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Rangzeb Hussain Apr 2010
Her hair,* *like the rich red fruits of autumn,

Her ears, like the curled fountains that tantalize all the senses,

Her eyes, like the jewels that sparkle in fresh water,

Her nose, like the pearl found in the depths of the blue River Rhine,

Her lips, like the wings of a rainbow butterfly,

Her voice, like the lilt of the magic Celtic harp,

Her neck, like the long sweet swan of Lohengrin,

Her arms, like the bronze Amazonian champions of older days,

Her fingers, like the warm hues of the golden Sahara,

Her *******, like the tangerines from the Roman past,

Her hips, like the abundant curves of the Serengeti's acacia,

Her thighs, like the entrance into the lush kingdom of the Pharaohs,

Her calves, like the delicate wax from the heights of Mount Atlas,

Her feet, like the supple honey from the tree of life,

Her name, like the silent knell of death on a bright summer's night.



©Rangzeb Hussain
Ken Pepiton Oct 2018
Thursday, October 25, 2018
1:33 PM History records my state of mind:

Pure thought projects zoom in and out of focus,
Political integrity, personal honesty, good medicine, bad medicine

Whose hell imagined itself transfigured int-energ-
emagically into
the set of NULL?

Mine.
Imagine that. Pure thought experiment, unjudgeable, fret not.

Puritans lack the pineal insight to see the light in the forest.
Horus eye in the middle of the brain?
I just saw that, too. Pineal reality.

The light in the forest?

The man in black lingered there, according Hawthorne,

or did old Nate mock the man in black and laugh at the idea of

good medicine, bad medicine, goody two-shoes
holds it in her holy socks. She's a witch.
stupid.

That was a McLuhanwaderyadoin joke. You don't have to laugh.
We no longer know of his work.
Have to is a stupid saying.
say waht it means, spellt out have, et to.
I have
breath,
blood, spit, eyes, ears et cetera

but to, have to, what? can to having have meaning with no do:
to what end have I any thingable thought to what?
Stupid language, nothing is ever clear.

Ought we explore our relationship, you and me, I mean,
when I say we. We are intimate, dear reader.
As close as two minds may be, with permission, assumed.
My insane, in your brain, is not my insane in mine.
A little like leaven, if you ever bake.

No con querity con cerns us here, we filtered those before.
CERN's discerning of the matter making
thing, bosonic tonic device,
that led us to line our tinfoil hat with lead,
just in case Higgs ups happen and stutters start.

Hold your breath. We both have one to hold, but not for long.
And so it goes, I do enjoy a vintage Vonnegut thought
floating by on a breeze.

Imagine me a Virginia Wolfe trust fund child gone wild,
un gentled, sent down t' Tobbacca Road
in a hot rod Lincoln,
t' find a bride.

Some said something in the water, flouride, petrafied
pineal glands and blinded a generation,
to the sins of their father's
legions of liars,

hired to progressively teach us to work in factories
which vanished
right before

the beans vanished from our ears and we heard the rush
of the rolling tide lifting boats big and small.

Remember being accused, in your mind, of only wanting to be on the side that's winning?

That hot rod Lincoln, Thunderword road, remember the environ?
Pure
Moonshine, melts that petrafied flouride away,

a whole generation o' peasants
turned on.
Holler Hi dee **, burns the tummy, doncha know but

epigenetic application of pure moonshine in the ac-company-ment,
companion, accuse amigo,
same bread, same leaven,
com panion we be
joined.

Jesuits, that was the idea,
formed in Xavier's fever wracked brain
as his medievally medicated flesh fought for every
breath.
Heroic. Hagiographic. Stale, smoke filled acacia incense maybe

We have gone to havings
whence such bread is said to become the an-ointed, magi know, knew, expected, fore told for if ever forever begins,
as far as mortal peasants may be concerned with such high mindedness.

The leader is a liar and the people feel free to follow him.
When the twisted rule the ruled twist, too.

Solomonic wisdom, that is. Oil on the water. Pass the torch.

This was 2018, Donald Trump was President.
how come this to be
to have to be
held.
Who still,
can imagine war?
None.

No reflection,
lack of humility,
proud noble rare-ified re-ified de-ified

Charming fellow, though, can't you admit
his charm is a luring, tempting thing, temporary testing,
is he
an enemy,
donchaluvem? Life is the test. It is that simple. Right, Mr. Perot?

No distraction action condemns a man here, we have none.
Condemnation, none of that here. My reality, you know.

Tempests in teapots, fersher. Command zed, eh.
Fold it up, put it away. New idea. New everything.

People and political servants. No more leaders, no more war.
imagine that.
People and servants serving to govern the emerging
situations
as time rolls out the barrel with the single rotten apple,

and we, the people, feed that rotten apple to the pigs,

who were addicted to pearls,
during the confusion
as mankind lost its mind

we never doubted the need for men to be born.
again, we knew not what we believed born again may be.

Taste, good medicine is bitter more oft than not,

Sugar blues on a global level, those never justify the cost,
of making the medicine go down.

Sweet desire deprived, that is poison.
Dainty appetizers, served in the rich man circus,
stolen by servants racked with guilt,

shame and blame arise,

emergency action, a reason, why are those dainty meats so alluring,


ask the fisherman. Watch for his hook.
Someday, I don't want anyone to gues where I stood concerning Donald, I never met the man and never liked the mask.
Ovidiu Marinescu Apr 2013
Winter! Make new words from frozen branches,
Needle’s eyes and rusty latches,
Old wood fires, five fiddle scratches.

