Caution

Sparks flash – often with delight

Fires burn – seldom with joy

Let romance be a spark

Lest your heart be left for ash

Ivory Tower

Her neck, I’ve wanted to bruise for a while now,
it reminds me of that ridiculous Song of Songs verse
where King Solomon compares his lover’s neck to an ivory tower,
– which, I’m sure, given appropriate historical context
is not ridiculous at all.
Context is key. Right now she sits before me
with my paw grazing her slender neck
legs crossed, tempted to
     prise her thighs apart with my left
(but we’re in company and that would be impolite)
her eyes are sharp and sparkle at the edges like pools in Heshbon,
reflecting my thoughts as her pulse quickens

Advertisement

Mum’s voicemails

41 seconds of crunching pavement
two minute conversations of interlaced Yoruba and English
intermittent cough in otherwise silent 30 seconds or
seven seconds of “hello, hello, hellooooo”
rarely meaningful messages like “call me back”,
glittering glimpses into her everyday life
and her completely unrelated complaints about
being charged ridiculous prices by Orange
and how these network companies are crooks…

I listen every time.

October

Head above sea of crimson sheets
anchored to my camomile cup,
staving off October’s tenebrosity,
watching rays roguishly rain on my window pane
pained that my spirit remains stained,
stagnant as trapped pools in dead leaves
as vices of last October
linger like moss on washed up rocks…

Haiku XL

October is jammed
Between subtle Septembers,
Nordic Novembers

Weekend Affair

I can’t remember exactly but I think we talked about her vision
for working with disabled children and how the future generation
has a duty to normalize and accept these kids
I nodded and hmmm’d and thought how sexy purpose is

The reason I can’t remember exactly is because we drank,
I drank red, she drank white; by the end of the night
she was in my bed, in my red sheets, in my red tee
         occasionally telling me about her boyfriend
spaced between kisses, a mix of goosebumps and grazes
she had the greatest pair of breasts I have ever seen
and I wasn’t much concerned ‘bout this current affair
          when I was between them

Last Days

there’ll be no vandalisms as delinquents are confined

to strait jackets for prophetic apparitions of the future

no more oil spills as corporate bosses become refined

distil salvation and are taken up in the rapture

trees grow as loggers bang their heads on axes

shaking off headaches and cries of Amazonian verses

the fish sing or so the fishermen think

and nets break at the sound of aquatic orchestras

as trawlers drown in applause,

bees oh the bees sting

sting sting sting

as delusional teenagers mistake honeycombs

for orifices they ought not to burrow in

pilots see two moons as astronauts

report a third of stars falling out the sky

the lustre of the universe fades

as man loses fascination with the heavens

 

scientists say we are living too long

we can’t handle retirement at ninety and our great great grandchildren

despise us for leaving this earth to them

 

no theories can explain our strands of psychosis,

our needs, can’t quantify the darkness that clouds,

hallucinations are viral by kiss, a moment on the lips,

a lifetime on the mind, as we reminisce

and forget to draw ourselves out of the abyss of lost loves

 

there are thirty minute updates on the spread of hysteria

reports that Eastern Europe is breaking out in a cacophony of laughter

mirages of the aurora borealis blending with soot stained sky

as governments tell of failed experiments and how oceans did not comply

 

the fabric of western society unravels as illusions of superiority fade

reality seems not so real, taking psychedelics to stay sane,

twisting dreams, interrupting incessant insomnia

 

the Vatican is performing mass exorcisms

demons now walk the earth and God is silent