I wish to age like a wrap-around porch
In a thunder storm,
While generations tell tales,
Sipping drinks.
A porch of blinking stars,
A shelter out of rain,
With ascending and descending friends.

I will age like a tree,
Grow stronger in the wind;
Give shade and shelter to all
Beneath my ring-aged limbs.

I wish to age as a river bends,
Contiguous with all shores;
Floating everyone I know
On eternal waters,
A current winding with no rest.

I will age like a star,
Burning bright, giving light,
Something to reach for.

I wish to age like a mountain,
With secret caves and riches.
And you can rock your soul
Around, over or through,
Solid, snow-capped summit,
Beckoning you.

I will age as the moon,
In stages, full and new;
Each night different,
Unnoticeable fading,
As all who age will do.

You don't know this yet,
but I'm gonna meet you
in a few days
and on the 13th of December
you'll let me be yours

My mother will hate you
for a couple of years,
but I'll leave the house
i grew up on
just to be next to you;
all the hard work and sleepless nights
will be worthwhile

Sixty months after that,
we're going to get married
on the 18th of June,
and our children will be happy,
i promise

I'm aware of all this stuff
because, twenty three years later,
I'm still in love with your laugh,
your jokes, your rants
and changing moods

I'll always be thankful
for that first conversation we had
eight thousand, three hundred
and seventy seven
days ago

Last month you were walking home
and you passed by a bus stop;
one had just arrived,
it was empty,
but you decided to ignore it

Until you remembered my lips,
my cold hands

After that time, you payed attention
to every single bus in town,
wondering if they could take you
someplace nearby my eyes
and my voice

Because you missed me,
you still do

And finally,
you bought yourself a ticket,
you couldn't wait to see me anymore;
you needed my kisses
and my arms,
almost as much as i did

As i do

You were ready to come,
but then I woke up,
realizing it was a simple dream

knowing you would never take
that empty bus

A time will come when I'm barren inside.
Every sound would remind me that I am hopeful

I am rain, hoping for shelter
I am the running breeze. Screaming, unabashed.
I would confess all those ugly truths,
about living and loving and forgetting
and be fearless, senseless.
aimless, being
just for the sake of being

to the stars

forgive me for falling back into the black
but I am looking up at you and asking you to come back into me
tear open my flesh and let me rise up
like ether into your ambient neighbourhood

make me forget
**** me and once more I shall be born
and this time I will remain beautiful

and at peace

When the walls are closing in on you
and you start to feel more than just a little blue
because you just don't know how you're going to feed them
on the crumpled limited notes in your hand
Or just how you're going to explain to them
That school might just be a time waster
because the economy is going to ***** them over anyways
and have them begging for piece jobs in the blistering sun,
Cry Mama.

Let out a high pitched wail at midnight
and let it be heard all the way from the capital
so they may be woken up from their silk- pampered sleep
Let your voice be a substitute for their conscience
let it keep them up at night.
Let your screams turn their milk sour
Let your cries make their heads ache
Let your weeping fill their tea with tears.
Like Macbeth, they murdered your sleep
So mama, let them know no sleep.

Let your sorrow be heard in your weeping
and your anger be heard in your screams.
Let your wails fly like a dove with a message
to tell them of a future they destroyed
a generation they disappointed
a land they disinherited
a nation they angered
and a mother whose heart they shattered.

Your kind of love is different
It is peace and serenity in the midst of insecurity
it is wisdom in silence and always selfless.
While others slay the dragons with their swords
You lull them to sleep then gently lay them at your feet.

I feel the violence and war in other people's souls
I hear their raging battles even before they speak

But when I see you  so safe and secure
while the angry storm rages all around you
Your beatiful soul radiating peace and love
I feel myself drawing closer and closer
till you wrap your arms around my shivering heart
and their warmth chases the cold reality away
and I am free to lay my head on your chest
for as long as my battered body needs to rest

And that's where I decide to make my home
In your beautiful , tranquil house of peace.

          


They're in my bed and in my head
they hold me when I'm scared
not to comfort or make me feel better
but to let me know they are always with me
Wherever I go, wherever I hide
they're always by my side.

The monsters are so slimy and slick
they hide themselves in my textbooks
disguising themselves as history
and facts and stats when in fact they've distorted
the truth and are using it to trap me
in a live of servitude and poverty
while they spend the fruits of my labour
on voyages to faraway lands filled with splendor.
The monsters are not under my bed
they live in the wings of the patriotic bird.

The monsters live amongst the paperwork
that litters the cupboards in their fort
while their gates keep lost souls out.
They look down on real people
with real dreams and ambitions
and they judge us for our ability
to admit that our current location
has no infrastructure to make a provision
for futures as bright as ours.
The monsters are not under my bed
they inside the insensitive embassies
and call themselves immigration policies.

The monsters were never under my bed
they looked down upon my black face
and decided that poverty was my fate
then they left work and got on a jet
for a vacation in the beautiful land of Sheiks
and expected me to roll over and play dead
but instead like a champion I held up my head
and continued to claim my share
of the wealth they stole from my land
and made them wish they lived under my bed.
while I carried their heads on a stake.