Tuesday, October 22, 2019

I Did Not

Photo by Paweł Czerwiński



I did not write the notes
the night does not glow
when i ride myself home
what come you looking for
in this land, in this silence

I did not dictate the providence
the causality, we broke up
that was yesterday, i forgot
how could i have moved on
it is my story, myself, i'm losing

I did not cry out loud
i was just a friend i never had
death and his lines, gods and their lies
i haven't made up my mind yet, or did i?
there's a  whole mountain named after me

I did not know the face of no-pain
the light is another sore in disguise
in my world, what is right, what is not
this young man's life is brightly parched
onlookers' discretion is ergo advised


\O_o/

Thursday, August 29, 2019

The Rest of Me



Clothe the sore warm
Leave only the pain ON when you sleep
This is your life, this is your way home
I once read about the dying elephant
The crying never heard; 
where's the rest of me?
What's left to wheel me through the days is especially gauzy
But you could read me, oh! 
you could light me on if you glanced backwards
And look where we are, look at the time trickling away, unmindful of us
The ghost in me wants you; 
the devil in me wants me, has me, tries me
But the angel in you wants something else!

Friday, June 14, 2019

Retrospective Jealousy

Sit up & look at me, what do I let slip?
I never knew the way forward was the same way backwards
I never knew retrospective jealousy would ever get the best of me
I never knew friends I had were foes in fox hide
Now I sing, oh how I sing! like a crying kitten in a string
Round my neck is the world, round my way home I trot
If we met, we could've been friends

Thursday, May 2, 2019

#Fear

Fear is a terrible thing
fear of knowing the depth of your misery
fear of finding out that you are sailing great land of damnation alone
fear of biting your tongue when singing the song of redemption
because nothing's ever right, nothing's ever right
no, nothing's ever right

Monday, April 29, 2019

#Pain2

Pain is silent
Pain is deafening
Pain rolls you over to dead end and back
Pain knows no boundary
Pain exercise no courtesy
I once courted Him
Why, he loved me back

Ntawabonetse

He's got to take the joke to bed
the bloke needs a little sleep
tomorrow, another laughable day
who's to share the humour?
Who's to break the curse and curve it into fine jewellery?
A silver wristlet maybe, that will serve him all right
Ntawabonetse
Now listen to this; a bloke is broken, period

Sunday, April 14, 2019

Remembering

Photo by David Monje on Unsplash


No new conversation is at the end of the night,
it's tranquil and undisturbed, a silent visit
dawn meets me outside and leads the way
Remembering is gray, a breeze that brings future close
within my realm, within the reach of my mind
I look back, eyes meet my people
who didn't choose to stay in the dark
I now carry their lamps, world's eyes need to adjust
Future holds me dear, gives me fresh oil
I give her my hand; mould her, shape her
I build her from the soil that bedded my elders,
drank from their blood and thus she beams of hope
My dream spills on to my children in their sleep;
of united hands, of loving and forgiving hearts
and they walk through the days unconquered
Remembering is my revered prayer
of meeting you at the end of the journey
of holding hands again, of crying together
It's tasting your presence around with nostalgic longing
of old days, of old ways that won't cross again
But there's heaven; yes, there's heaven for us
there's endless stream of joy that awaits us somewhere
God's hand is on that, I booked my way to meet you there
Remembering is bringing you back to mind and to heart
where you always belonged, now and forevermore

Saturday, April 13, 2019

A Tale of Heaven and the Mountain

Photo by Thomas Serer



The Mountain once went over to his friend Heaven for a chat as he customarily did. "Why are you so up high and hard to reach?" He asked. "I don't know," the Heaven replied. "Maybe it is the working of Nature." The Heaven said with a sigh. Yes, she knew she was up high and hard to reach, alright, but she had no part in deciding her dwelling place. Not one she knew of, at least.
"But we are the Nature. I mean, of course we didn't decide where we were to dwell but I can't help wondering what you have up there that is so appealing. Well, you are said to bed the gods and everything but, come off it and tell me what secret you have with you that makes everyone so restless and quite crazed to reach you." The Mountain went on. The question had been burning inside him for longer than he could remember but he wasn't envious whatsoever. He was just curious about why children and adults alike are always eager to climb him thinking that he is the way to Heaven, that they are neighbors. The Heaven paused for one thoughtful moment and then smiled, the smile of sudden realization. "I think I know why." The Heaven said without letting the smile off her lips. "It is because I am invisible and since the beginning of Time, tales of my beauty and me housing the gods in my realm never ceased to bring me fame and neverending attraction. I just hope that they will not be disappointed if ever one day they make it to reach my realm."