White stars shiver, clenched teeth chatter,
One lost beat served on a platter.

Say the word “Mehabahigher,”
Pound the riddled universe with fire,
Peel the wisdom of the planets,
Mash them well, wrap them in flowers,
Keep eyes open for five hours,
add some saffron, sprinkle stardust,
Twenty-two acacia petals,
Icy bones, and one desire.

Priests decipher unknown language,
In the attic burn the nonsense,
Then they dance and drink the ritual
Of rebirth of life from nothing.
Fahredin Shehu Apr 2012
Black
Empty cans
No liquid evaporated
In the air full of pride
Polluted grains of soul
Lost their consistency
Pure fluids of light
Erupts as marshmallow bombs
Death squad penetrates deeply
Aiming to meet Anubis
A Tsunami whirled its wish
Passion and glutton declared independence
The dream of becoming a parallel nation
To co-habit with leukemia of creativity
A *** drive 4×4 retired
A crippled veteran of passion
Bags for the mercy of soulless utilitarian army of human entity
Better said plankton a ****-plankton of miserable creatures
Even worms and larva are disgusted by our hatred
*****, a skunk of fear
An eclipse of love that spans for ages
From birth to death
A spectrum displays its ripeness
******* liberty as blast
A dazzling dance of shaped and amoeboid forms of manifestation
Truth
Bitter the honey with suffer
Powder a chamomile with royal jelly and ginseng
All of sudden a wind blows
Spores of the old pines
White
The soul of parallel nation of Angeloid
Is striving pleasure of life?
Lives now
Perpetually woofs a rainbow muslin with
the divine light
Inter-woofed dress
Newborn immaculate fellows
Perfuming
Oh those smell of paradise
Mint, Neroli, Oakmoss, Amber
A bouquet of divine pleasure
And Acacia kissed by a queen bee
Yes the queen of Enneagram
Of course
The work produces sweet essences
Oh Sarmouni of our Millennia
Melt the cataract-ic lance so they may see the beauty
Heal the flu so they may smell fresh ozone
A charged circle of light and love
Overwhelm
Remove the pulp from the reed
So may divine tune perform light?
Tao
May be your torchbearer
In the dark valley and by then you may
see a spectrum
That encircles an infant fear
For an eternal life
Yet I kiss that that time sequence
Where Jin and Jang harmoniously co-habit
I a Feng Shui of Love
Defragmenter of hate’s files
Zipper of dark matrixes
Arranger
So you may know they do exists
So you try them in order to enjoy the sweetness
of life’s honey
In this porcelain valley
Where goodness and mischief
Hand in hand are gliding furiously
Alas pure the morning with dew of love
Oxidize hate with apple vinegar
Sing to celebrate both solstices and have a cup of vine
That swoon you
That filters all starry
Cells of brain and ganglia
Perfume her navel with rosewater and kiss, kiss, kiss
Do a divine Tantra
With all visible and invisible and semi-visible spirits
Kiss topaz of her eyes
Kiss ruby of her heart
Kiss diamond of her nail
Kiss cooper of her feet ankle
Kiss jade of her bones
Kiss sapphire of her cells
And a flame-y waterfall of hair
And a silky *****…
Oh…kiss and kiss and kiss whatever belongs to her
Make her a necklace
With your purest and noblest spermatozoids
Then call her as you wish
Wisdom, Hikkmah, Sophia
Or simply Goddess that makes you Angeloid.
—-
Arabic for wisdom, we disregard language we are concentrated
on substance on quint essence
Greek for wisdom
Sarina Apr 2013
A ritual, I shape an acacia from your flesh and blood –
the fluff rather concealed. So are we, though your insides decorate
a globe just shy of blonde cornfields.

Tomorrow, you can be the columbine’s milk,
split drops deserting her center: now a park of petals on the edge.

But I examine every exposed hipbone, your clavicles rosy by me –
there is something around a jonquil about this image
you spread so I can embrace you, answer coils like a telephone
and want as much far away as I would close up to flaxen.

Hand me a celandine capsule or periwinkle bow –
all of this tied in a knot, originated from a bend of your hair.
I have recollections and joy from imminent meadows, girl and boy.
Loosely based off of a line from one of John Moffatt's poems, who is one of my fellow poets on here and is extremely talented. Also, this makes more sense if you know a bit about the meaning of certain flowers.
CH Gorrie Jul 2012
Around me architectural mastery:
sycamores, embankments, enduring ionic pillars.
I round a walkway bordered by trees,
enamel thawing, gliding off their low leaves.
Beneath the late-May’s pounding sun,
through the glittered trees’ reaches,
a gazebo crackles into sight.
Children in their prime, sunbathers, a wistful portraitist
encircle it carelessly:
a leisured chimney; the billows of life.
The foliage escapes into the river,
purplish, palpitating, cyclic creases
receive the dewy notes.
Kayaks licking acacia-gum-edged
ripples sputter and slip
through reverberations
of leveled white-water terraces.
Blackcurrants in clotted cream
slide on the plush lips of a young passerby.
The 8 above a doorway
dances motionless, silent in my periphery;
“Nicolas Cage just sold the spot”
pops from unknown lungs
inside the Circus crowd.

