Every kind of language is pleasure hidden in a paradise of seduction. Words ghost over iridescent moments as the poet becomes the object. And as the willing soul turns pleasure into a poetry to be hungrily consumed, seduction becomes the very heart of language.

The silence that vibrates in the soul
touches all those brave enough to feel.
Like the writhing body of a restless dancer
forced to move to an unheard rhythm.

As the sun dips
behind the hills
open your windows
open your heart
and listen to the breeze
as it kisses the pines
because here in the night
in the comfort of the dark
under a blanket of stars
I’ll sing to you
a lullaby.

Hungry lips
Wandering hands
Crashing desires
You kept your eyes closed
And forgot to breathe
When we pulled apart
I felt you exhale
Upon my soul.

It starts as a pounding heat in the depths of your tummy which radiates out to the palms of your hands. The type of heat that develops into a flame, one that burns and marks your soul with the perfect scent of another person. There it stays and lingers. And that’s when you know you’re ruined for life. Noone else will ever come close to being as perfect.

I needed you then
with a passion
that overflowed crimson
painting my days
with a tender ache
and colouring my nights
with shades of your smile.

I needed you then,
I still need you now.

I have declared myself unsafe
unsound
unknown
unwanted
unnecessary
I’ve been condemmed
I am unsafe.

Black velvet
is draped
across the night sky
and shimmers with studded jewels.

The way I fall in love
effortlessly
with strangers in cafés
simply
by the type of coffee they order
and how their faces light up
happiness
after the first sip.

To her, you’re the spirit that lingers in a house after everyone is gone.
I’ll bet you’re even the nervous insomnia that keeps her up at night.

After ten million years of solitude don’t you want to lay your head down somewhere soft? Living in reserve can be so exhausting, I know. But if reality only exists in the human mind, come take some comfort in mine.

Crashing like a wave
tears resting upon your lips
they fall into me.

So please
no matter what
do not love me for my skin
it’s just a soft shell
easily shed,
cut,
and burnt
love me for how I make you feel.

And should they want to know what I think of you? Read this and understand that every alphabet is drenched in thoughts of you. And it would take a thousand words and a thousand more to even begin…

Without my glasses I feel like I am running on a beach of diamonds.

Those freckles on your back
I’ll trace them
and map them
my very own constellation of stars.

In the absence of the night
Everything wrong seems right
We need more dark
To cover up the crimes of your heart.

Is it love or madness
when a desert rose blooms
where no one can see
twining a maze of desire
towards a scorching lover.

Don’t get lost in yourself
Get lost in me
I can take the troubles you carry
I can take it if you let me.

Sometimes all we are looking for is a gentle squeeze of the arm or a comforting smile from a friend. Leave the fireworks and violins to Hollywood and come and give me a hug because in this house, the smallest gestures are always the most powerful.

You find each other
like driftwood
floating in an endless ocean
towards a horizon too far out of reach
and you cling
desperately,
to one another
until inevitably,
you drift apart.

Digging through the rubble
searching for hope
even though hope
seems like a blurred emotion
better left off
to the somnambulists
who often live their lives
in a haze of damp regrets.

Colour my soul
     in shades of sharp blacks
       with bright whites
    and smoke greys
        between hues of red
    and the tensed nerves
        of this industrial city’s
grim reality.

Stand under the red neon of that dingy bar. Use it’s flicker to still your heartbeat and tell me the things you can’t as you peel the label off your empty Copenhagen bottle.

As dew drops sparkle like diamonds on the grass, the morning mist descends blanketing the ground and making me dream. I see the sky burn the the colour of a subtropical twilight and beyond the horizon are mountains devastated by harsh winds which work on the nerves and leave you a trembling wreck.

Bill and his girl; is it weird they’re so much like you and I? But instead of traveling some foreign country, ours is a world of distant suns, constellations and galaxies. So much more than Paris, New York or Japan. Dream your wildest dream and I’ll paint it in words on our canvas made of sparkling diamonds. And when we need to rest we’ll lay down on a shooting star and you can tell me where you learnt to smile as bright as the moon on a cloudless night.

There’s a silence.
Eager eyes look to me for wisdom, a sound bite, something to keep in their file of ‘things to never forget’.
Don’t you know I’m clueless too?

How strange
the world changes
from night to day
and back again
without slowing even to acknowledge
that my life will forever be night
because you
are no longer here.

I like it best
when we are sharing
quiet wordless
conversations.

Like cheap cigarettes or wine
the sour remains but the sweetness reminds
It should be easy to turn back time
But it’s lost like tears in the rain
like cheap cigarettes or wine.

The words that long to be heard hover precariously on the edge on her lips. End the monologue of deep breaths and heavy sighs and just ask her already.

When I was cold he held my hand. He would often sing a melody that sounded like the gentle rustling of leaves. And just before stepping out into the chilly night air, he would drape himself with a jacket made of stars.

