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Salmabanu Hatim Sep 2020
Icecream!
Vanilla, strawberry, pistachio, chocolate, mango, orange whatever flavour,
Must have icecream,
Icecream in a tub,
Icecream in a cone,
Icecream in a cup
Icecream in a bowl,
Icecream in a spoon,
Lick them all.
Icecream in the morning,
Icecream in the afternoon,
Icecream in the evening,
Icecream at night and in the middle of the night.
"Give me a break baby,"says daddy.
18/9/2020
Diane Jun 2013
i.
He stared at the woman, eyes darting to memorize her angles and features,  
at any moment this mirage could disappear.
For two full minutes he was unable to speak, too scared to let words loose;
they can no longer be hidden once they’ve been exposed.
So he kissed her instead, because he liked how it felt to no longer feel alone.

ii.
The grip of loneliness refused to let her go, like the claws of a jealous lover.
“One thing for certain, there is no god. We are completely alone, love is *******.”
“What if I showed you that you are not alone, how would it change your life?”
“I think I might actually be happy.”
“You are happy when you let yourself be…there is this…fire inside of you,  but
every time the momentum starts to build you tell yourself whatever you need to
hear to keep it from taking you.”

iii.
“Why the hell are you starting this with me? This isn’t right.”
“Who says I’m starting anything?”
“Oh, you’re one of ‘those’ guys.”
“What are ‘those’ guys?”
“The type of guy who pretends that he doesn’t know what he’s doing, and
doesn’t admit to what he’s doing so he can play innocent when he’s called to
the carpet. But in reality,  he knows exactly what he is doing, and most of it
is premeditated.”
“Like ******?”
“Yeah, something like that. There is a good chance something or someone
could die in this scenario.”

iv.
They laid still for a while, trying to catch their breath.
“I think your parents named you after the wrong Craig Finn character.”
“Oh, yeah?”
“They should have called you Hallelujah, because you sound like an angel
when you ***.”
She smiled and she kissed him and they made love again,
and she felt like an angel.

v.
He started out the door and turned, lifting his shy head to look at her
“As far as I’m concerned, you are the only one I’ve ever slept with.”
She stopped breathing, afraid to believe the nouns and verbs that were floating.  
She repeated the sentence out loud after he walked away.
They were the most loving, pure and perfect words she had ever heard.
Santiago Mar 2015
My favorite fruit la mas sabrosa
La mas Hermosa mi querida
Esposa la bella rosa pienso en ti
Me muero sin ti Ya te vi
Cambiastes bien mucho
Pero todavia te quiero mas
Y bien mucho estas mas shorty
Es lo de menos me gustan tus cenos
No muy grandes tampoco chicos
Soy tu chico de tu tipo
Tus labios estan jugozos
Con amor los gozo
Comerte entera como el ozo
Eres mayor que yo en edad
Pero soy mas grande en realidad
No importa si no eres la mas bella
Para mi eres una estrella
La Luna Que Alumnae Mi Camino
No tengas miedo, para mi nunca
Seras fea, para mi siempre seras
La Mas Bella
murari sinha Sep 2010
1.
when the morning sets in
with the sun rising in the east
i put on the dress of a beggar
extended up to the horizon
and the canto of my begging starts

i beg
beside the big-bazar
beside the fly-over
beside the college-campus
beside the cow-market

you then put your elbow
on the body of the day
giving a perfect and unbiased pose
to attached to the album of life

people of the working-class
spread hither and thither
to write some more decimal fraction
on the notebook of life

2.
in the dusts and soil of rural-bengal  
in the testament written by the grass
i am a son of the immortal

my begging-bowl is the most
favourite go-ahead of a alone man

then speaking around are
the chop singara aluposta

and the love-story of a hyacinth  
blooming in the pond
blind by mud

also in the overflowed dustbin of the city
waiting rightly with an erected head  
the excitement of your absence

