The man who haunts my every hour
If you’re not dead, then why must your spirit whisper my name?
For why must a fruit taste so sour?

The embodiment of my pain
Embodiment of what you ripped from my flesh to save yourself
Maybe one day I’ll haunt you the same

You’ll see me in her smile
You’ll feel me in her embrace
Why is it with her you go the extra mile?

You threw me to the wolves to steal my soul
They skinned me apart limb by limb while you watched and joined
Was leaving me for dead your goal?

Limping through the mud I saw nothing but darkness
Cries for help masked simply by crickets and frogs
What did I do so wrong to deserve this moment of weakness?

Used for your own guilty pleasures
Tossed out like a bag of bones, fossilizing in the imprint you left
I knew we were destined for fate, I wish I’d taken different measures

Piece me back together, make me whole again
Somebody, something, release me from this hold
If I’m incapable of finding myself, then what then?

Then I saw it, a door to the other side
A glimmer of hope shadowed my despair
The tears that pooled my eyes soon dried

“Come with me” said the invisible force
I gained the strength to stand up and step through the light
I leave behind the shadows, a hopeful course

“Your journey starts anew, you must leave the past behind”
“How must I leave the past behind when my thoughts cast awry?” Said I
"Embrace the present moment, peace you'll find”

With that I took the invisible hand
Awakened with the newfound feeling of peace, in promised land

I invite you to the greenfield,
At the corner of hope and love.
It rests upon the hill,
Overlooking a lake of blue water.

We will be in the company of
A solitary nut tree, heavy with fruit,
An old picnic table carved with scattered letters,
And a chorus of bees whispering to wild pink and yellow flowers.

A beautiful sunset will cast its light across the greenfield,
While the sky shifts in confusion—orange, red, and pink.
A blue butterfly dances, delighting in the gentle breeze.

A playful squirrel nibbles on nuts,
While a nest of birds sing in anticipation of visitors.
Together, we shall let nature read our minds,
Feel our hearts, and speak our words
Through its muted language.

Hussein Dekmak

from all the scars and the wounds
the bruises and the cuts
a garden will arise
full of all the flowers i ever loved
and all the bugs i avoided

from the blood and the water
crystalline rivers will form into mater
which will create a new sun
not too hot but just enough

from all of the meat and the skin
new mountains will rise in the sky
over rain clouds the birds will fly
with water that's always clean

from my heart and soul
a forest will come as a surprise
and from my mind alone
a bunch of ants will arise

you asked me my business back in london
i told you i was here for work
i told you i’d met a boy
with long dark hair
and i told you he wore glasses
you asked ‘an intellectual, then?’
i said yes, of a sort.
the type of man you’d raise a family with
the type of man you could never be
the type of man to buy you lilies
when the pay check came in
and spin you around
on the roof of your cheap apartment complex.
i asked if you were still living in your apartment
the one with the large glass windows
that saw the city lights at night-
i miss it, oddly
cause you can’t hear the cars from up there
even though it’s so urban
and i could have sworn you could see big ben
from your large glass windows.
you said no, the rent was raised
and you got fired from your job
but you’d found a nice place in the suburbs
it was small, but you got by
besides, you didn’t need all the extra room
for a girl
i was long gone
and you knew it
i think i waited for you longer than i should've
but you used to spin me around
in front of your large windows
in your expensive apartment complex
and you’d buy me lilies
before the pay check came in
and you were an intellectual.
you used to write poems about me,
i think i must have memorised a couple
though i never really meant to.
still, i had to leave
i could never have raised a family
with a man like you