Stay Alive

Hold on, dear heart.

This too shall pass.

Time’s a great healer.

This too shall pass.

 

You might stay broken,

But you shall breathe,

Wake up, hunt and kill.

Survival is key.

 

They are not you.

You are not theirs;

No one belongs

To anyone or anything.

 

Accept what is –

You’re on your own

Dear heart, hold on.

This too shall pass.

 

You have to walk

A little longer.

Your mask must stay;

The show isn’t over.

 

Take control dear heart,

You know what you want.

You have no savior,

But yourself, dear heart.

 

You’ve given away pieces

Of yourself, dear heart

To those who didn’t want it

Or know what it was.

 

You’ve done this yourself

And you’ll do it again.

‘Coz life isn’t poetry

It’s a long long march.

 

Stay in line,

Find the rhythm.

Slap on a smile

‘Til the curtains are drawn.

 

Strength, dear heart

Is accepting the truth.

That we are in the end

Only “virus with shoes” on.*

 

the park swing

Fists holding surely
That metal chain;
The smell of life
Emanating from within.

Feet firmly anchored
In the sand by the balls.
Knees buckled;
On the edge of your seat.

Ready for take-off!
Fall slightly backward
As your toes look skyward,
Aiming higher than you dare.

Catch a flash of sun
Like a glint of magic,
Before you fall back down
For an anxious second.

Proactive feet
Propel you again.
Dreamward. Forward.
Skyward once more.

The high is addictive.

The rest of your body
Now join forces
To attain by all means
Its communal goal.

“Aim for the sky
and land on the roof”.

Higher and higher,
Dodging the rooftops.
Higher and higher,
Till there’s nothing but white.

A blinding and piercing
Yet calming bright light.

The higher you fly
The greedier you get,
And as we all know,
The harder you’ll fall.

Still you push harder,
Having now tasted freedom.
Your needs and wants
Now completely indistinguishable.

Chasing a high
That’s chased by a low
Lower than any
You’ve ever known.

Up then down.
Inhale. Exhale.
Your chest full and then emptied
Of life and hope.

The sun has set.
Your spirit is weary.
You slowly touch down
In the sand where you started.

On the ground where you belong.

Aim for nothing
And stay where you are.

Your soul bereft
Of a will to live.

Fists fall slack
Off that metal chain;
The smell of death
Emanating from within.

dear departed

Things end.
That’s just how it is.

Holding on.
Weak arms as always.
Gravity mocking
The body’s betrayal,
Taking first
The trickle of red
Involuntarily given
Of fingers white.

The heart escapes
Beneath the gut.
Vacating the house
Where he once lived.

Vacant for Demolition.
The balance is off.

Hope steadily dimming.
Resolve depleted.

Think not. Feel not.
Let go now.
It’s just an end.
Life does go on.

Shameful arms
Surrender feebly.
The descent begins.
No ground below.
Limbs flailing
To scrambled instructions
In this unending free fall.

But
Things end.
That’s just how it is.

This ends.

chocolate

Chocolate,
Dark and strong,
Warm and comforting.
I know you’re not good for me,
Then I want you so much more.

Chocolate,
Dense and rich,
Sweet and sinful.
An addiction I must break
If I’m looking out for myself.

Chocolate,
I had too much
And now you’re gone.
I tell myself I’m clean again.
I tell myself, it’s according to plan.

I’m rid of you.
You’re rid of me.
Your taste will be forgotten.
New fingers will caress your grooves.

Chocolate,
I love you.

Chocolate,
I’m sick of you.

Chocolate,
I devoured you.

You changed my body.

Chocolate,
We love not each other
But our selfish selfish selves.

Chocolate.
We are the same.

We deserve this pain.

(happy) new year

Years have gone by.
It was inevitable.
You’re less and less enamored
By the newness of new.

Seen enough
To know first-hand;
That all that glitters
Can just be as new

As a hooker before dark
Bathed and perfumed,

And untouched
By You.

New today is old tomorrow –
Tale as old as time.
Yet the promise of newness;

Of firsts and opportunities,
Of beginnings and the unseen?
A trap as beguiling and vicious

As knowledge.

Refresh. Restart.
But you can’t erase your past.
Yesterday’s gone,
It’s a brand new Today.

But you’re only as new today
As you’re old tomorrow.

subterfuge

I want you to know who I am.
But the I that I want you to know
Is a fabricated aspiration
That’s fooling nobody
But the other hidden I.
Only barely concealed,
In my own grimy shadow.

And you.

 

 

Always compliant.

Love Laws

“That it really began in the days when the Love Laws were made. The laws that lay down who should be loved, and how.

And how much.”
― Arundhati Roy, The God of Small Things

***

Where do I live?
Some place in my head.
Where am I from?
Some place in my head.

Where I make the rules.
Yet, I follow yours.
I hate your rules,
But I love to conform.

What is this love you speak of?
What is this simulation we’re living?
This staged, contrived,
Alluring enslavement?

When you’ve barely even started out,
And you know you’re doomed.
And you know how it ends,
Before you’ve met the plot.

It’s all been said before.
We come from different worlds.
Romanticized fodder for an activist’s dream.
And yet it feels like we’re pioneer lovers.

No one has loved before.
No one has had to choose.
No one has had to lose,
Or hide and pine.

The stoic cool head
Says leave. NOW.
The heart; green and insatiable,
Has its feet entrenched in quicksand.

“…who should be loved and how.”