Pretty Girls Have It The Hardest

Pretty Girls Have It The Hardest

Pretty girls must find it pretty tough –

You know

Being blind, deaf and dumb.

Everywhere they look

They see nothing.

Except smiles –

Brilliantly blinding

Devilishly dark

Like startling stars

Floating

Side by side

(A     million     miles     of

Inky evening skies between each) –

An optical illusion.

Every time they listen

They hear nothing.

Except flattery –

Sensuously streaming

Deafeningly drowning

Like watery waves

Crashing

One after another

(Sweetly

Submerging

Terrestrial truths below sea level) –

Something fishy.

Everything they say

Means nothing.

Except sex –

Passion pure

Loveless lust

Like thirsty ticks

Biting

Host after host

(Simple slaves to nature

Always at your side) –

Friends with needs.

Who can tell

Lovers from liars

Being blind, deaf and dumb?

How To Never Die

How To Never Die

The sunflower did not move
except skyward.
Its sultry summer petals
opened and spread
Like glowing fingers
Of radiant sulphur –
Eager to caress
Long lustrous strands
Of carefree sunshine.

In truth
It did not reflect sunlight
It seemed, instead
To give the sun light.

For a thousand years
I, alone, saw this sunflower
Bloom
And never wither.

A Lot Like Love

A Lot Like Love

I would call her name

If I knew what it was.

The train carriage rumbles rowdy

Shrieking and shuddering

Steel grazing and grating –

A mechanical marinade of metallic sounds

All fading away

Because something else is rumbling louder.

‘The next stop is… change here for…’

But I can’t get off till she does.

She jumped on when I did,

Just before the doors shut.

I didn’t notice her (at first)

But when she sat, her gaze ran across mine –

She had special effects in her 
Golden brown eyes

Like a pair of simmering sunsets

Frozen in ice.

‘The next stop is… change here for...’

The train says, in a machine voice.

Home was five stops ago

Why would I get off now?

I should say something

But I can’t –

Paralysed with contentment

And a fire in my belly

To match the fire in her eyes.

The next stop is… change here for…’

She uncrosses her legs

Stuffs her phone in her purse

And turns, unaware, towards the doors.

When they open, she gets up

And walks off the train.

In a daze, I wonder

How do I get back home from here?

Depression

Depression

Every-day

Pressure on the mind

Weighs

Like pressure on the body.

Wave after wave

Like wave after wave of Sea

Beating

On withering shores of sand.

Crippled 
By gravity

Earth will not move.

Every-day drowning –
Choking struggle

Bleeding light

Withering sand

Hemorrhage of green

And death of colour.

She does not scream

She does not cry

She turns, dancing on an axis

She burns solar (at the plexus).

She didn’t scream

She didn’t cry – who knew

She was bleeding light?

Heavy on the mind

As heavy on the body

Every-day a burden

Every-day Sea rages

With wave after wave

Beating 
On the back

Breaking 
With force –

The mighty hanging

Of wave after wave

Above the shore

Comes crashing

Breaking 
With force…

‘Snap out of it!

No time for pretty words

When you are bleeding light.’

Thank You Mother

Thank You Mother

Thank you Mother

For teaching me to be a gentleman.

It hasn't gotten me very far

But I hear it's the way to be.

And when you said

'Poem's don't always have to rhyme'

I should have known you meant

Life doesn't always rhyme too.

You know Mother,

You really shouldn't have told me

That the sky is the limit –

It ended badly when I tried to fly.

And when you said

'Mothers have endless love for sons'

I should have known you meant

Mothers have endless love for their sons.

That explains why my best friend's mother

Didn't return my advances –

See Mother, for a while there

I thought it wouldn't work out between us.

It's a strange world

And I know you must have found it

Strange too.

I try to make sense of it

But if my Mother couldn't

How could I?

Sometimes I'm not sure

If I want to be who I am or

If I am who I want to be

So I try to be both

And find myself being neither –

Surely

There is 'a' way to be...

Still I thank you for your help Mother –

I know you meant well

And I'm sure when I teach my son

I'll mean well too.

The Woman Under The Bridge

The Woman Under The Bridge

On my way to school

I always used to see

This woman –

With torn and dirty clothes

With six or seven children

Dying to suckle

At her ailing breasts

And though she looked poor

Her face was beautiful.

At the roundabout

Under the bridge that flies

Over the cars underneath –

Our cars underneath

Circling her

Like the sharks in cartoons.

I saw her and now cannot forget

The woman under the bridge.

I Always Look Where I Should (Synesthesia)

I Always Look Where I Should

It was dark, so I couldn’t see much –

But I heard a bird sing a song

Like none I had heard before.

He sang, as if calling

Like the rushing wind

Ripe with a summery citric scent

Running carefree fingers through

My thoughts

Trembling in awe like blades of green green grass.

He sang like sunlight strands

Caught in the glint

Of squinting eyes – afraid that

They might not hide love well enough

From a friend they fear is a lover.

Eyes trying to say

‘It’s just a summer day, and we’re just friends.’

He sang like the taste of buzzing bees

Sweet as brimming hives heaving with honey.

As if calling... still he sang.

So I listened (but did not go)

As his song crept up

My skin (rising with anticipation)

And into my thoughts.

I heard joy dancing to his music –

Disguised as youthful half-smiles

And infantile cackle

And rapid-rushing hearts with something to beat for –

Thumping percussively

To the marooned melody of a nagging night-bird.

His breath stuttered and his music grew hoarse –

Still he sang, as if begging.

But it was dark

And I was not expecting to hear a song so sweet

At night.

If he sang by day

I would have gone looking.

Suddenly

His force failed

And his song seized –

I opened my eyes

And it was dark again.

In the morning, I tried to find him

But could not hear his song.

Perhaps it was drowned in the mechanical monotone

Of high technology

And busy people...

There were so many birds

How could I tell

Which song was his?