Unacknowledged, half-proud
hands built the Roman baths
alone, closed-in by such grace,
forgotten, then as now.
I wander these ancestral lanes
more or less alone, the same.
**** Decency! I want to live as an animal, marauding the savanna. 
To shade beneath the acacia and find excited peace only when and where the shadows hide. 
To feed from the tawny grasslands and rest in the hollows of concentric sienna and obsidian.
To procure the lay of the land through deliberate exploration.
To find solace in the peach hillsides that languidly lean into vermillion valleys.
To discover that there is no edge of the world, only beautiful quirks and catenaries where the beginning is the end.
To drink from time, the cool blue stream it is, and truly taste the flux of kinetic molecules.
To prey on moments and capture them with a swift strike of the paw of perception.
To roam.
To be.
In my Thirty-Fifth Year I juiced this Remark
The Crisque-Plaque Hotel named after a Tree
Sturdy, of Signage enhance the Grade's Bark
Wishing all else their Best Service was Free
If not the Years to Good Degree advance:
Fruits, Pasta, Meat, Veggies and Japanese
Mix the fricasee to match that of France
And serve it on a Platter, if you please
Only if the Staff were shy; But informed
How noted the needs of their Clients were
One Gesture made, took the Meaning lost cause
Pour some polished Suggestions done on here.
Thirty-Five Candles blown, all without Flame
It was still my Best Day; All just the same.
The Dove

Knelt beneath a wintry sky, while I whimpered, cold and wry,
Past sand swept desert, one reflective tear upon the floor—
While recalling Sinai’s war, all at once, I heard a rustling,
One burning tree’s own leaves were hissing, hissing with my sullen roar.
“'Tis wind’s soaring,” I whispered, “hissing with my sullen roar—
I will pray for something more.”

Oh, Illuminated under face of freckled night, I cite
Eden’s flaming sword—knighting promised progeny’s somber score.
The fallen leaves of solitary tree, hid away by sandy estuary,
Beginnings of man’s failing glow—glow upon the branch’s ****.
The crooked limbs silhouetted black, like sins which spanned a crore,
All that was, now nevermore.

And the darkened, dunes, displace balefully cross our ****** birthplace,
My breath’s ivory vapors, broke by sudden death’s acquired gore.
Above, amidst acacia’s rattled wings, I spy a lone aeria
“What crime is carried upon your bough; that calm wind’s soar
Has scarred the wild yard, unoccupied, as residers abhor.
Empty now, and nothing more.”

Shivering, I shift my spine, below the sallow arc afloat; mine
Own stirring forming waves of silt displaying one dreadful downpour
On the earth—suddenly, silhouetted by the crescent’s flooding,
A creature’s restless hovering, halting on its hoisted eyesore,
Ink across the darkened canopy, blacker still, and bizarre
Now, to be alone no more.

Perhaps, it is a raven’s gloomy image, graven on, brazen
In the heavens, answering my imploring of our dire lore.
Perched quiet, gawking on the gnarled, wooden bark—now is thawing,
Speckled stars blurring beryl-gold, like the convening of an early shore—
“Though you mock my morose cry, and knock upon my vacant door,
I will have faith, forevermore.”



Beginning now, the bitter chill subsiding; feeling frozen frigid eyes,
Like charcoal pearls, cosmic blotches at darkest dusk, staring at my core.
How loathsome a rookery, seedless from the threatened nest, of tendrils
Washed away by surging winds, scouring out the faithful calm—even more,
The bird who seeks to land above the sand, mocking me all the more.
With the dawning, though, I see the silver, gold; the covenant of old.  

With my mourning gone, new morning kindles auric halcyon; now behold
The bird’s illuminated frosted fringe now glints with gilt, as a dove—
Washed away, by sunrise, bloom, each branch’s beaded tear with promised prism.
How loyal that final, lofty tree, whose beams now beam, and make me free;
Like an ageless summer breeze—the Son creating both dusk and dawn,
Fulfilling now, our failure, faithful with no end, forevermore.
Our assignment was to articulate a theological truth that we found while studying the Pentateuch.  I chose to convey how that the even though the events of the Pentateuch are often perceived as void of God’s mercy, man’s faith in God, and promised blessings and provision, the God of the Pentateuch is the same as the God of the New Testament.  The Abrahamic covenant is just as divinely orchestrated and full of the grace of God as the fulfillment of it in the new covenant through Jesus Christ.  They are many allusions and other literary techniques that all reference aspects of the Pentateuch.
Jim Mar 2024
It was a Tuesday when it happened
You walked through the door
as if I was never here
As if we never were

I counted the times
the acacia tree branch knocked
on the stained glass window by our bedside
I hoped it was you knocking
through that door on a Tuesday morning
because I am still here

Another Tuesday
my eyes still locked on the floor
where your shadow used to be
when you walked through that door
as if I was never here
because we no longer are.
Rama Krsna Aug 2019
atop
that golden haystack
mounted on an unwieldy bullock cart
you wished we had......

a regret of a million lifetimes!

every time
your plucky smile flashes
in the sacred space between brows,
i see a wish fulfilling acacia tree
nymphalid butterflies flutter in my gut
and rapid clips of lifetimes past
neatly edited,
projected as movie trailers

your deathlike silence
has quietly become my universe,
as i pen in moon-like solitude
memoirs of an unrequited love

© 2019
Dedicated to all those who’ve loved, failed and venture to retry.
Come into the garden, Maud,
For the black bat, night, has flown,
Come into the garden, Maud,
I am here at the gate alone;
And the woodbine spices are wafted abroad,
And the musk of the rose is blown.

For a breeze of morning moves,
And the planet of Love is on high,
Beginning to faint in the light that she loves
In a bed of daffodil sky,
To faint in the light of the sun she loves,
To faint in his light, and to die.