3.
coming to this canto of begging
do you know
i  enjoy both
your intensity and your sharpness

your secret current flows me to the pore of the skin
of the body of the puller of a hand-barrow
your cold attracts me
towards the syllabus of waning moonlight  

i do realise now that the stale afternoons
saved in my pocket
stitched so many new muscles
with my vocal chord

and i’m howling in joy…

4.
what’s an enjoyment… hahaha…day after day
spending too much chaos
and living to so little extent
tell me is it the least

within the left-over on the leaf-plates
after eating by the baboos
i can discover more and more
love

the mango tree the grass-hopper my begging-bowl
and from the tune of the laxmi-panchali
coming from the middle-class houses
listen, how flourishing is my mother-tongue  

5.
all long the day i beg

i beg rice pulses oil salt
royal blood

in exchange i also distribute
peace… peace… and peace…

and the horses of the gypsies making
a dip-swimming in the peace-water

in the canto of my begging
holding a whole body of love
i learn how to be burnt
by the shadow of the trees  

i give up all my courage
to book a room in your youth
only for me

6.
going upstairs on the railway foot-bridge
i see the strong light of neon-lamps

the girl from the avtar of the flex
induced trance

the aroma of chhatim-flower in the air
and the song of a blind-beggar
with tambourine

those neon-light flex-women
beggar’s-song and flower odour
i see they are all alive
in the canto of my begging

under the evening-star

7.
in the canto of my begging
at the day’s end
the moon that rises behind the rain-tree

i put up in her hands
the lemon-leaves the water-balloons the goal-kicks
that i have had throughout the day
by begging

and i beg from her the magic-wand
by the touch of which the date-palm
that was someday burnt by a thunder-bolt
in front of the church
looks very infatuating

and my dress as a beggar gradually
becomes a royal-dress
In Kitale
A town in Kenya,
Lived an English man
His name was Lord Hitchcock
He owned over a thousand acres of land
He took for himself
During colonial times
He had hundredfold of workers
Hitchcock had very beautiful wife
She was called Queen Victoria,
They had two sons;
Hitchcock junior and William,
He had a passion for work
He always woke up at ****-crow
Only to retire back at chick roost
Natives of Kitale had respect for him,
They secretly envied huge udders
That his five thousand fresian cows had,
They also loved him,
For he killed the flying snake,
That had terrorized natives for years,
Hitchcock just pointed a long stick
At the flying snake,
The stick which looked like cooking wood,
Then smoke and thunder came out
Only to see the snake coming down
Tangling like a rope
And fell down in a thud!
It is when the natives gave him a new name
Mango wa nandemu; meaning the snake killer
Natives also had an issue with him;
He likes putting  mucus in his kerchief
And then put it back into his pockets
Instead of throwing it a way
Direct from the nose,
His nose were slender and long
They wonder why he could not used it
In proper thrusting away of the mucus,
Men folk on his farm were always day dreaming
Of any chance to have *** with Queen Victoria
As the women folk too fancied of William
Marrying their daughters,
His favourite worker was Onyango,
The Luo man from shores of the lake
He liked Onyango most
Even  he promoted him
To be a tractor driver
Other than cleaning the cowsheds,
The gossip was that maybe Hitchcock was full,
Or not circumcised like Onyango
Hence is passionate preference Onyango,
But no, they don’t knew,
The germ was in Onyango’s workmanship
Onyango worked like a donkey,
Onyango also had a beautiful daughter
Her name was Ilingling Atineo Nyarpondo,
But workers on the farm called her Atieno,
It is Hitchcock who broke her virginity
A secret which queen Victoria knows not,
Hitchcock just popped in at Onyango’s shack
One after noon, after Lunch
He found Onyango, Atieno and the mother,
He didn’t talk a lot,
He only ordered Onyango and his wife
To go out and hang around
For him to have Word with Atieno
Onyango walked out minus haste,
The wife followed suit, after cautioning Atieno
Not to disappoint the Lord; Hitchcock,
A minute never passed,
Before the Lord took Atieno into his arms
He carried her to Onyango’s bed
And effectively penetrated her,
Sweetness gripped both of them
Hitchcock on his ******
Began to  moan like an aphrodisiac animal;
Atienoo! Atienoo! Atienoo!
In turn Atieno also screamed
Like a caged monkey;
Lord! Lord! Lord!
We are on my father’s bed,
Onyango and His wife
Were out keeping sentry
Lest Victoria finds Hitchcock
In the act of deflowering the ******,
When he finished,
He called Onyango and the wife in
Then he warned them
To keep the mouths shut,
Or else he ejects them from the farm,
And indeed they kept mum,
Hence the friendship
Between Onyango and Hitchcock,


