Why do you spring straight out of bed
When frost and darkness cloak the morn ?
What makes you grit your teeth and run
Despite the wind and rain forlorn ?
How is it that you work each day
When aching bones demand respite ?
What makes you sit composing verse
When others sleep into the night ?


How do you face the alpha male
To snarl into his face in rage ?
What brings the courage forth for this
When reason says “Just turn the page” ?
What gives you steel to stand your ground
And fight for what you think is right ?
What makes you man enough to face
That which makes you shake with fright ?


Life’s living canvass lies before you
With it’s texture and it’s shades,
To take the pallet knife and slash
Rich vermilion through your days.
It renders layer upon layer
Of indulgence through your time
But a glint of social conscience
Always regulates the rhyme.


Why is it in the dark of night
When sleep skips forth evading you,
That demons creep on leathered feet
To wrack your conscience into view ?
How do you cope with horrors past
The bad deeds done, the slights, the shame ?
Remorsefulness invokes the cure
In a summons to a price of pain.


What motivates you, what moves you
In your quest for living right ?
What separates the wheat from chaff,
Or the sun from day and night ?
What separates the doing man
From he who sits to stew ?
....It’s the living worms that drive you
They crown you King of all you do.


Marshalg
@theCoalface
Mangere Bridge
23 May 2009

Laughter is hilarious
Deliriously fun
To bust a gut with laughter
Is to know this day is won!
Merriment is everything
When rolling on the floor
With a belly ache from laughing loud
And looking round for more.

A funny anecdote for breakfast
A chuckle hovers on your lips,
You smile into each others eyes
And explode in laughing fits.
The goodness felt in laughter
When you whoop and slap your knee
Is the soreness in your tummy
After laughter’s roaring glee!

Frantic chuckles, clenched white knuckles,
It’s getting out of hand
I cross my legs in agony,
I need to ***, you understand?
Hilariously funny
When you laugh yourself to ***
But embarrassing to run for home
Without letting someone see.

It feels good to be exhausted
To be breathless in the chest
In the aftermath of hilarity,
The infectious grin surpressed.
The boost to your endorphins
Releases all the stress
And the lovely smile remaining
Has made this happy day… THE BEST!

Marshalg
@theGate
Mangere Bridge
2nd.March 2009

Wandering through tracks of life
Remind me of a play
Where the hero played his present scene
Then cancelled out each day
Where the memories of yesteryear
Just fade into the mist,
Where the joys and tears and ecstasy
Dispel, and nothing’s missed.
Where time consumes the very thought
That occupies each part
And leaves you with a vagueness
And a sadness in your heart.

When you walk and crush the daisies
When you strive and build the day
When you lead a child to laughter
With a funny face display.
When you deal with things of consequence
And guide the ship of state,
When you choose your favorite ice cream
And avoid the food you hate.
When the building blocks just vanish
And the structure disappears
When the moments flee like moving silk
And evaporate the years.

The day is still and foggy
There’s a tremor in the air,
I can hear a blackbird singing
And the sound is sweet and fair
As I sit in my seclusion
And quietly pass the time
I attempt to recall peoples names
And I can’t remember mine.
There’s a mistiness in being
And a sameness everywhere,
There’s a lack of expectation
And a drollness in despair.

Marshalg
Mangere Bridge
8th March 2008

Dance to the tune of yesterdays promise
Hope for the pay out on another days win,
Cast around for that magical formula
Knowing that lotto is primarily spin.
Frantically poised with high expectations,
Ready to pounce on that first lucky break,
Keeping the ace card carefully hidden
Waste it and you'll be as mad as a snake.

What determines the gap between winners and losers,
What is the difference in the mode of approach?
Is the talent to guess what's round the corner
The key to dismantling this realm of reproach?
Happiness rests on a knife edge balance
Having too many is as bad as too few,
Suspicion that others are stealing it off you
Destroys you as much as poverty will do.

How many fat cats are really ecstatic,
How many lie awake in their beds?
Tossing and turning, worrying, burning.
Suspicion and avarice tormenting their heads.
On the other hand poorness is no picnic either,
Hardship and hunger are no friends of mine.
Destitution and cranial aimlessness....
Lost to the world and a great waste of time.

