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...