The suburb life has me talking this way
In fits and in bursts, a rainbow array
Until I find an alternate speak
I ask if you can please bear with me

I met a Sir in my cull du sac, grey
A man in a dark and stringy toupee
Concern I felt as he spoke to himself
And the echo still sits on my book shelf

The brew is new, I will chew!
Petri dishes... more than a few!  
Let my strong voice ravage through
The mask I wear to protect you

See my power over this
I’ll put my tears in this fist!
I curse the devil, you know
A mage I am, in mourning

I followed that man as he walked in his home
I asked for his name to put in a poem
He said his name is merely a disease
And there’s not yet a working vaccine

Stomp stomp I’m here I’ve arrived!
Here to save all of mankind!
From this piece of RNA
Plus keep other strings at bay

With Angel ****, feet and lips
The skillset on my CV
Microscopes and power bars
And all of my great technique

Covid 19 has me up in arms too
The quarantining and seeing too few
To curse the devil is brave as can be
But to dismember an angel scares me

I followed that man as he walked on out
This time dressed just like a true scout
In scrubs a sheild and everything else
Needed to fight a war on bad health

To work day and night the biggest fight
I have schizophrenia, so I am right
Wow! Hurray, without sarcasm I knelt
Thank you sir for the work you do, heartfelt

Bygons are memories of doomsday’s loss-
Earthly shades of lime-green moss
For ever now will be too late
To make this right so we cherish our fate

Chorus:
Bounty has claimed our soul and providence  
Sing together boys, for we are now prophetless
If the reaper comes for our bodies tonight
Let him know our sins to make them right

Grand theft from Noah’s arc
And barren scapes of shadows dark
Empty horizons on the road we take
Fire away, since to laugh is to break

We’ve made gypsies out of our women
Taken the world they were given
Under their eyes the circles grow dark
Their shoulders are heavy and skin like chalk

When recycling is in the individuals hands
When each man stands to divide plastics and cans
Papers, organics, and what’s in-between
You’re going blue, and not going green

But imagine one friar and place him on the hill
And artist at heart, with ability and skill
Let him claim it all... the mess as his own spill
Let him devise a plan, and let him swim uphill

When enlightenment in the west means paving forests into hardships
Leaving fruit trees scarce, and so few berries it’s heartless
Where we still shun the poor, those with little dairy
And mock the young with extra weight to carry

But imagine one friar and place him in a tower
Ask what he would do, give him a few hours
Give all the money to redistribute, land too
Allow for the friar to have the power over the wealthiest few

Such an exotic friar must have a heart of gold
I know him, he feels like he is getting old
If just knew the tower that looked over the view
I’d introduce the man who would upgrade you

We seek heaven, or play like a rebel in hell
We’d better all hustle before that bell
Empty vessels, looking into the abyss
How did you know to light the spliff

We are as unique as our outer shell
Going anywhere, I know in my bone cells
What you believe is what you get
Unless you’ve underestimated your unmet

For the spirit within us is subject to the wind
And if you believe it, we’re all next of kin
Heaven and hell can’t be that different, you know
Because one’s not above and the other’s not below

Above live the birds, Below us worms
God’s given them space to live on their terms
Heaven and hell will be be side by side
So us people can meet to discuss why we cried
  
The afterlife may bring strife, decide to be prepared
It may also bring joy to see ones we loved who also asked where’d
We can’t know our formation or location after our fall like a domino
Though after death we might be together, so now let’s say hello

Ink Blot

Unpacking inner landscapes gracious with colour
Skin, for Jesus-sake has become a pillar
One black, one white, the culture of two bones
Then skulling our mix, as the hound hones

Bring my note to the offices high in the land
And pockets so low you’d trip on your waistband
To hear what I heard in the canyon of divide
“I dived from the cliff I was born on” I replied

“This time for Africa!” I heard off in the distance
One broken leg, you’d understand my resistance
To reach the voice I pulled my whole body
What I saw there was a sight that shocked me

A man on a carpet keeping the peace
Plus a God in the sky for all to believe
I absorb with my eyes as the sounds heal me
I share in their food, their heart, and become a devotee

Strength lies in numbers, but dollars or heads?
If one voice speaks, is that what they said?
In the canyon I meet my own, but listen to be wise
If I say we are disrespecting the other culture, my group, is this lies?