So what have you got? What is the answer?
Go for broke and ****** the cost?
Walk over your mates and live with the consequence
Or hold back and join the legions of lost?
As I walk through the valley of death I ponder,
Lost in this web of lust and intrigue,
Am I coming to terms with greed and confusion
Or going backwards and starting to bleed?

Marshalg
At the Gate
Mangere Bridge
4th January 2008

Down, into deep obsidian,
Where feelings cease to be
Where awareness, once so sprightly blue,
Is plunged beneath the sea.
Where awareness filled with feeling
Vanished darkly to abyss,
And the beauty of a lifetime
Discontinued to exist.
Where the history of yesteryear
Is snuffed out in a trite
And the memories of something great
Are lost to darkest night.

You can argue this is so unfair
That you’ve so much more to do,
You can point out how the family
Will suffer with out you.
You can demonstrate your value,
You can remonstrate your case
You can beat your breast with passion
…But it’s all wasted in this place.

This is death, this is death
Where nothingness is king
Where yesterdays tomorrow
Is a past, forgotten thing.
The grail of good and bad do meld,
The sweetness of a song
Is swallowed up in sorrow
And tomorrows light is gone.

O were it true that holy men
Would dispense words of grace,
That the marvel of an afterlife
Would gracefully replace
The turgid mist of vacuum,
And the hiss of vacant sound
With the scintillating presence
Of  yet another earthly round?

But alas… It’s all corruption
When your day of days doth come
You must close those eyes forever friend
…..For the living time is done.

Marshalg
Mangere Bridge
28th March 2008

The stink of fish on earthen streets
A hot wind blows from ochre hills
Black faces shine with brilliant teeth
Street market ***** doth cure all ills.
Redness in her plaited hair
Rhythm in her steady tread
A harmony of balance, she carries
Water jars on her head.
A market girl is singing
As she sits among bananas
The drama in her music
Is as dusty as the street,
It fills the air with magic
As it lilts above street chatter
In the atmosphere of Africa
Where new and ancient meet.


The goat boy herds his docile flock
Through camel trains and bales
The steamer tethered at the dock
Announces that she sails
With billowed steam and mournful wail
It echoes through the town
And the planter and his agent
Bargain with a harried frown.
The bleating of the goat herd
And the stench of fish and dung
Is as ordinary as Africa
In the searing mid day sun.


Zanzibar is spices, Zanzibar is Stone.
Club Zanzibar is whiskey on the rocks
Consumed alone
Or shared upon the balcony
In the shadow of a palm
With the turquoise Indian ocean
Reaching out beyond the arm.
Do you see the dhows are sailing?
Do you see the fishing nets?
Do you hear the oarsmen chanting?
Did you see black muscle flex?
Have you watched the dripping sweat
Cascade on alabaster brow?
Have you inhaled the scent of Africa
And allowed it to allow?



Colobus monkeys in the treetops
Narrow lanes in the bazaar
Dull white walls adorn stone buildings
And the rupee is by far
The favorite tenure of the Island
Since the days when slaves were sold
By Arab camel caravaners
Who traded coin for young black gold.
East and west collide in concert
Africa and Asia blend
The Sultan's mix of race and spice
In Zanzibar, beyond lands end.


Marshalg
Mangere Bridge
3rd June 2008

When she walks past in her loveliness
Do your nostrils twitch and flare ?
Do your senses swell with passion
When you see her standing there ?
Are  you proud to walk quite near her ?
Do you feel you're standing tall ?
Are there any compromises,
Is there any doubt at all ?
Is there joy in your tomorrows,
Do your expectations soar ?
Does she make you feel exalted,
Do you float above the floor ?
Is there magic in the very air
You breath into your chest ?
Are your achievements exceeding
Your considered, very best ?
Do you love her and want her
And worship her smile ?
Would you sacrifice all
To be acknowledged for a while ?

Marshalg
@theBach
12 August 2009