Polar distances would stand
at the circumference of our destinies
Plouging through the rage of memories
and through the fabric of time

but alas!
what difference does it make
when our hearts have transcended physicality
passing the shimmers of mortality in flashes
to rest in silent hands?

They were prison cells
Driving deeper into me
Watching my colour drain
Clearing all sorrow
And then the heat would come

* * *

Gently shovelling away the clouds
Poised on the mountains on the horizon
Creeping in like rolling carpets
Gorging on the ropes of life
And then digging in tightly

What the slips of sentience said
Yellowing grain fields and dimes
Hearty bellows on the chimes of the day
Greeting the returning milkmaids
Reaching out to the night

Dreams and fantasies always simmer
Dissipate in the breeze of the dawn
Trimming the woods of their roots
Grooming the phantoms lovingly
And wandering stars.

solemn whispers in the shade
snuggling in the warmth of our leaves

the world revolved
and we did nothing
just sleeping

how many days we spent
together under the boughs
of the expanse of bamboo shoots
and temperate trees

sleeping together
working together
living together
breathing together
like birds on a deathlock
void of separation

even the tendrils of winter
and the breath of summer
stayed

the world revolves
and we do nothing
just sleep

Bits and pieces of the ether dawn
taken from slumber to bliss
careening down the slopes of the ocean
and wander into the mist
awash with spices of the world
caressing the heart of the day
sleeping in cotton folds of light
and sparkling the scents of May
simmering the songs of the ancients
and crossing the borders of stars
mirroring the flight of the chosen
by healing the seams of scars
splice of the whispered wind
whipping the mortal life
chiming resonance–––––––hello?
–––––––but memory–––––––
of special times

Meeting you yesterday
In the bazaar close to the school
where we used to play

You smoked
I smiled through the dust
Trying to ignore the differences

I knew it'd been hard for you
I really tried

The wind was degrading everything
The magnificence of the otherwise hot summer day
The braying of the donkeys at work
The shouting
and all the marble tiles lining the sidewalks
giving home its colour

and in my heightened sensations there was a whisper

"I'll be home for the end," you said

I nodded as always
gripping the hunger in my stomach so tightly
it always bothered me when the months came

"Maybe we can meet up then,"

"Sure."

That was all we ever said
and all I ever needed.

My heart beats in my ear drums
My blood boils in my head
The blinding white and silence
and the soft folds of my bed
Then the world comes to hit me
It all starts with a bang
The searing red of his blood
and the pain that comes in pangs

I leap up from my white grave
Escaping by inch the knife
Crash through the window panes
and inhale the breath of life
But the horror is not over
And racing down the empty streets
I feel my body breaking
as my eyes do slowly bleed

I set the roads on fire
Indiscriminate in my aim
Searing the terrors in black
and burning in my shame
Still their blows are relentless
Gashes and slits on me
And while I shriek in terror
no one will hear my plea

––––––––or someone––––––––

Pulled to by my screaming
Always shielding in my way
His roars the town would wake
the fights just child's play
Bare-****** he slew my pursuers
Down the throats of every one
And before I could catch my breath
all the deeds were done

I panted and watched embarrassed
As he turned to look at me
Dressed in my undergown
with my hair wet and free
Yet despite the bloodied state
And my sorry battered mess
He tread calmly over
to carefully straight my dress

While the rest of the world used me
While its people hated me
While I took harried breaths
and was drowned in the sea
Somehow he always knew
And at the stretch of a hand
He would pull me ashore
and breathe life into me again.

Tidal waves sweeping
all over in the deep
sentient howls through
darkness enveloping
and sprays of joy
crashing in the brilliance of the world
sweeping majestic
whispers incomprehensible
angelic and sombre
healing wise
coursing past

under the bamboo of the forest
meeting you while the leaves scraped quietly

spinning the cobwebs
praising the words of the devil
creaming me

always wondering in the light of the candle
if I were born yesterday

spite creeps it away
it's always dark

murmurs of wonder
persistent heaviness of the lids
we broke the hourglass

then there are my memories of the rain

––always eternal––
––everlasting––
––grieve––

Rocking gently on the lulling breeze

The winds pulled over my head
Buying me time as I watched the world
go by silently without me

As a vision of the aethersky
Climbing softly in my dreams
reaching the heavens––

Time immemorial gave me centuries
chapters in my life bursting like bubbles
happy in their evanescent beings

Quiet days number my life
frozen musings
and the smiles of strangers––

fly me to the moon, tonight
where the tender rails of gravity
might take its dry pity on me
and let me watch its stars
where I might meet you in the expanse of tears
that the overlord formed so long ago
tearing down the boxes of lights
that it shaped so carefully
and wonderfully I would
share more embraces with you
if only in the ebbing twilight
simmering in our warmth
and never-darkening shadows

Suspensions

They stole your tears
In the night of day
And while we slept it was then
I lost you

what if I told you
it was never me

Staring for hours into the sea of faces
Waiting for you to turn up
And then seeing you for moments
Smoking in your trench coat
Felt hat shielding the sun from your eyes
Taking your daily break on the bridge

Times like that never fade
Thoughts of someone I could never have
And the resonance of silence in my head

And players of the southern morning
come running down the aisles
clasping their hearts to their cores and singing
the larks and crests of love

and before the jangles of the prayer
spears of christened light
the memories of flowing breezes
and chords of shattered whispers

in pieces but like one
they wrap the boughs of justice
claiming in the echoes
time by time in glee

but movements of the ether morn'
slices of sparkling warmth
craving in the senses of bliss
and spilling through the dawn

and to the trace we take the word
climbing and sliding the essence by
alpine cloaks of universal stars
silence to the known

so now we lay in the roses of colour
spending eternity like forever infinite
grasping the notions of instance in spurts
and watching the worlds for centuries