Love is
the bullet
you fired
from your
heart straight
into mine.

C r e a t e    t  s  u  n  a  m  i  s
u n d e r        m y             s k i n
b y   g h o s t i n g   f i n g e r t i p s
o n                m y             h i p s.

I love speaking with you
but I’m afraid
nervous and unsure
of these sentences
I string together
and how you’ll receive them
(they’re yours).

I thought you were the boy
with faraway eyes
and then I discovered
that you were
just dumb.

After their diaspora
all that remained
was no longer a home.

The old adage ‘opposites attract’ is such bull crap seeing how similar we both are and how well we get along together. So scoot on over here, swallow your pride and grab hold of my hand. Let’s give ‘em something to talk about.

The way you get so animated when you talk about something you love. And I can hardly get a word in except for the occasional “uh huh” or “oh really”. But please don’t mistake my lack of eloquence for disinterest. I just love watching you fumble over sentences as words pour out of your mouth like a river bursting its banks.

There is a cave
where the broken hearted mourn
the love they gave away
and like a beam of light
from a solitary lighthouse
as it pierces the darkness of an endless night
their cries are carried on the wind
shattering the silence with howls of pain and woeful songs
tempting young hearts to try in vain
as poison vines wrap around their souls.

A mystery woven into the fabric of memories and unfurled as experiences like the strangers that appear in the background of old photographs. Sleeping with the windows open and listening to the wind chimes dance in the night air. The thunder rolls, the crickets cry and somewhere in the darkness an owl keeps watch. All that’s left are words to drown in. If I had to, that’s how I’d describe you. So don’t look at me like I have the answers. Because when the world walks out, you are the map and I keep getting lost on purpose.

Thoughts of you are in my head
Playing loud and on repeat
Like a stereo I can’t turn off
From the dark into the light
Your kiss is the salve for my broken lips
Maybe I should learn the hymns
To worship at the church of your curves.

She wears a fine cloak of mist
I take her hand and she leads me
through a forest of glowing eyes
the branches sigh
brushing and scratching against our naked legs
as the stars dance like fireflies
streaking magik against God's velvet canvas
I wonder where we are
and how the moonlight dances upon her silken hair
she stops to stare
and then I realise
it was me
all along
I was the girl with transparent skin
lithe and glowing from within.

My desperate hands
search for the answers
lost in the brambles
among the valleys
and peaks
and soft arches of your sigh
looking for the key to a heart
I once lost in a frenzy
of lust
and profanity.

Your smile is electric
setting off
lightning strikes

inside my heart
shattering my beliefs
shaking my walls

breaking my resolve
bringing this human
to her knees.

You came in like a tornado
and intoxicated me
suffocated me
with words and thoughts and ideas
you are a single incident
an organised whole
perceived as more than the sum of your parts
your voice, your gestures, your smile
you’ve stained me
you are my Gestalt.

Your eyes flash like mirrored lightning
a fire that burns of drowsy desire
those somnambulant romances
heavy and damp
where hope grows in a meadow of whispers
like the alchemist and doyen of deconstruction
it echoes in twilight’s caress
willingly a bolt is unhinged
breathed out heavily between sighs
when passion ignites the plumes of incandescent liquid ash
and untethered silhouettes
find ease and comfort in the contours of shadows
transforming a dimly lit cabin
into a paradise of colours
and hastily made promises.

For the fifth night in a row I find myself fully awake and staring at the rafters of my bedroom. There was nothing to show for the sense of tiredness I felt a couple of hours ago except for my eyes still heavy with sleep. I prop myself up on one elbow and find my cat curled up in between my legs. The predictability of my nightly routines is somewhat comforting. My curtains are drawn as they always are when I sleep and the sky is unusually bright illuminated by a spatter of stars and a silvery moon casting a blue hue over everything. It is a quiet night but it isn’t silent. For silence does have a sound, the sound of stillness. Soon that moon will be gone and I rub my eyes as I marvel at the subtlety of perfection in the impermanence of time.

Everyday I ask myself what I can do about this nightmare
before it turns into a giant mushroom cloud exploding in my horizon.
I shudder as I feel the rapture building within, and in the stifling heat
I find myself constantly having to shake myself out of the thought of your lips
as they dance to a heavenly rhythm just before you smile. But these crashing waves are relentless,
dragging me down, robbing me of my escape, as a jealous ocean won’t let me leave,
I am captive in its dark depths …
… staring into the beautiful abyss, I breathe out a prayer,
[consign me
under your gaze
into eternity
with a single
chaste,
but lingering kiss].

I sought in you
the stars and the moon
but you said your
"I love you"
came much too soon
your kiss sighs 'Yes'
but your hands
they're screaming 'No'
with you I don't know
if I should stay
or if I should go.