we went to that place, that
vulnerable oasis, where
lovers are nursed  
and destroyed;
that march evening
coolness mesmerized by
the silence, by the pure plant,
by the bass in that song
echoed between my thighs

the poems are conceived
in my mouth, on my tongue,
my taste buds
prance around your skin
like honeybees,
your eyes seek perennial
poignancy
and dumfounded i open
myself like a rose

Goodness is soul
see it sprinkles
across the board.
We can count on
every nook
and every angle.
With goodness
little and whole
there is God!

No pain no birth
but the mother
only showers love
to her newborn child.
God's love
for the creations
may not be a
spontaneous show.
Blossoms with food
for thought!

A
Baby
Cries,
Demanding,
Emphatic,
Forming,
Growing,
Having
Intelligence,
Joy,
Kindness,
Love.
Mounting
Neuroses,
Outrageous
Propaganda,
Quickly
Remove
Simple
Truth,
Unleashing
Violence-
Wanton,
Xenophobic.
Youthquake
Zeitgeist!


© 2020 by Mark Toney.  All rights reserved.

As Alice arrives at the Hospital door
a couple smile and say hello.
The girl who is heavy with child
asks which way they should go.


Alice leans over to reach him
to kiss him for one last goodbye.
A silent tear rolls down her face
as with sadness she begins to cry.


They’d been together a very long time
thinking they had more years to come.
But illness came and frailty ensued
now their life together is done.


After some time by his bed, she left
and on hearing a noise she smiled.  
Coming from a nearby maternity suite
it was the cry of a new born child.


She sees the same couple as before
next morning when collecting his things.
And smiles, as she sees their baby boy
as one life ends, and a new one begins.

Sunrise

Flaming birth of day

Flamingo colours

Boiling sky

And newly minted dawn

To pierce the night

With crimson rain

Of burning stars and heaven flame

It's your first day

Don't worry

You are new to life

I am older

I will hold your hand

And show you the way

You have so many roads to discover

Some we will travel side by side

Others we walk alone

One day you will leave me

Quietly in the shade of a tree

Following your own path

Don't worry

Memories will always lead you

Back to the roads we walked together

Outside is gargling with rain;
A displeasing pitter-patter of cloudburst spittle,
You sunlight absent, serotonin vampire, dooming me into this inferior place while water flows into canals frying golden leaves that pass and pass.

I glare and I glare at the whiteness of this page; my to-be creation and what will I create?
Sunburned arc eyes, shuttered, flickered flashes
I recalled, ‘I am a creature of the pen’,
she said: ‘My pen is the best of me’. We share a name you know?

It was 1988, a blizzard hastened its squally flakes
during my twenty-hour wait.
They groaned, they rumbled against the frail hospice window; mother had always said.
A grating cry creaked that February night;
the blizzard was worried stiff.
shall I write about the night I came to be?

So there I am a sprout germinating in the dark,
Birth towards decay.
A natural occurrence, if you know?
I expected so much more.
there is so much more to say.

But I shut my eyes and I am rushing and I am dashing
towards the end of the horizon.
I drop myself into the pool of dooming sunsets,
Be swallowed into darkness; sweet comfort of the unseen.
And after I howl my yowl,

I let it
hiss the birth
of an unfamiliar
miracle

If you could
Change your birth certificate
Would you?

If you could
Change your death certificate
Would you?

Are these questions certifiable?

Your arms aren’t quite right, your head’s too big
Your legs are turned in awkward ways,
You struggle to take each breath.
We couldn’t love you more,
But I need to know...
Will you forgive
our giving
you this
Life?