All night have the roses heard
The flute, violin, bassoon;
All night has the casement jessamine stirr'd
To the dancers dancing in tune;
Till a silence fell with the waking bird,
And a hush with the setting moon.

I said to the lily, "There is but one
With whom she has heart to be gay.
When will the dancers leave her alone?
She is weary of dance and play."
Now half to the setting moon are gone,
And half to the rising day;
Low on the sand and loud on the stone
The last wheel echoes away.

I said to the rose, "The brief night goes
In babble and revel and wine.
O young lord-lover, what sighs are those,
For one that will never be thine?
But mine, but mine," so I sware to the rose,
"For ever and ever, mine."

And the soul of the rose went into my blood,
As the music clash'd in the hall;
And long by the garden lake I stood,
For I heard your rivulet fall
From the lake to the meadow and on to the wood,
Our wood, that is dearer than all;

From the meadow your walks have left so sweet
That whenever a March-wind sighs
He sets the jewel-print of your feet
In violets blue as your eyes,
To the woody hollows in which we meet
And the valleys of Paradise.

The slender acacia would not shake
One long milk-bloom on the tree;
The white lake-blossom fell into the lake
As the pimpernel dozed on the lea;
But the rose was awake all night for your sake,
Knowing your promise to me;
The lilies and roses were all awake,
They sigh'd for the dawn and thee.

Queen rose of the rosebud garden of girls,
Come hither, the dances are done,
In gloss of satin and glimmer of pearls,
Queen lily and rose in one;
Shine out, little head, sunning over with curls,
To the flowers, and be their sun.

There has fallen a splendid tear
From the passion-flower at the gate.
She is coming, my dove, my dear;
She is coming, my life, my fate;
The red rose cries, "She is near, she is near;"
And the white rose weeps, "She is late;"
The larkspur listens, "I hear, I hear;"
And the lily whispers, "I wait."

She is coming, my own, my sweet;
Were it ever so airy a tread,
My heart would hear her and beat,
Were it earth in an earthy bed;
My dust would hear her and beat,
Had I lain for a century dead,
Would start and tremble under her feet,
And blossom in purple and red.
Kasandra Curtis Sep 2012
Your eyes are cools springs, bursting from the dry rocks,
Your arms are a Mylar blanket, keeping my warm and safe.
Your lips are wild berries, and pine nuts, and healing herbs.

Your love is a roaring flame,
That fends of the wild beasts of my mind,
A ring of acacia trees, that keeps the lion of doubt at bay.

Your smile is a shade tree in the desert,
Your heart, a noble pine, that shields me from sleet.
Your soul is a cooling wind, in a sweltering jungle.

In this wilderness of life,
You help me to survive,
And lovingly thrive,
No matter what weather life sends our way.
FIVE-AND-TWENTY years have gone
Since old William pollexfen
Laid his strong bones down in death
By his wife Elizabeth
In the grey stone tomb he made.
And after twenty years they laid
In that tomb by him and her
His son George, the astrologer;
And Masons drove from miles away
To scatter the Acacia spray
Upon a melancholy man
Who had ended where his breath began.
Many a son and daughter lies
Far from the customary skies,
The Mall and Eades's grammar school,
In London or in Liverpool;
But where is laid the sailor John
That so many lands had known,
Quiet lands or unquiet seas
Where the Indians trade or Japanese?
He never found his rest ashore,
Moping for one voyage more.
Where have they laid the sailor John?
And yesterday the youngest son,
A humorous, unambitious man,
Was buried near the astrologer,
Yesterday in the tenth year
Since he who had been contented long.
A nobody in a great throng,
Decided he would journey home,
Now that his fiftieth year had come,
And "Mr.  Alfred' be again
Upon the lips of common men
Who carried in their memory
His childhood and his family.
At all these death-beds women heard
A visionary white sea-bird
Lamenting that a man should die;
And with that cry I have raised my cry.
Christine Ueri Dec 2012
The copper Sun
piercing through a warrior-skin:
red Spirit raised
echoes of the Andes
across this wide, wide space --

A kingdom bathed in waterfalls:
rainbow-droplets cape
green Palm Valleys --
Ancient breaths breathe golden mist,
plume
an up-draft for our trembling

Dreams a-flutter
in the fullness of the night,
birds singing lovesongs,
nestled in the arms, of Old Acacia Sprites

Silver Fur ridges
on the black back of a Jackal --
  howling, moon-light calls,
to an ultra-violet sky

Ears pull back, heads turn upward
gazing at blue eggshells
and trigger-painted speckles,

We gather flying bullets,
fold them into butterflies --
Scale upon beautiful scale,
twirling in a Trident Maple --
intricately pattern the purest truth:
to feel

My heart is shaped like Africa,
immaculately loved
Your heart is shaped, like Paradise,
Warm, within the wings,
of a common Turtle Dove
14 December 2012
The golden tinge of sun pierced the cloud
But the mangrove held onto its dark cloak
She hid somewhere between the light and shadow
When from one irresistible daze I awoke.

Unbeknownst flamed up the rocks salt white
Dry since the waves receded beyond the *******
A cold loneliness crept up in the spell broken light
As if eons had passed without the sight of her.

Then one seagull’s spriteful fish dream shriek
Motioned me up from the vacuous stupor
Buzzed each sand grain all years’ unborn speak
Was to be seized this moment and tell her.