Talk is cheap and we touch in vain
Oh that Jane, too dull to to be the main thing
Sugar, I’m a king
Lookin’ at a good girl, with a bad name

Jane... No vanilla, I want meat, show me street, no chillin this heat
Still, her dedication to the meaningful is that kinda beautiful
But she’s never met one like me before
So I gotta go... I gotta go...

A fall from the sky like she’s heaven sent
And Baby cakes you know I’m hell bent
Cant break me in, can’t reach my sin
I’m a fish you can’t reel in

If you hang on like a backpack
Oh Jane I’ll take you to the mainland
You won’t be washed up ashore
Not this time, Jane

Divide to conquer must be true in some form
Since I’m all in the first half.. so whole, despite torn
But still when the tyrants dance I watch the view
They sing: “All hail democracy! Muse the lesser IQs!”

Avatars you are, some in red and some in blue
Time I lay hold of your neck to stop the spewing of NEWS
Been free as the fools to play with their lives
Then frown for a tear when one of them dies  

The ballot box, for all it’s foundation
knows equality, but in one situation
And the table you sit at leaves me in commotion, as the dumb get dumber, must I watch with devotion?
Paradise on earth needs but one kandid choice
Put down the value of a half-baked man’s voice

It’s second nature to compare doves to crows
For no pigeons land by the rivers and meadows
But divide to conquer must be false in some way
Since I’ve come to my end just to find that I’m frayed

When you adore the forest but not the fire
When feeling trapped and ringed in barb-wire
Pause to listen, you’ll hear the right path
The spring into action, pray you live through the aftermath

Trees and trees, as far as the eye can see
One of them burns only for thee
Waiting on a firefighter to push through the brush
Her crush is you, and hurry, her roots are mush

Be brave and strong, as if on a mission
Reach the lady, the one in a million
Her branches are burnt and trunk cracked
You are rugged, and opposites attract

Hose down the blaze in a fit of anger
For there is no question that should be left unanswered
Then save her seed to plant in the mire
And nurture, from the beginning, the one you admire

A pelican dropped me and I fell from that acme
You waited and waited, thank God you caught me
My youth zoomed past me as you stood by
I grew tall as you, now we see eye to eye

Like roses in teacups, dazed and confused
Mama I was fooled, tried, tested and used
You broke my fall, that once upon a time
Now I fall again, in verse and rhyme

I’m not the smell he wants, the truth looks right at me
Mama the worst parts’ the fact that he had me
I lived in his home like a welcome guest
He still dwells in my heart, like a mole in my chest

Like roses in teacups, dazed and confused
Mama I was fooled, tried, tested and used
He broke my heart, a perfect crime
To whom can I speak to since I lost him as mine?

Stop calling, stop calling me a nonbeliever
Just because I don’t carry an internal representation God
Forgive me, for goodness sakes
I don’t have the fever, it’s what I’ve told the reaper

Stop calling, stop calling me a nonbeliever
God is not my vending machine for health, weath and joy
Forgive me for goodness sakes
I manage my own emotions and what sleeps in my heart makes me braver

Stop calling! stop calling me non believer
Notice how quickly God vanishes with his creativity?
When a snowflake lands on your nose in winter
Stop calling me a non believer when I have respect for the divinity

No, I don’t talk with infinity and worship isn’t my priority
I think a mere instant is plenty enough
No, I don’t have the fever (of idolizing the creator)
Stop calling me, let’s meet.. I am your neighbour.

Little kids, you’ve gone years without a family photo
You yell into the microphone “Flaunt us like a showboat!”
Dreamy DNA, all of you, but please listen
Take down the streamers after midnight, be sure to grow up to be driven!