Hitchcock never like two of his workers,
Josef Sasita and Wavukho Masafu
He didn’t like Sasita because of one reason;
Sasita brought along his brother to work
His brother was called Kalenda
When Hitchcock was taking the master roll
He asked Kalenda to say his names
Of which Kalenda said his two names;
Kalenda Sasita,
Of which Hitchcock never understood
As these two names are a Kiswahili sentence
Meaning it is lunch time at end moth,
Hitchcock understood Kiswahili very well,
He thought Kalenda was implying for a pay
And Lunch Allowance
When he had only worked for three hours
It was not lunch time neither was it end month,
Hitchcock was overtaken by anger
He slapped Kalenda with all energy in his arms
Kalenda fainted and collapsed like a dead bird,
Sasita thought the lord had killed his brother
He began wailing, he boxed Hitchcock
More than five hundred jabs
in a couple of minutes,
Then Sasita got off on his heels,
Running away at a speed of a kite,
But unfortunately he was arrested
By a white police and brought back to Hitchcock,
Hitchcock flogged Sasita two hundred strokes,
And ordered Sasita to resume his work,

Hitchcock’s detest for Wavukho
is due to nothing else
Other ceaseless malingering,
Wavukho always takes
a minimum of an hour
Every time he visits the toilet,

So Onyango is the only guy on the firm,
A boon to which Ndiema, farm worker,
Is very jealousy of ,
Ndiema believed Onyango is using charms
Or love potions or Voodoo to lure the Whiteman,
Otherwise how can Whiteman love a black worker?
With such passion in the way Hitchcock loved Onyango,

One day Ndiema approached Onyango
He asked him the secrete behind his fortune
Onyango became sly and lied,
He told Ndiema that it was only magical charms
He was given by his late mother,
That made Hitchcock’s heart to swell with love
For him and his family,
Ndiema believed on the first hearing,
He became selfish and begged Onyango,
To give him the charms also,
So that he can also enjoy the Whiteman’s love
Onyango accepted to assist but at a fee,
A fee which took Ndiema salary of two months,
Then Onyango brought Ndiema a ***** of an Alligator,
He told Ndiema to put it in his underpants,
Every time he goes to work,
Ndiema complied,
That morning Ndiema woke very early,
He walked to his work station
Very happy and confident
Sure of enjoying the Whiteman’s love
Given the voodoo under his pants,

At ten in the morning Hitchcock called Ndiema
To join him in repairing the maize miller,
Ndiema was a hand boy, a toto,
Ndiema was to hold the engine
As Hitchcock tightened the nuts
But the engine was oily with grease,
Ndiema’s hands slipped every time
Hitchcock tried to tighten the nuts
Hitchcock got irritated,
Especially by the papyrus cowboy hat
Ndiema was wearing,
Hitchcock cautioned Ndiema to be serious
By tightly holding the engine,
But when Hitchcock began tightening
The engine again,
Ndiema’s hands slipped
And the engine moved away,
Hitchcock punctuated this with a nemesis;
He jabbed Ndiema with an art of Olympiad boxer,
It was one tremendous fist
The fist of the century,
When Ndiema wanted to cry
His five teeth jumped out
And when he said I am sorry my lord
He woffled; iywi mwu sovwi lodwi
Hitchcock clicked and walked away,
Ndiema walked home
With a humongous gap in his bucal cavity,
Ndiema reached home and went to bed
His wife, Chepsuwet was already aware
She only prepared porridge for him
As he had no teeth to munch solid food,