The wind having carried the voice of her name
Spread it across the mangrove and far
From the receding waves rose a rising flame
When in her hug beneath an acacia I found her.
yangliu Aug 2013
Alone into Rainy, twist a Dai clove, pattering rain, wind lingering foot Yuhuan, lengthy dark gray rain curtain hung plaintive, oblique rain splashes dusty track marks, those rainy season, those day's dependent, those nostalgic every night in this late spring rain, scraping completed my cold lonely, rain turned into a long and narrow alley Resentment, thwarted flows into atria, cool diffuse through the apex. Do not turn around in your mind of the day, I count, chatter thoughts of you, and for your Ai resentment, Acacia entanglement, filled Chu pain, no know what to say, but unfortunately does not help, once the owner of the rain falling, once clouds drifting sea oath, I never touched your warmth, sigh Lane is a rain: Wife - Why shallow edge. (yiwu export)
Came alone intersection, waving a monotonous right hand, held in our left vague shadow, the breakdown of the raindrops bounce dust, Red rain, your shadows, swaying like a willow in the rain erratic, like a hard rain exhibition wings flutter Ling heavy, like rain, pedestrians hurry hurry ...... once Pengguo footprints Bingqing appearance of your hands, had led a faint in the rain blessings Juyi Peng broken tile rain dream, comfort our goodbyes, we pay homage to the past. Acacia is the way the dust, whisk Yang is confusion of resentment, lost pain.
This year's rainy season to refresh my mind, I view Acacia dream dreams, the pain, resentment cut into the rain, stuck into the soil; tears into the hands of deep stone, sank; to have a bunch of rendering painful injury worry text buried in the memory, so that resentment heart of the sea to swim, let the pain out of the bone marrow, dusty track once marks, wound treatment desolate, firmly stand in Kuwata, enterprises no longer envy sea water. (yiwu export agent)
Let love and hate, love and hatred, grace and resentment, thinking and pain in the rainy season falling, drifting in the rainy season. I left alone a pool of water, the flow of soulful call. (Yiwu buying agent)
Krusty Aranda Mar 2013
You blasted into this world running free to be yourself.
You needed no sanctuary to hide away from this strange world.
Please, remember tomorrow for we will all be sad,
because you're no longer with us. You've traveled to another life.

You were like a prodigal son, but not one of the drifters.
Not another children of the ******, invaders to this realm.
Yet life wasn't easy, it trapped you in an iron maiden,
thus you became the prisoner by the number of the beast.

Now you're gone, but it wasn't the killers who took you.
No murders in the rue Morgue put you in your own purgatory.
Don't think of this as an innocent exile or a total eclipse.
22 Acacia avenue awaits for his favorite client.

No need to run to the hills.
There is no twilight zone.
You lived by your true self
so hallowed be thy name.
A poem in memory of former Iron Maiden drummer (and one of my influences for drumming) Clive Burr, who passed away today. Rock in Peace, Clive.
P.S. The words in italics are names of songs by Iron Maiden recorded with Clive on the drums. Also not my finest work, but, again, only a tribute to him.
Yael Zivan Nov 2014
I’m writing to you because I miss you.

And you may be my one true love.

My first at least.

Though i didn’t know it when I met you.

I miss you

I miss the way you welcome me in

The way you understand me.

I miss the way you can see my truest self.

I miss the way I become myself when I am near you.

the way you are me and apart from me all at once

The way the stars look reflected in your eyes.

I never fear you though others do

I embrace your wildness

Your resilient good humor.

Your unique, nothing else like this, feeling.

The tear tracks on your heart from a thousand brutal fights and you still have so much love.

I kiss you and I can taste it

I can taste the fire, and the sunlight,

the trees and the vast distant rolling savannah.

When i touch you I can feel it

The drumming.

The gum boots, the stampedes, the thunder.

And when I close my eyes,

I can hear it.

The lions roar, the elephants trumpeting.

The thousands of tons of water at Victoria falls

The fish eagles cry

The singing boys at the choir school

The bushman's clicking language.

The cheetah's purr.

The wall of fire from the wild burning days.

The laughing.

The dancing. The singing. The fighting.

And as I breath, you breath,

As I rest, you lie awake, a quiet guardian in the night.

I lift up my hand and you take my fruit.

You silly little bushbaby.

I’ll give you my pineapple forever.

I hide behind the small acacia tree. and I see you.

I see the great king of Africa.

Isilo the Elephant.

The eyes so wise.

The tusks so fierce.

I am protected by you.

Beauty is to small a word to describe the way your body curves.

The blue of your skin. the green hues, the deep orange gold of winter hills.
The purple sunset.

The wetness after a storm.

The glowing embers in the night.

The dragons back. the most magical thing I have ever held in my eyes.
I miss you

Little grandmother on the hill.
Who bakes and meditates.
and drinks tea and gets her way
because *******, I deserve respect!

And little chocolate friends.
Your shandy on the rocks.
Your cottage in the woods.
Your cats and now your coming twins.

And the neighbors who play with eagles.

And Barrie who let me fly in his plane after only knowing his name five minutes.

And the witch who lived next door and could turn into a leopard.
And my grandfathers paintings that cover the old hotel.

