Writing of words names
on paper gown, you catch the fire like
Casabianca on burning deck.

Must I stay! You
give a last call to unseen book.
It was not an ordinary trial.

Your eyes light up
when flames touch you. You
take a long breath and jump into sea.

Put on hold your pain,
outside our love. Your tears falling.
My hands to become flowers.

I go to milk tree to
pay back the debt. You rub my arms
gently. I shed my negatives.

Paradigm? Man says
ghosts live. A snake never leaves
her eggs. My poems remain induct.

Which one is he?

He’s the one that asks for the table by the wall where he can see all the exits.

He’s the one who holds your hand slightly behind him and positions himself between you and the joggers in the park who might threaten your life.

He’s the one who holds his cigarette with the ember cupped in his hand - maintaining light discipline even standing outside the mall.

He’s the one that cleans his plate when you cook for him because he knows what it’s like to live on MREs and ibuprofen.

He’s the one with the smile that never reaches his eyes - the pain that never leaves his soul.

He’s the one that came back to you only in the physical form - who’s mind is still in the field with his brothers.

Don’t ask which one he is - because if you can’t tell - you will never know. The mark is in his flesh -  and in the eyes that see the ugly world the way it is, so you don’t have to.

Alright now! Let me get this straight
Before I make any further comments
It’s never for you and it’s never great
What they plan and/or recommend

Represented by the two smarties
The-most-advanced democracy
Provides you with only two parties
One hell of a job by aristocracy

Such a narrow diversification
Arranged with utmost diligence
Is getting voted for certification
For ever-increasing indigence

Either The Donkey or The Elephant
Meekly pick your side and move on
Real issues? Always almost irrelevant
In this open-air probation you’re on

Enron, dot-com crash or nine/eleven
Or housing crisis and Lehman Brothers
Corona killed millions, already in heaven
More is yet to come, plenty of others

There’s much to be said for this charade
You are always off-guard and unready
And too lazy, stupid, weak and afraid
To change any of this to the contrary

All abused openly, not even stealthy
There’s neither shame in this nor propriety
Democracy is certainly good and healthy
Only if it represents the real society