Tuesday, April 9, 2019

#Death

Once or so I think I saw death flashing across my face
Or else it was having a show in the mirror, what do I know
Maybe it was just hanging on the screens I looked at
when they shot me (not dead, not alive either)
On a number of occasions I had to take a second glance
Then I would smile and pat my soul. I was not a dream
I was not a nightmare. Maybe a nightmare, or so life has always seemed
But that does not matter now, that's for the time to lament
Because what haunts a man is more of a settler, a lifetime guest

Sunday, March 31, 2019

#Monsters

these are the monsters I write not about
these are the monsters that threaten to unearth the peg
and break free from the tying leashes
these are the monsters I keep trying to tame, to blame
these are the monsters whose roars are unnerving, earthshaking
these are unnamed monsters, unprecedented, one of their kind
these are the monsters I bargained not for

#Pain

and there was pain,
or so it felt at first,
rang throughout eternity
muffling everything else
as it swept through time and being
too careful as not to leave any crevice
unattended, any cell unappalled
such was the pain that proclaimed itself life
and no voice in living memory
ever dared as to state otherwise

Monday, January 21, 2019

Stars Only

Long, sky-like hours drag by
Stars are but all I want to buy
Stars only

Shops ought to be closed, this time of the night
From my window, all I take is their distant light
Shinnin’ faintly

It’s dark-old in here, smell’s of decaying memories
Men whose pride they choked on, lie still in poetries
Like this

I think of my unborn son, and his unattended funeral
Mine is life to grieve, tossed and burnt and non-liberal
Unlike his

What We can Be





I've been here a many times
in the wake of the new song
and this morning it was different
I thought of what we can be
a constellation at dawn maybe
for soulmates to behold with fixed gaze
their heart overflown with ecstatic love
or rhyming mourners of rotten past
wasted without each other

Oh dear, tell me, what can we be
in this haze of being
where everyone is so ravenous
to be everything and nothing at all;
where love is much of a word
than a single pulse in two different beings
or one sky in two heavens
that is the shared floor canvas for lovers
to draw the musical notes of their hearts

Tell me, what can we be?
The single story never told to our ancestors
and the historical legends in the art of living?
Or the metaphorical silence in the stand of the sages?
Tell me that we can be us
tell me that we can be one verse
in the lyrical cord of life
or in the darling book of poetries
speak to me of what we can be.

Tuesday, January 1, 2019

Soul Black

We’re never left with a breath to think
There’s no time to count days
Or our indistinct memories of blessings
We’re just on the edge of falling lonely.
There’s no rush though, we’re not in love
We’re not in songs nor in italic inscriptions
Yet; but we’re in hearts of envious unborn
For death is a one-way going
No looking backwards
No recalling of the last step
For there’s no standing, no sitting
No lying, no walking, no flying
For in death there’s no being.
In a man-made era, unorthodox is sinful
We’re too connected to go through
Each other. But heck we’re too broken
We’re trapped in the cage of free[doom]
Sometimes I wonder where we came from
The way was erased behind with lies
That we’re one, that we’re together
Yet we’re distant like heavens
Strangers
There’s the shadow roaming in our souls
Ask my fellow poets, their journals know better
It’s a timeless feeling, a die-hard friend
Why does it sound so dull, empty and sour?
In the inside
Why do we have to paint it grey?
To look artistic and cool, and seemingly fine
At the outside
When the creeping night is to peel off the curtains
To unclothe the shivering soul
And open the tap of despair
We cling on the thought that we’re not alone
In the sinking boat
When I can wail to the lady beside me
On my way to town but never get heard
When I walk in earphones listening to nothing
Just…just to…you know why if you’ve ever done that
Now tell me that you care before sunset
For I’m never alive at night
I die on old songs, old days
Old memories that will never reoccur
Tell me that you love me now
Tomorrow I’ll be gone.