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I believe we are of sound and worthy mind;
That we might cast our constant glare back,
Towards our own transgressions and
Pretensious claims to ascendance.
That we may reflect on our own fortune,
Alive and affluent, rich in life and
Experience ill afforded to our elders.
Perhaps then we might pretend,
If only for fleeting moments,
That we are as deserving as we commonly believe.
For we are nothing if not
The cynical generation, born into
A world so mature that we need be
Nothing but children within it.
We have no politics, no beliefs, no
Drive to propel us into an existence of
Grace and enlightenment. We scoff
At signs of sentiment, we laugh
At barefaced gesture and divulgence.
We indulge in ceaseless pleasures and
Live upon the surface of the shallows.
Yet we forfeit the beauty of feeling,
The release afforded by sublimity;
We are afraid of what is bigger than us,
And we respond with profane derision.
I tire of popularity competitions,
Of gossip and blunt innuendo, of
Social ladders and picking up.
I yearn, with nostalgia and music, for
A time foreign to this weary soul,
A time perhaps non-existent, when
Such games were not all there was.
I look at myself and my peers, and I worry that perhaps we are not as wonderful, as clever, as wise as we believe ourselves to be. And that if we were to realise this, it would surely crush us; for what else does my generation have if not its arrogance?
I remember a time when time was just a number,
where the only times where school and dinner.
When I didn't have to grow up to be what I want,
but I could act it out in a secret lair or a parking lot.
As you become old, they try to rid you of you imagination,
well I say nay as I fly my submarine in a train station.
You know what take my wallet, live my life,
because I am a ninja hiding in the night.
Go ahead, try and catch me if you can,
Big old stupid corporate man.
You might be sophisticated and civilized,
so what, I am a 50 foot spider that can freakin' fly!
I think of something I'd like to tell you
in my bedtime voice, from a shared pillow
into your warm ear, but can't – so

I hide our secrets inside verses and
I author universes where, despite love's
disappointments, you're still here.
On a Wednesday, Thursday driving
by your father's house
I come bearing gifts
but no one is home.

And all I want to do
is give back that
effeminate powder blue shirt
and say good riddance
to your mother's house.
I had to sell the cottage
and lose the gestures
of wind on water,
the names
of flowers and trees.

Time runs out, traffic
snarls, sirens wail. I
stare, confused, frail
as faces dissolve
in fog and mist.
I forget names now
and how to move.
1
We are the folly,
Of youth, of life, of desire,
Adrift in mem'ry.

2
Where are they now, those
Rebels and dashing killers,
Chameleon kids.

3
They are all but grown,
Lost in a world undesigned,
Far from the school yard.

4
Still we look behind,
Towards the hills and beaches,
To days of summer.

5
Beneath an ocean,
Of stars and passing airplanes,
And a flash of Dawn.

6
Lead me to your stream,
Let me bathe in your water,
Float among the reeds.

7
Can you recall this?
Can you return to summer,
To asphalt fire?

8
She brings me to bed,
She strokes my hair, kissed my cheek,
And falls straight to sleep.

9
Now is then, and we
Drift back to days of summer,
Loathe to come back home.

10
'Twixt fields of amber,
Desert flowers in full bloom,
You danced beside me.

11
Were we so blinded?
Were we not the chosen few,
Destined for great things?

12
Alas, who can say,
If I or you are objects
Of beauty and worth?

13
You felt sun's embrace,
You heard wind's calm minuet,
You tasted sky's rain.

14
Who are you to love,
To tremble at awkward touch,
To sigh at brief gaze.

15
We were but children,
In tall grass, 'neath broad branches,
Through days of summer.

16
Oh sea, quiet surf,
In your hands I place my trust,
Guide me to the shore.

17
Porches of old wood,
Adorned with ancient varnish,
Painted eggshell white.

18
Be still, my lover,
Go where you may in spring time,
But return to me.

19
I remember those days,
Those hours of glee, of triumph,
Those seconds of joy.

20
Are they now all gone?
Are we left to pick at bones,
Of former glory?

21
Mother and father,
Brother, sister; all are here,
All are as one, free.

22
You knew me so well,
Took my failings as virtues,
My flaws gilded bright.

23
I knew you so well,
I dreamt of light and music,
A place you might love.

24
A tree once stood here,
Steadfast, elder traveller,
Now gone to new plains.

25
We made fire at night,
We pitched tents, drew pale portraits,
We lived as blithe lords.

26
Abandoned sea shells,
Stones so round they roam the beach,
A polymer bag.

27
I kept you so close,
Cleared the brush so you may lie,
Swept hair from your smile.

28
Night comes sooner, swift,
An eager rider, employed
With grim vocation.

29
Why must we now go?
Why do you see fit to leave,
With so much unspent?

30
You may not recall,
My face, my touch, my sorrow,
Yet I recall yours.

31
Still I look behind,
Towards the hills and beaches,
To days of summer.
A haiku/senryu collection for Haikuton's July endeavour. Now complete!
Meet me at the verge, the place where
Caledonian Road meets the river and the
Reckless thugs of Camden dare not travel,
Lest they find themselves back home, alone once more.

Meet me at midnight, before the
Gates break loose and spill the stragglers to the street,
And just after the last bus leaves the station,
And the tube stops, silent, dead.

Meet me for reasons unknown, for
Sake of impulse, of joy, of freedom,
To cast away what memory you might have
Of days less full and rich as this.

Meet me dressed in black and grey,
All the better for the night to swallow you whole,
Take you within, deep, as a lover to another,
Or a shipwreck lost within the sea.

Meet me with apathy and disdain,
With carefree abandon and slight
Mistrust, for you are more wary than I
And have seen darker evenings.

Meet me then and take my hand,
Through woollen gloves and shivering, and
Stare at me through condensed breath, as we
Share a smile and walk lightly away.
The sky is blue
this is a fact
but dont be so quick
its not exact
for at the end of the day
according to me
the sky gets thrown into the sea
and is replaced by a dark mask
full of holes
u can see past
and though the sky will soon be back
well mostly there
its not exact
I can't bury you
Nor can I heal;

In my veins,
In my soul.
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