Don’t ask why in Russian roulette some play with a loaded clip
It’s because of weight on their shoulders, not because of a chip
The economy is relentless in hoarding it’s detainees
And the bounty The Earth provides has been taken away by the Kings

Yes, the mice wish the cats were all dead (same for the loggers and trees)
And maybe those cats have fleas, of that there’s a guarantee
For there may not be a reason or rhyme, though there’s a reason to rhyme for me
Just imagine a meadow..  without the flowers or bees

So if you ask why in Russian roulette, some play with a full revolver
I’d have to tell you things gets complicated when you tangle the brain and the dollar

The summer breeze shook her knees
As she cherry picked words from an endless sea
She asked for love in a voice so dear
A broomstick witch, a typical seer

“The blood red moon visits nights like these”
She sang to me and the trees
All at once I’m her violin
Now my pursuit is original sin

Whats in her cauldron and is it burning?
My patience will last this night untill morning
Daybreak bringing a star like no other
Except for her, the one I’d rather

Wren

Who’s team is she on, the brown pawn?
Magical thinking and double-speed blinking can’t help me now
Standing tall, I pushed her to fall
Now I cry, sob and all

I laid her down like a lever
Lost last words, because I didn’t believe her
Took her out by my king and sword
Then masked the crime scene on on the board

But she was mine, right to her core!
She was my chance to regain my *****
Brown on the outside but I should have known better
I was playing the win/loose game, however









Karma caught me with it’s decree
Now I’m ******, and doomed is me
I should have asked what’s under her clothes
But I knocked her down and broke her nose

Regret is nothing but the wish to be free
Perhaps that’s why she came to me
In order to test where I stand and what I’d do
Maybe, just maybe, I’d need the upper hand over you

Hedging is for wussies so I bet my hen
Then I bent down beside her to find her name is Wren
I helped her back up to stand on her base
And told her I’m sorry right to her face







I walked away and thought to myself
Why only her, why nobody else?
Because if I were her I would have brought my whole squad
Could’ve stood a chance, for the love of God!

I compose myself to answer my question
She came alone because that was her intention
A lone brown pawn, in a checkered domain
Oh, I knocked her out, but she left me slain

I turn back around to touch Wren’s face
The brown mirage, in a black and white place
More brown than beige, and way darker than cream
Wren was fire, and looking at me!








My hen in the balance, I learn who I am
**** playing games, show skin if you can!
I lost my hen on my subsequent move
They took down my king, plus another few

It was a great game from the start, a match for the books
All ‘cause that pawn on the board with her looks
Brown on the outside, black if you squint
Real to the bone, if you get my drift

Now that i’m looking, her aura is green
Just like mine, captain of the the former reigning team
I thought I was white, now I know I was wrong
My skin is cream coloured, hers, you know, is brown









We have but one mini-conversation
While I try to decide if she’s Indian or Asian
I didnt take notes, but it went like this
Before she smiled and withheld her kiss  

I ask her “who is the black team? and why am I so angry?”
“I guess you just lost it” Wren said to me blankly
“Why did i loose it?” I asked in return
“Because your a bird, with lots to learn”

I rack my mind to know what she sees
Tigers and lions on a gold leash!
The sky with cherry kisses, flamingoes and geese
She sees the whole game before her, and each piece








I rack my mind to just know what I see
It’s only what I want to see and believe
I play a challenging game of monochrome
Instead of being like Wren and knowing my home

But back to my chess game, time to celebrate the opponent
The black team won, if you hadn’t noticed
I join the party and find Wren’s brothers there
First I see four, then three, then more pieces in pairs!

“Oh no, what now? how did this happen?” I yell
“I already lost, so it’s a bad day in a nutshell”
Wren gathered my hen as the blacks and browns cheered  
I stood by and waited, feeling all weird








In exchange for my hen she tried give me cash
I took offence, as if she called me white trash
But I needed the money, I gamble too much
So I left the party politely in a rush

I was already in search of my next game
When a moment of reasoning flashed through my brain
Wren was a pawn with no seat at the table
She was only looking for game to win if she’s able

Skin means nothing, brown black or cream
I slowly learn this as I reflect on Wren and her team
Sometimes I see her,  the pawn that I hurt
Brave as a knight and perched on a rook








When know what to do I’ll make my move
The miracle of chess is the chance to improve
I wonder if cardinals and bluebirds get along
And I wonder if they’d let a swan sing their songs

If one day I meet Wren again, face to face
I’ll invite her to my square, she can sit in my space
She may call me names, only fair I guess
Then I’ll challenge her to a game of chess