Let my heart gently swim
in the silky warm smoothness
of a creamy chocolate coffee
on a sleepy Sunday morning,
The hours lazily evaporate in the steam.

Let my troubles and my woes sink,
Let my pains melt away this very day,
Let the fresh air sprinkle love’s dreamy spice,
Let the flavours mix in my hot coffee cup,
Let me unfurl the flag of life’s everlasting heights,

Rich, dark, and with a velvet touch,
My lips receive the frothy sweet kiss
and my tongue curls with a pleasure rare,
This is a coffee which will keep me wrapped warm
against the memory of years yet to rain and storm.

A day will dawn…

And we, the born, will learn to mourn,
All of us, black or white, north, south, east or west,
We have a common thread that links us all…

A mother…

We will look to the skies and our eyes will swim,
Our hearts will brim with feelings warm
And our minds will sink in memories made from material rarer than gold,

She was there when we first stepped into our first schoolroom,
She was there to warm us in the frozen heart of a pale white winter,
She was there to cool us in the volcanic lava of a scorching hot summer,

There is a chill that cuts deeper than the kiss from winter’s lips,
It will come to us all soon enough and peel away our false smiles,
The autumn branches of this life already twist and hold us in an iron grip.

Once upon a sleepy Sunday some of us ran here and there,
We fetched flowers made from paper and petals, lightly sprinkled with perfume,
Little did we know that all that was needed was always right here,

All we had to do was reach out,
Touch and hold,
Embrace and softly say…

“Love you.
Always have.
Always will.”

Those who know do so and say so with eyes and ears,
From the lips all the way down to fingertips and toes too,
They have no need for chocolates, roses or man-made greeting cards,

She was special, her life a magical miracle of the divine,
She was mother to me and mother to you
and remember too a woman is mother to all of mankind,

A wife to her husband,
A mother to her children,
And an angel of the Almighty.

A woman.
A mother.
A friend.

I miss her so much…

“I’m unhappy and can’t cope.”
Unhappy is an orphan in a land without water, without mercy, without hope.

“I’m fat, ugly and slow”.
You’re more beautiful than the peacock who sang in Eden before the Fall.

“Who will marry me now?”
Don’t be a slave to social pressure. In time you will seed, plant and plough.

“I’m getting old and my body is changing shape.”
Wisdom, experience, memories and stories old only come with age and grace.

“I feel worthless and ashamed.”
You are more precious than a spotless butterfly escaping time’s ticking frame.

“How come everybody else looks happy?”
Their smiles may hide broken lives. Think twice before you point and get snappy.

“I have no friends who are true.”
First learn to love the enemy who lives in the heart, body and soul of you.

“My dreams and plans always fail.”
Build them wings and faithfully pray even if it takes you till Judgment Day.

“Why am I always left behind?”
Remove the fear of losing and express the slow burning desires inside your mind.

“My prayers go unanswered, I only get tears.”
Some of the greatest gifts come to you in the form of unanswered prayers.

“Life is such a bore and a drag.”
Tell that to a dying man who’s now screaming for life to come racing back.

“I don’t want your pity or advice.”*
I open my palms and offer you the dice of life without condition or price.

As ever, you remain in my thoughts as I work and play,
each and every day,
Time, space and distance conspires for us to separate,
Of these transient things I do often contemplate,
Deep in the ***** depths of my soul I dig with love's forlorn *****,
There I always find you, my heart's only trusted mate,
Twilight caresses me as I stand waiting by the desolate highway gate,
The night wind chills, time slips, yet on my soul is writ an eternal date,
On the coming of the morrow mayhap we shall once again meet
and eat from love's divine plate.

Thou art a fiery flamed starry-eyed siren
who dost sing the plaintive aria of Autumn,
To thee do I pledge my heart's love and desire
on this, the eternal Eve of Valentine's dreaming day.

*Love you princess...

The doctors all assured them that it was nothing,
They scribbled notes and called it pneumonia,

Sent the family here and there,
Take this and drink that,

Only it was not that at all,
No, it was much more than that,

Cancer, that was the fuse that had been lit,
Silent, merciless, ruthless, it bit through her,

It punctured her young life,
She battled with courage older than her six years,

Sana…

She will never now be kissed or betrayed by love’s arrow,
No more will she explore the bittersweet taste of life,

She shall not be tanned by the sun’s warm music,
Nor will her fingers roll a snowball in the fall of winter,

Hail, wind, rain and shine,
Water, air, fire and ice,

Hush! She sleeps now,
And dreams upon dreams which we who live have never dreamed,

Sana…

Your life was a song written in the hymn book of nursery rhymes,
You left us richer for having known you.

She’s six,
She wants to play and run and with her friends freely mix,

She’s bright,
She wants to reach out to the dimly glowing tunnel of light,

She’s grateful,
She wants to be brave in the face of all that is fearfully fateful,

Imagine…

Pain, pain,

Pain that is so encrusted it eats into her tiny bones unseen,
Pain so heated it needs to be cooled with the kiss of morphine,

One lung sunken never again to flutter or rise,
The other coughs along over craggy cancer heights,

The luscious hair that was once her crown has been plucked away,
All her hair falling into the jealous grip of the dead and dying day,

There is a brain tumour that tick-tocks in the evening shadows,
In her sleep she whispers, “Tell aunty to bring me eyeshadows.”

A circle of spirals, a moonbeam,
She is one of us, what is life but a brief dream?