The way people say my name.
The way I become myself.
And for the first time in my life,
I know who I am.
Released from my old stale life, I was rooted in magic, and earth, and love, and sacred eternal energy.
ADVENTURES so magic... I could cry.
I miss you so
I miss who I am around you.
I wish I could find you here.
I will find you again.
I will come back to you.
My beautiful country
One day
my one true love, otp, miss you everyday, home, africa, love, forever,
arowana Apr 2018
I could make you breakfast
I could hold your hand
If that might be enough
To make you understand

That although I may not show it
In ways that others do
Believe me when I say
That my love is just as true.
M G Hsieh Mar 2016
i am a passenger
free to roam on the east sides
of redundancy and table manners

flower markets thrive on dawn skies
arranged as tourist spots
the baker's fair selling eggshells
cracked on cobblestone soup
meatpies sold out too soon
appleseeds scattered for birds

i sweep them all up
and see patterns grow on my skin

let it not be said i did not try, i did not do
for too soon the the heat covers the shade as well
and not even the acacia can go without thirst

fill my cup with honeydew milk
and add bittergourd and salt

i can let philistine warriors come from the backroads
and enter the frontlines
if only to join you
~
Acacia gold dipped
Crunch cookie melts taste on tongue
In the Mountain tea
~
Imagined by
Impeccable Space
Poetic beauty
Dennis Go Jul 2010
I plant the seed
That was hatred
To let it grow
Towards the clouds
Bringing forth
My anger.

Look, it grew
Tall as the
Acacia wood -
Strong, sturdy
And stable.
My own dear love, he is strong and bold
And he cares not what comes after.
His words ring sweet as a chime of gold,
And his eyes are lit with laughter.
He is jubilant as a flag unfurled--
Oh, a girl, she'd not forget him.
My own true love, he is all my world,--
And I wish I'd never met him.

My love, he's mad, and my love, he's fleet,
And a wild young wood-thing bore him!
The ways are fair to his roaming feet,
And the skies are sunlit for him.
As sharply sweet to my heart he seems
As the fragrance of acacia.
My own dear love, he is all my dreams--
And I wish he were in Asia.

My love runs by like a day in June,
And he makes no friends of sorrows.
He'll tread his galloping rigadoon
In the pathway of the morrows.
He'll live his days where the sunbeams start,
Nor could storm or wind uproot him.
My own dear love, he is all my heart--
And I wish somebody'd shoot him.
Daniel Vanatta Feb 2014
To whoever finds this letter,

Hollow bodies
Corpses filled with emptiness
Staring straight ahead, unblinking
Tattered clothes with bloodstains and other such pieces of... well, let's just call it Lunch... on them.
Unable to function beyond simple tasks such as:
Walking; Eating

This describes my family.
How on earth I am able to write this is beyond me!
I found this typewriter on a trip home from scavenging for any humans, (dead or alive), and, immediately excited for the memories it brought back, I picked it up, carried it home, set it down, and some part of my mind just.. clicked.
It felt right to place my bluish-green, rotting hands upon the smooth brass of the keys,
And what came next was a miracle.
Since I am unable to speak or learn any new information,
I have to type, and remember how it felt to live...
To assess, to process the things that I saw.

I had no clue that my death was so imminent!
I was asleep one night, curled up next to my older sister in our makeshift bunker, dreaming hopefully about salvation, when my jugular was ripped out of my neck.
It was so sudden that I barely felt it, and saw my (once love-filled, now cannibalistic) neighbor chewing away at the newly acquired piece of food.
Next thing I knew, I had this undying (literally) desire for human flesh.
Don't ask me why... I get sensitive about these things.

Annndd.. shortly after, I couldn't resist the urge to do the once thought of as disgusting deed of eating people... to the rest of my family.
Tragic, really.. If only I felt some remorse about it... but I can't feel at all!
Ha-Ha!
Apparently my sense of humor is still intact.
I don't know what makes me so different than the others!
I wish things were normal again though, I miss the warmth of the summer sun on my skin, the crisp, cold mountain air, the birds singing their sweet songs of communication in the golden brown Acacia trees where I used to live, and the welcome sound of roosters crowing at dawn.

But you know what they say, "when in Rome..."
So I settle for waking up to the sound of crunching bones and cartilage as my family dines on their catch (which I can't help but indulge myself in also).
Dear friend, if I happen to eat various parts of your body, do forgive me...
It's only my nature!

Sincerely,
              Edmund Reirston (formerly known as a living, breathing human being)
Warm Bodies <3
Ra Sh Oct 2013
By Kuzhur Wilson ( in Malayalam)
(trans from Malayalam by  Ra Sh)


Varghese has no home.

Holes up where he works.

Jesus’s own man.

Big rosary around his neck.

And a matching wooden cross.

He gardens around the yard

On days of leisure.


Holds a deep grudge

Against the trees around.

Doomed are they the moment

His eyes settle on them.


Asked him once whether

His rancor was because

Jesus was nailed on wood.

Or, was it the wheezing

the Acacia trees caused?

Or, was it the itchy worms

from the soft wood trees?

He said time and again

‘Brother, I love the trees

More than you love them.’


Have seen many times

The birds from the trees

Chopped down by Varghese

Looking for their nests.


Clearing the bushes along

The road to the office was

Varghese’s job for the day.


When I went out for a smoke

Glowing was he about

the way the place now gleamed.


Midnight, after work,

Was driving along the path

Shorn clean by Varghese.


In the blaze of the headlight

A hare dashed frantically

Looking for its bush.
Kuzhur Wilson Sep 2013
Varghese has no home.
Stays in his workplace.
Jesus’s very own man.
Big rosary around his neck.
And a matching wooden cross.
He gardens around the yard
On days of no work.
Holds a deep grudge
Against the trees around.

Doomed are they the moment
His eyes settle on them.

