Sumer, the people of ancient Mesopotamia.
Known to us as nascent humanity;
Spreading across the world quickly,
Like news of a calamity.
They existed thousands of years ago,
A civilisation truly gifted,
Knowledge of whom many of us forgo.

They were but one shade in a kaleidoscope of human presence.
Kings of the Fertile Crescent –
Establishing empires or mastering commerce,
Starting fires or learning to converse.
Mankind in its infancy,
A bloom of activity and artistry.
In our attempts at deciphering our history,
We turn to the relics of their poetry,
Discoveries that are a historian’s ultimate victory.

‘The love song of Shu-Sin’ –
The world’s oldest, known reference to love.
Written thousands of years ago,
Possibly older than we do know.
It is a rite of marriage, a recital;
In it lies a passage, one that needs a revival.
It is about a vow that we have now twisted,
An exquisite message that leaves one’s spirit lifted.

The bride promises the following to the groom;
To act as a refuge when all that seems to loom is doom and gloom.
To caress, love, and soothe.
To savour beauty and intimacy,
To be like honey, sweet and smooth.

The king - a man who was thought divine,
A man whose life was valued more than yours or mine,
A man who could eternally wine and dine –
That man was still no sultan to love.
His heart was still in the palms of his beloved,
Their naked frames intertwining, arched and cusped.
His hold on her is not one of force,
Nor a promise of power,
But rather earned in due course,
Like the development of a beautiful flower.

I grieve beyond words when I think
Of how love, nowadays, is on the brink.
The glue that holds life itself together,
Discarded by many, like an ex’s letter.
I look at the eyes of people I’d love to be with,
And in their expression, I discover a graveyard of sad memories.
Scars that feel indelible, past histories -
Souls that look like war-torn territories.

I look at my own eyes in the mirror,
And see a starving spirit, growing thinner.
I see a window for restoration, becoming slimmer.
Sometimes I hopefully wonder – is there a glimmer?
Is there another hungry apparition,
On a desperate search for heavenly admission?
I seem to have forgotten how to love,
And do not know how to rid myself of this condition.

You crave interaction
Not just a mere distraction
Lonely from the bottom
of your soul that is rotten
You are adored by a person
you love this version
Then it all goes wrong
And you crave another one
who's not there
you look but don't know where
Lonely from the bottom
of my soul that is rotten
How to keep a heart
How to be a part
of a me & you
and who?

There's something
light &
heavy
simple &
steady
I crave
I feel it in my bones
When it overcomes me like a wave
I'm shaking off these heavy stones

Carefully placing them on the shore
of the seas of my own mind
Hands sore
from carrying them here from where I find
them just like they are supposed
to be right here
and they might be the most
lovely signs of a lack of fear

I believe
I've quite the courage
Though this ocean speaks of retrieve
waves looking like familiars, not sure which

Feeling like one of the last unicorns
being forced into stormy waters
by an angry red bull and it's sharpened horns
a tide that speaks of forgotten daughters

Lost their hope of escaping
but in this hidden place
I found a chance for reshaping
standing tall in the face
of my crimson enemy
holding me in a sea of longing
winds whispering of a remedy
I cast myself in a place of belonging

And take these shores
with it's many stones
I'll come without anger or remorse
to feel it in my bones