I'm waddling like a penguin now,
Swaying from side to side
No dancing, leaping, jumping
At least my tongue's not tied!

The Trudge for Fudge!

I'm searching for moments magical,
amidst the dreariness of daily drudge
Wondering if life isn't tragical
Without the equivalent of hot chocolate fudge

Bike in the rain

Pouring Rain, Motorbike, Highway
No way quite like this for a Joy-way
To drive away those blues
Who needs a woman or a muse
On a bike in the rain on the highway :-)))

Tears

Tears can burn like fire too
When sprinkled across open wounds
Why fertilise all your fields of pain
With raindrops from your eyes
And the wasted breeze of sighs

Aftermath

As the world around us shrinks
And you lie within arm's reach
The spaces between us grow
And can hardly be breached...

Is the present really pleasant

Is the present really pleasant,
And does the past last?
Last longer than yesterday, anyway?

Can you treasure pleasure,
Or foment the moment,

Prolong your pleasure and play?

Is such a question pedestrian,
Or do you debate your fate?
Or does it not matter, and do you prefer

To live your life out in shades of grey?

Brillo Pad

She said my body felt like a brillo pad
I said her head was what felt like that
Every time i rubbed myself against her wit
I felt like I should just get up and quit

Honesty

I wrote to her to say I didn't care any more,
She called me that night and cried,
I told her then
(cos she'd left me for a friend),
I really wished that she had died.

She started screaming and cursing like a fishwife,
Women can't bear honesty,
I've learnt,
Too late in life.

And where is our revolution?

And where is our revolution?

We protested against auto-rickshaw drivers yesterday

We say

And the day before

We turned our lights off for an hour

And only last week

I donated to Greenpeace

I buy from farms that are organic

And you know farmer suicides

Don't affect those prices

So all's well with my world I say

What did you want to protest about anyway?

And where is our revolution?

We cry and wail

But voices aren't raised

Cos we're too scared

Not of the government

Not of the policemen

Or the boogeymen

But of what our neighbour will think

We're good people you see

Good sorts don't protest

They complain and they whine

THey make a little fuss

But not much

Cos they're too worried

About what the neighbours will say

And where is our revolution

In the voices upraised

Against people from the neighbouring state?

Against the Gorkha union

The refugees from Bangladesh

Who were just looking for a place to stay

In the voices of the good Marathi citizens

The denizens

Of Dadar

Who just want racial purity on the streets

Or the Kannadiga or the Tamil

Whose tunes will resonate only to the heart beats

Of their own language....

And where is our Revolution

When dal prices and onions make us weep

ANd the farmers take to the streets

Because of urbanisation

Geneticisation

Modernisation

When what the Ambanis eat

Is televised

Live

On national TV

And the starving kids

Are not news any more

NO

Now it's budget housing

Land for ever Indian man

You're supported by your local bank

You just gotta borrow a crore

Or maybe just a little more

Get in over your head

Trust your government

They're the Commonwealth

They'll play games

Learn financial jugglery

While you struggle to eat

And pay for their pleasure with your penury.

And where is our revolution?

In autorickshaw strikes and non-tv days

and let's just turn the lights off for tonight I say

We'll buy organic

and not let our taps drip

And go home feeling oh-so hip

Cos we support Greenpeace

And hate people who club baby seals to death

But reelect our government

Bring them back

Cos farmers dying

is just suicide

and onion prices

Aren't really a crisis

Did you see how high the sensex went today?

And where is our revolution?

Where are our voices?

Where is the change we want to be

Is it just drowned in the enormity

Of our daily lives

And our petty little fights

Over who got a bigger bonus

Isn't the onus on us

Or is it all just gonna be okay

Let the politicians play

What can I do anyway

I'm just one person

There's a billion more where I came from

And there's a never-ending supply

Who cares as long as I can get high

My revolution is on the brink

Of exploding with another drink

I'll go home and beat my wife

And put an end to domestic strife

And tell the children to can it

If I don't like it I can ban it

And any protests they make are useless anyway

Cos thats the way the world works

And if you don't like it you can lump it

Learn to get along

That's your theme song

You'll grow up soon

And learn before long

That protest only works in song.