Asked him once whether
His rancor was because
Jesus was crucified on wood.
Or, was it the wheezing that
the Acacia trees caused?
Or, was it the itchy worms
from the soft wood trees?
He said time and again
‘Brother, I love the trees
More than you love them.’

Have seen many times
The birds from the trees
Chopped down by Varghese
Looking for their nests.

Clearing the bushes along
The road to the office was
Varghese’s job for the day.

When I went out for a smoke
Glowing was he about
How the place gleamed.

Midnight, after work,
Was driving along the path
Shorn clean by Varghese.

In the blaze of the headlight
A hare dashed frantically
Looking for its bush.


(trans from Malayalam by  Ra Sh)
Acsending high in the friendly skies
Yet my mind lies in what lies within the inner sanctum
That scream of praise and devastation coitally in your inner thighs

Mornings of wonder and blissful thoughts
Midnights filled with ice cream and talks
Ice Cold...yet our emotions melted and were caught

Like Kobain my brain overloads with what could be
Lines of ******* running to a no end marathon
Of love, lust, and similes

Why can't I shake this feeling
Blended so eloquently with a hint of fresh mint
But the acacia grows perpendicular with right angles of symmetry

Late nights and early mornings like ambrosia you sing...
Wrapped in a lyrical yet detrimental feeling of what could...no...what can be...

I dream of whimsical phalicies and fantasies of you with me
Wrapped so taut around my mind and waist i can't concede...so evocative...a little provocative...

Midnight Mornings greet the sun and the moon
Oh ****....too soon...I zoom...with Commodores like Lionel Richie...
Come into the garden, Maud,
  For the black bat, Night, has flown,
Come into the garden, Maud,
  I am here at the gate alone;
And the woodbine spices are wafted abroad,
  And the musk of the roses blown.

For a breeze of morning moves,
  And the planet of Love is on high,
Beginning to faint in the light that she loves
  On a bed of daffodil sky,
To faint in the light of the sun she loves,
  To faint in his light, and to die.

All night have the roses heard
  The flute, violin, bassoon;
All night has the casement jessamine stirr'd
  To the dancers dancing in tune;
Till a silence fell with the waking bird,
  And a hush with the setting moon.

I said to the lily, 'There is but one
  With whom she has heart to be gay.
When will the dancers leave her alone?
  She is weary of dance and play.'
Now half to the setting moon are gone,
  And half to the rising day;
Low on the sand and loud on the stone
  The last wheel echoes away.

I said to the rose, 'The brief night goes
  In babble and revel and wine.
O young lord-lover, what sighs are those
  For one that will never be thine?
But mine, but mine,' so I sware to the rose,
  'For ever and ever, mine.'

And the soul of the rose went into my blood,
  As the music clash'd in the hall;
And long by the garden lake I stood,
  For I heard your rivulet fall
From the lake to the meadow and on to the wood,
  Our wood, that is dearer than all;

From the meadow your walks have left so sweet
  That whenever a March-wind sighs
He sets the jewel-print of your feet
  In violets blue as your eyes,
To the woody hollows in which we meet
  And the valleys of Paradise.

The slender acacia would not shake
  One long milk-bloom on the tree;
The white lake-blossom fell into the lake,
  As the pimpernel dozed on the lea;
But the rose was awake all night for your sake,
  Knowing your promise to me;
The lilies and roses were all awake,
  They sigh'd for the dawn and thee.

Queen rose of the rosebud garden of girls,
  Come hither, the dances are done,
In gloss of satin and glimmer of pearls,
  Queen lily and rose in one;
Shine out, little head, sunning over with curls.
  To the flowers, and be their sun.

There has fallen a splendid tear
  From the passion-flower at the gate.
She is coming, my dove, my dear;
  She is coming, my life, my fate;
The red rose cries, 'She is near, she is near;'
  And the white rose weeps, 'She is late;'
The larkspur listens, 'I hear, I hear;'
  And the lily whispers, 'I wait.'

She is coming, my own, my sweet;
  Were it ever so airy a tread,
My heart would hear her and beat,
  Were it earth in an earthy bed;
My dust would hear her and beat,
  Had I lain for a century dead;
Would start and tremble under her feet,
  And blossom in purple and red.
Christine Ueri Dec 2013
1976:
black boy, black boy,
we shot you --
nothing left
in your small, shiny black shoes;
your tidy school uniform

2013:
white boy, white boy,
we will not shoot you --
nothing right
in your big, broken black shoes;
your untidy school-form --

instead, we will not teach you

white boy, we will not teach you:
English is for black schools --

Madiba, Madiba:
the jacarandas of Pretoria are dying;
the mimosas in the bushveld
have taken the Acacia tree's name
and beneath the soil,
the roots of South Africa are still
growing, exactly the same?
08.12.2013
Come into the garden, Maud,
     For the black bat, Night, has flown,
Come into the garden, Maud,
     I am here at the gate alone;
And the woodbine spices are wafted abroad,
     And the musk of the roses blown.

For a breeze of morning moves,
     And the planet of Love is on high,
Beginning to faint in the light that she loves
     On a bed of daffodil sky,
To faint in the light of the sun she loves,
     To faint in his light, and to die.

All night have the roses heard
     The flute, violin, bassoon;
All night has the casement jessamine stirr'd
     To the dancers dancing in tune:
Till a silence fell with the waking bird,
     And a hush with the setting moon.

I said to the lily, "There is but one
     With whom she has heart to be gay.
When will the dancers leave her alone?
     She is weary of dance and play."
Now half to the setting moon are gone,
     And half to the rising day;
Low on the sand and loud on the stone
     The last wheel echoes away.

