"maai" poems
The tiger is here
to eat us, our
Life, and finish
dessert with a Pi.
Let's vote.
All in favor
of running, run.
All those in favor
of stillness, run.
The maai is closed.
Interstitial space allows
only muscle memory
moments
trained through countless
centuries of bipedal
scattering, synchronized
patterns designed to
confuse
a striped predator.
We move
unsure of threat
yet left, running.
Sep 20, 2013
Sep 20, 2013 at 6:24 PM UTC
My kinderjare was
Soetsappige drome
En ek het weggesluimer
Agter suiwer onskuld,
Met ń krag van geloof
Wat my oortuig het dat
My God ook jou God is...
Dat elke pad ń onnodige
Veiligheidsgordel verg
Dat elke beursie ń oneindigheid van R20
Note besit het en dat
Elke graf leeg was na die derde dag
Dit was deur die verskillende stadia van bogenoemde
Uiltjies knip wat my
Tot die meerderheids
Besef van addolosensie gebring het.
Selfs al het ek teen ń
Eksponensiële spoed
Ń volwasse begrip ontwikkel
,Was my redenasie oor die
Hiernamaals nog vaag
Met slaap in die oog
Eers toe daar een
langs my Val
En tien aan my sy
Het die drakoniese deun
Van die doodswek my
Uit my snoesige slaap geruk.
Met elke groef wat nuwe
Paaie teer vir my trane,
Elke silwer randjie wat
Lostrek van die donker wolke
En op my hoof kom rus
Soos die koue staal
Van ń koningin se swaard
Wat my inlyf in die
Sidderende realiteit van grootword en lewe
Nou is die droom verby
Nou staan ek op
En vrees om plat te val...
Ek oes en saai
Met ń bekommernis of my ploeg iets sal maai...
Nou word paaie ń lang gebed
Ter beskerming van my hart
Wat ek so maklik uitdeel
En beursies ń kommoditeit
Wat skree van die honger
Soos die mense van ń land
Wat al sy geloof verloor het...
Nou brand die sand my voete
En die seesout droog my vel...
Nou word wraak ń amp
En liefde ń kombinasie
Van gifte en giwwe
, maar ek sal nooit weet
Wanneer is dit wat nie...
Nou word lewe ń gebed.
Ek het ophou my
Kinder rympies sê,
Nou bid ek pynlik swaar
En hoop dat God
Nog genade vir my en
vir jou Sal hê
Amen
May 6, 2014
May 6, 2014 at 5:44 PM UTC
I ask for direction but only the spirit knows,
the semantic is lost in one ritual or another subroutine.
We breath in violable biology to voice a movement
that joins u to me and together we point there,
somewhere without realizing that I consciously exhale.
A relaxed breath in but two ways out.
There is no committee nor panel of experts,
endless discussions, of morality of us all;
There is only me deciding how to exhale,
which way to breath out.
There is no wrong or right, only the slow,
controlled, submissive, submission vowels
or short, percussive consonants full of sound
and fury signifying the falling
golf ***** scattered on off-target greens,
a lawn of flamed bogeys.
A brief pause in silence aftermath, memories
of honored and vicious executioners
before I pick up the next eddie current,
the next randori in forgotten volume,
in brownian space, in distance maai,
in movements unthinkingly remembered.
Mar 21, 2013
Mar 21, 2013 at 8:54 PM UTC
Maai, I wouldn’t have gone this far
Never would have dared to do this
But you weren’t around to guide me
And baba said you won’t return.
Maai, I feel homeless without you
Like a droplet fallen away
From the sea and far from thee
But baba never consoled me.
Maai I never knew the meaning
Of those volcanic emotions
underneath your struggle and smile
But baba never saw your fears.
Maai, you’ve gone away too far
To a place that you deem safe
Where no one knows that you and I
are bound together by fate.
Prashant Shaurya ©
All Rights Reserved
25/01/2025
Jan 25, 2025
Jan 25, 2025 at 12:43 PM UTC