5 | 31 Poems for August 2017

I’ve become well-acquainted with these streets – from University Road all the way down to Park Street.
My heart skips a beat when my words touch hearts like Alex Panttiere and that’s why these hands keep writing.
You left without saying goodbye, you could’ve at least told me why.
You easily detached yourself like there were no feelings between us.
Like I didn’t love you hard enough, soft enough or even warm enough.
For weeks on end, I began hating you for leaving me the way you did.
Yet here I am writing all these words and somehow still missing you.
I’m slowly finding my way back to myself again no matter how severe the pain.
I’ll pick myself up and finally find the strength and courage to love again.
Maybe in your quiet time at exactly the right time, I can be your true valentine.
Sometimes jacarandas fall with no intention of lighting up the streets with their purple blooms again.

4 | 31 Poems for August 2017

Stories about how the girl I was crushing on crushed my feelings.
Stories about how I dug my own grave right after the masquerade.
Are diamonds still forever if whoever you pictured spending your eternity with isn’t the one you’re committed to?
Before she puts the blame on me just let her know that I was committed too.
Detachment is something she was always good at and I still do not know why she let me go.
My poetry was never meant to be this revealing – I’m gradually letting go of all my past demons.
I was wrong when I thought I’d always be supported by the people I believe in.
I should just call it quits and stop seeing the good in people – it drives me crazy having this much of a loving heart.
Are diamonds still forever if whoever you pictured spending your eternity with isn’t the one you’re committed to?
We should’ve done this a long time ago – we should’ve stopped wasting our relationship on building a relationship.
Detachment has become the only way to cope, I’m hanging by a thread and I hope no one cuts the rope.

3 | 31 Poems for August 2017

Love, I understand, that I may never fully understand you.
I want the chance to always hold you tight like a pair of Levi’s jeans.
It doesn’t really matter whether they are black or blue.
As long as these hands always get the chance to hold and caress you.
Love, I know you want the world but I can only give you mine.
It’s not much but I hope it gradually becomes a place where you’ll always want to spend some quality time.
On days when it gets harder to breathe or speak, I recommend *****.
You’re a woman with substance and I’m drawn to your melanin.
Beautiful cocoa butter skin, what’s there not to love about you?
Your love is never enough; I’m always left yearning for more.
In a world ravaged by cold wars, we need to know what we’re fighting for.
I understand that I may never understand the struggles you always go through.
Life will bend and stretch the both of us into painful shapes and that’s why we all need someone to talk to.
Sometimes we tend to forget how it feels when someone listens.

You’re more than just dimples, curves and a pretty face.
You’re more than just punchlines, metaphors and similes.
You are a woman with substance and I’m drawn to your melanin.
Each day I find more reasons to fall deeper in love with you.
On days when it gets easier to breathe and speak, I recommend wine.
I understand, that I may never fully understand you.
But after all, what’s the world without enigma?

2 | 31 Poems for August 2017

How are you so certain of a love that you’ve never truly experienced, but only seen in your dreams?
The love and faith you have in our future endeavours has got me listening to Love in the Future for hours on end.
I am not having any second thoughts about us, I’m just doubtful of the intensity of my love lately.
I have honestly lost count of how many times we’ve broken up – I’ve never been good at math anyway.
I’ve had to acquaint myself with the truth just so I could look you straight in the eyes without flinching.
Love me unconditionally until the day when you can finally feel my heart rapidly beating inside your chest.
Somehow love has eluded me ever since we’ve parted ways so I’ve been avoiding commitment these days.
I keep doing this thing wrong and constantly putting myself in places and spaces that I don’t belong.
On some nights, I sporadically smell your perfume on the white cotton sheets of my memory.

1 | 31 Poems for August 2017

I’m embracing the flaws that I have been blessed with.
Thoughts scatter like rain when your head lives in the clouds.
It’s amazing how people always find these hands of mine incredible.
They admire how these hands constantly transform simple words into beautiful poetry.
What more can I tell you?
I’m from the city where jacaranda trees light up the streets with their purple blooms.
I’m a lover without a lover, but never loveless plus I write poems on the pages of people’s hearts.
I met a girl with a soul like a library and every time I see her, she keeps getting thicker than the plot does.
I guess that it’s no mystery why I am obsessed with reading, I always have a book in my hand no matter the season.
For days on end, I’ve been yearning for my love to be intensified by the pulchritude of someone’s presence.
When you look at me, what do you see in my place?
I still yearn for soulful conversations filled with happiness, love and laughter.
The kind of conversations that will be accompanied with red wine and music by Emeli Sandé, Sade or Erykah Badu.
What more do you want to know?
I’ve fallen in love with my own solitude, but lately loneliness has gradually begun to creep in like a thief in the night.
Love is blind and that I already know, but I never want to write these words without a muse.
Love is not a mystery; it’s every beautiful thing that I ever wanted it to be.