Monday, 13 August 2012

The Colourful Thing


The Colourful Thing

The day is filtering by unnoticed, just like days tend to. Face by face, smile by smile, nod by nod – each moment tiptoes by. The sun (tired of smiling) is slowly changing faces with the moon (tired of hiding). I'm draining away (like light does with the hours) when I see the most colourful thing I have ever seen. It is a supernova collage – a white phosphorous explosion with a rainbow stain. It forces the spectrum of visible light a little wider than possible and paints pictures the shade of fantasy. It breathes (swelling to inhale, shrinking to exhale) a dangerously delightful drug that, for a moment, forces euphoria. I sleep-sigh like I've found the answer to it all and drool-smile like I don't care I'm an addict. It feels great. I mean, it's pretty OK. It is a burning obsession – like a nucleus of daylight eating, from the centre outwards, through thin sheets of night. Soon night is consumed and all there is left is an unmysterious morning. I guess this is it. Pretty fun. It's still the best thing I've ever seen. I wonder what comes next? Is there something more interesting than the most beautiful thing I have ever seen? What is that most beautiful thing again? Why did I stop here? Oh shit, it's dark! And everyone’s gone… left me behind. I've been standing here wasting my life away… Why? I think I saw something, but I can't for the light of me remember what.

Sunday, 22 July 2012

Making Plans


Making Plans

The weatherman forecasted rain
But I didn't listen.
Forecasts 
Are often wrong anyway 
(Rain clouds are so angry
They never listen to anyone).

I'm strolling
To a sunny rendezvous
When I see them
Rushing slowly towards me 
Like a spillage towards an edge;
People usually catch them on umbrellas
But today
I didn't prepare for rain.

Soon the sky gets melodramatic
Shouting, flashing and crying 
(Most likely at the ground)
And I'm caught in the middle.
 
Then I stop caring
And let the spillage flow over
(Like the blue of the sky
Did with the grey).

It surprises me to learn
That heavy rain can be refreshing too
Once it has passed.

Sunday, 24 June 2012

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?

Tuesday, 29 May 2012

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.

Wednesday, 23 May 2012

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?

Sunday, 13 May 2012

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.’

Sunday, 1 April 2012

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.