You are there-
At the heart of existence
Crawling in memories
Surging inside the branches
of my aortic archway
like a cascade of wastewater
sending the last bits
of exuberance away
into exile.


You slither beneath
a pile of hopeful dreams-
the rash and folly of youth
Their hearts ripped apart
by your front fangs
Your voracious tongue
splashes my depth
and dips its venom
in my flowing pith-
pleasure. .


So you are there!
Everytime I look for breath
in my creaky chest
but find only cigarette smoke
drifting away from 'your' lungs.
There's a glow at night
that of the firefly in me-
I guess, or the end
of your seventh cigarette
I cannot tell.

Nobody sees you these days
But you are still there.
I always sense your mischievous fingers
and ecstatic half-open eyes
a moment before I realise
You are really gone.

Words were worthless when our whimsical wishes got vanquished by distance, draining dreams of us together. Darling! We didn't dare draw an inch closer. Catastrophe came, crushing us to the core..covid! Covid! Consistent callous company for months on and on flying far in fantasy, fingers flailing and fumbling for a faint trace of reality in which you were absent, folly! The agony and ache in every atom ate away at me as acid on iron. Ah! La! Love again, loses my lavish language, leaving lips ludicrous, lying, loquacious and the tongue tied, terrified to tell the truth..Darling! Dare me to delude you for I am desperate to devour you in this dream; Delusion! Delusion! Bare bitter bold brutality crushing the dream, crashing hard in our core..covid! covid! Dear! despite it all, don't doubt the divine dream, don't doubt that I love..

I wandered the world
and I wandered with no aim
Everybody's colours changed
but yours remained the same
Their fleeting sparks of joy
was the pure love they used to claim
You thrived for a simple sanctuary
while they all fought for fame
they took the award
and we took the blame
An award for playing pretend
A blame for having no shame
It seems we lose every time
but we can always play again
play like the wounds have healed
play like it'll be a fair game
And in a room full of kings and queens
I would still call out your name
To tell you the world hasn't seen your kind
stay the same! Stay the same...

You come to me in hunger
preying on my flesh.
I nuzzle your weary feathers
Now they feel robust again
And fly you high to the sky.
I am not your food dear.

Come, tug at my rib cage-
reach inside and take yourself
away.

Baby I pray you find peace among the broken pieces of your mind.
That which you claim to be whole

I pray you never have to torture anyone's heart
To console your own tortured soul

I have stuck my love together with glistening tears
and bear you no ill will at all

Sweet baby of mine, I pray you heal
from the black pain you projected on me like nightfall

Be safe baby and I pray you find peace  
for in the cage of your heart there's a door to release.

By #TinaRSH