Then:
           It spoke
           through colours it came with
           But we...
           We became deaf
           Unfortunately not blind

           We saw the blue,
                                   the green,
                                             the brown
           and then there was the rainbow
           Still, none understood

           Blue resembles the water
           Where life began
           Green resembles plants
           Where the processing of life
           takes place
           Brown resembles the soil
           Where our gifts are rooted

                                                         ­    Now:
We realise that the environment
gave us everything
because it came with nature in
hand
and the rainbow resembles us as
a diverse nation

So many poems
and stories
have gone unwritten
due to fear of not being good enough

I met a woman
brutal in her mercy.

Her embrace was a clinch
to prevent hard blows.
She pulled me close to push me away.
Seeing my nakedness
she leant me a dream
of chainmail and shield.
Taking love from me she gave a reprieve
to a mind resigned to the slow death of feeling.

Ignoring my words she heard
my faint silent heartbeat and
understood that it was music
too quiet for the world to hear
and turned it up louder
than I could stand.
I wept in my deafness
as she danced.

Your long, dark eyelashes
Shadowing your eyes, warm.
Just need to glare at me
And at once I‘d yield to your charm.

Your long, black hair
Falls so elegant down your spine,
Or entwine braided around your shoulders.
Oh, I wish you‘d be mine…

Your nose dubs bold, minx,
With recalcitrance so adorable,
Enframed by freckles light
And skin so fair, what beauty pale.

Your laughter rings like small bells of bronze, light,
And your cheeks redden in your joy, even blush
And when you sit like this, dangling legs and hands in your lap,
You just can‘t hide that beauty of yours, tamed, unleashed.

Your red lips, so filled with loveliness
Smiling shy, but so adorable, in grace
Oh, what would I give for just one kiss
Oh, what would I give to see at least once your face...

feel the wind passing
when the trees bow down their heads
whispering secrets.
12/7/2021

At breakfast,
my family politely
asks, that I
gather my thoughts
so by lunch,
they can politely
pick them apart

Dinner is take out
since by then, they have
exhausted their insult quota
and there is no longer a reason
to conversate

I spend more time biting my lips more than
I talk about my feelings.

More than anything,
I choose to bite my lips.

She was a thrifted sweater and denim and jersey knit sheets
Pizza breath and red wine and toothpaste
Alabaster skin and knotted hair and freckled shoulders
A tangible dream and my favorite good morning
She agreed to let me kiss her and I agreed to let her slip my shirt over my head before she became
Blood and tears
"I trusted you" and "I’m sorry"
Midnight poems and a drunk "I need you"
I’m afraid I loved you like the way I wrote