I said to the rose, "The brief night goes
     In babble and revel and wine.
O young lordlover, what sighs are those
     For one that will never be thine?
But mine, but mine," so I sware to the rose,
     "For ever and ever, mine."

And the soul of the rose went into my blood,
     As the music clash'd in the hall;
And long by the garden lake I stood,
     For I heard your rivulet fall
From the lake to the meadow and on to the wood,
     Our wood, that is dearer than all;

From the meadow your walks have left so sweet
     That whenever a March-wind sighs
He sets the jewelprint of your feet
     In violets blue as your eyes,
To the woody hollows in which we meet
     And the valleys of Paradise.

The slender acacia would not shake
     One long milk-bloom on the tree;
The white lake-blossom fell into the lake,
     As the pimpernel dozed on the lea;
But the rose was awake all night for your sake,
     Knowing your promise to me;
The lilies and roses were all awake,
     They sigh'd for the dawn and thee.

Queen rose of the rosebud garden of girls,
     Come hither, the dances are done,
In gloss of satin and glimmer of pearls,
     Queen lily and rose in one;
Shine out, little head, sunning over with curls,
     To the flowers, and be their sun.

There has fallen a splendid tear
     From the passion-flower at the gate.
She is coming, my dove, my dear;
     She is coming, my life, my fate;
The red rose cries, "She is near, she is near;"
     And the white rose weeps, "She is late;"
The larkspur listens, "I hear, I hear;"
     And the lily whispers, "I wait."

She is coming, my own, my sweet;
     Were it ever so airy a tread,
My heart would hear her and beat,
     Were it earth in an earthy bed;
My dust would hear her and beat,
     Had I lain for a century dead;
Would start and tremble under her feet,
     And blossom in purple and red.
Mike Essig Apr 2015
Blue Monday**
BY DIANE WAKOSKI
Blue of the heaps of beads poured into her *******  
and clacking together in her elbows;
blue of the silk
that covers lily-town at night;
blue of her teeth
that bite cold toast
and shatter on the streets;
blue of the dyed flower petals with gold stamens  
hanging like tongues
over the fence of her dress
at the opera/opals clasped under her lips
and the moon breaking over her head a
gush of blood-red lizards.

Blue Monday. Monday at 3:00 and
Monday at 5. Monday at 7:30 and
Monday at 10:00. Monday passed under the rippling  
California fountain. Monday alone
a shark in the cold blue waters.

                     You are dead: wound round like a paisley shawl.  
                     I cannot shake you out of the sheets. Your name  
                     is still wedged in every corner of the sofa.

                     Monday is the first of the week,  
                     and I think of you all week.  
                     I beg Monday not to come  
                     so that I will not think of you  
                     all week.

You paint my body blue. On the balcony
in the softy muddy night, you paint me
with bat wings and the crystal
the crystal  
the crystal
the crystal in your arm cuts away
the night, folds back ebony whale skin  
and my face, the blue of new rifles,  
and my neck, the blue of Egypt,  
and my *******, the blue of sand,  
and my arms, bass-blue,
and my stomach, arsenic;

there is electricity dripping from me like cream;
there is love dripping from me I cannot use—like acacia or  
jacaranda—fallen blue and gold flowers, crushed into the street.

                         Love passed me in a blue business suit
                         and fedora.
                         His glass cane, hollow and filled with
                         sharks and whales ...  
                         He wore black
                         patent leather shoes
                         and had a mustache. His hair was so black
                         it was almost blue.

                         “Love,” I said.
                         “I beg your pardon,” he said.  
                         “Mr. Love,” I said.
                         “I beg your pardon,” he said.

                         So I saw there was no use bothering him on the street

                         Love passed me on the street in a blue  
                         business suit. He was a banker  
                         I could tell.

So blue trains rush by in my sleep.  
Blue herons fly overhead.
Blue paint cracks in my
arteries and sends titanium
floating into my bones.  
Blue liquid pours down
my poisoned throat and blue veins
rip open my breast. Blue daggers tip
and are juggled on my palms.
Blue death lives in my fingernails.

If I could sing one last song
with water bubbling through my lips
I would sing with my throat torn open,
the blue jugular spouting that black shadow pulse,  
and on my lips
I would balance volcanic rock
emptied out of my veins. At last
my children strained out
of my body. At last my blood
solidified and tumbling into the ocean.
It is blue.  
It is blue.  
It is blue.
Crecí
              Para ti.
        Tálame. Mi acacia
Implora a tus manos su golpe de gracia.

              Florí
              Para ti.
        Córtame. Mi lirio
Al nacer dudaba ser flor o ser cirio.

              Fluí
              Para ti.
        Bébeme. El cristal
Envidia lo claro de mi manantial.

              Alas di
              Por ti.
        Cázame. Falena,
Rodeo tu llama de impaciencia llena.

              Por ti sufriré.
¡Bendito sea el daño que tu amor me dé!
¡Bendita sea el hacha, bendita la red,
Y loadas sean tijeras y sed!

              Sangre del costado
              Manaré, mi amado.
¿Qué broche más bello, qué joya más grata,
Que por ti una llaga color escarlata?

En vez de abalorios para mis cabellos
Siete espinas largas hundiré entre ellos.
Y en vez de zarcillos pondré en mis orejas,
Como dos rubíes dos ascuas bermejas.

              Me verás reír
              Viéndome sufrir.

        Y tú llorarás.
Y entonces... ¡más mío que nunca serás!

— The End —