How long does it take until you begin to realise,
Until you remember just how much of a fool you really are?

Do the heavens have to open and release all hell,
Do the gun echoes have to ricochet right through my heart?

Does the sun have to take a morning break and delay it's early rise,
Does the moon have to shy away into the depth of the clouds?

How long does it take until you begin to realise,
That something isn't right?

I've been an idiot,
A prospering-now-spiralling-into-decline-fool.

a surge of grief washes my senses,
seeming to ride the dim,
blue, evening light, and
suddenly i realise, that
this moment will soon be over -
never to be replayed,
that this life will soon be over -
always to be forgotten,
and that which i am, will fade -
dissipate -
end.
caught forever, light is frozen on my eye, a picture of you
arms stretched, evening light tracing your pink flesh,
tracing your face, and
reflecting back at my own eyes
so that i may construct you
experience you internally
(for that is all we ever know).
the very same light that washes your body, also
washes my mind
yet, forever and always, we are separated
by the width of a single electron.

My friend, my LOVE!

You're asleep and I sit here looking at you.
Flipping through the pages of your past,
my heart bleeds for you
tears well in my eyes for you.

I've seen the things you have,
experienced it all,
lived it all - at your side.

You, my friend,
my dearest friend -
I've known you all your life

You show mercy,
even to the smallest creature
you fight for the weak and helpless

I just wish you could show yourself that mercy
show yourself the love and compassion
you so freely do for others

For you deserve it!
The stuff you've endured
the life you've had
and challenges you've faced,
would have broken lesser men

Now I lay you down to sleep
maybe to be released again
in the morning's early hours
when your defences are down!

For in the day,
you keep me locked behind our eyes
you cage me in our heart,
you silence me
and I stare in horror as you flog us
beat and punish us
and deal harshly with us
for stuff that hasn't always been our fault.

Tomorrow morning, reading this
please show yourself some mercy
you're not that bad
you might even be better than you know
even deserving of **love

Real life isn't always perfection
Often it's nervously bitten digits and cracked nail polish.

Real life isn't always photogenic
Mostly it's oily faces and adolescent outbreaks.

Real life isn't perfumed or pretty
Sometimes it's pit stains and bad hair days.

Real life isn't a page in a glossy magazine
Airbrushed and edited to curveless perfection.

Real life isn't about salads and diet coke
It's more like ice cream and pizza at 3 am and fat days spent in yoga pants feeling sorry for yourself.

Real life isn't always smooth sailing
Rather it's more like "I hate you" one minute then "I love you" the next then "shut up, go away" right after that.

Real life isn't fantasy
It's the 9-5 grind and knowing you'll never make enough to afford all the things you want.

Real life is never how you expect it to be
So when you tell me that I'm beyond perfect and that you don't deserve me . . .

What do you expect me to do . . . degrade myself so I'm imperfect for you?

The End.

I’m still wondering if you were the best thing
or the worst thing that ever happened to me
I wore a tough face, and yet I was bearing such delicate features
my eyes sung a song of pain and resentment

p.s. good things come to an end because better things come out of it, freedom.

I’m glad it’s the end.  

- by Cheyanne Ntangu

I came into the world, locked up in a death camp,
imprisoned for years with the same people.

This was my life, my only existence.
I knew nothing else except death and decay.

How much more can we all take?
The world is alien to people and peace.
When will we all wake up from our sleeping?
We can’t just go on in the same old ways.

For years, I was confined with pain all around me.
For years, I saw and smelt nothing but death.
For years, I was stepping over decaying corpses.
The mutilated remains of historical past.

We all spent years killing and maiming,
making peoples’ lives such a great misery.
We all just took whatever we wanted,
making people suffer for our own selfish greed.

But all this suffering didn’t affect me.
It was my whole life, my only real world.
No other reality came into vision.
This was my only true view of the world.

For years, I was subjected to pain and distortions,
which I accepted as nothing but the norm.
I believed that suffering would always continue,
that death and decay could never be stopped.

But in the outside world, I saw a new vision.
The real world around me was different and new.
I can now see a new life, a bright new reality.
A different life in a different light.

You see, I accepted it just without question.
I couldn’t see anything but despair and loss.
I thought we were powerless and had no future.
I believed it all for I knew no better.

Copyright: Gordon Warren (1981)

Forty minutes at a station
Lasting an eternity
As I waited in anticipation
You a beautiful vision
Fulfilling our dreams of passion

Forty minutes at a station
Lasting an eternity
You arrived walking casually
Breezy and in a hurry
You stopped for me indifferently

Forty minutes at a station
Felt like an eternity
You told me the time of your departure
And an e mail to your employer
And  we had limited time together

Forty minutes at a station
Felt like an eternity
I wondered why you loved me
My mind's eye was forcing me to see
My love had been blind to your falsity

Forty minutes at a station
Was never an eternity
It was short and uninspiring
You were detached and unengaging
My love for you was withering

Forty minutes at a station
A lifetime of an education