When Hitchcock reached home
He found his two sons in a strong fever,
They were panting like desert dogs,
He asked them what was wrong,
Both boys began shedding tears
In torrents like river Euphrates and Tigris
Flowing across the Garden of Eden,
What is the problem?
Hitchcock roared,
The big boy then featfully responded;
We were given sugar cane to chew,
We were given by Ndiema the farm worker,
It was yesterday in the evening,
That is why we are sick,
Ok,
Hitchcock nodded his head,
He took his whip, made of wires and rods
With a sting at the end,
He jumped on his horse
And shot off to Ndiema’s place
At the speed of forty five kilometers per hour,
He found Ndiema trying to swallow some porridge,
Come on Ndiema! Roared Hitchcock in full voltage
Of ire, anger, fury and mad petulance,
When Ndiema came out
Hitchcock pulled out his whip
He flogged Ndiema terribly
They were strokes and strokes
Strokes fell on Ndiema’s back
With a sharp sound like a thunderclap
Ndiema cried like a baby,
Begging for lord’s mercy
Chepsuwet looked on in fear,

When Hitchcock jumped on his horse
And went away clicking, frothing in anger
Like the waters of river Nile
Departing Lake Victoria to Egypt,
Ndiema was on the ground
Writhing in pains from the flogging,
He sobbed and sobbed,
And finally he mumbled;
Witchcraft don’t work against an Englishman,
His wife Chepsuwet did not understand.
Sydney Oct 2015
The faded orange that surrounds your aluminum body is so inviting,
Contrasting so well with the earthy forest green and the fire red
Making you appear so much more delicious.
The way you sit on this firm desk,
When I finally pop your tab, a wave of happiness rushes through me,
Your taste so fruity and sweet,
You’re my favorite, Mango Peace Tea
Maggie Emmett Feb 2015
Tis pleasure sweet to think of tasting you.
to kiss your honeyed lips a tender treat,
to savour with my tongue your velvet heat,
to suckle deep that nectared heady brew.
Downy peach skin I long to stroke anew,
whipped creamy smooth and chocolate bittersweet.
Your luscious mango juice I ache to eat,
drown in your silky softness I once knew.

Many banquets were eaten in our bed,
each tasty morsel set the craving trap.
Imagine feasting on a love now past.
The apple-of-my-eye that cuts me dead
and tosses me a final candied scrap.
Lovelorn and syrup-sick I needs must fast.
Sonnet form
Cuando me confiscaron la palabra
y me quitaron hasta el horizonte
cuando salí silvando despacito
y hasta hice bromas con el funcionario
de emigración o desintegración
y hubo el adiós de siempre con la mano
a la familia firme en la baranda
a los amigos que sobrevivían
y un motor el derecho tosió fuerte
y movió la azafata sus pestañas
como diciendo a vos yo te conozco
yo tenía estudiada una teoría
del exilio mis pozos del exilio
pero el cursillo no sirvió de nada

cómo saber que las ciudades reservaban
una cuota de su amor más austero
para los que llegábamos
con el odio pisándonos la huella
cómo saber que nos harían sitio
entre sus escaseces más henchidas
y sin averiguarnos los fervores
ni mucho menos el grupo sanguíneo
abrirían de par en par sus gozos
y también sus catástrofes
para que nos sintiéramos
igualito que en casa

cómo saber que yo mismo iba a hallar
sábanas limpias desayunos abrazos
en pueyrredón y french
en canning y las heras
y en lince
y en barranco
y en arequipa al tres mil seiscientos
y en el vedado
y dondequiera

siempre hay calles que olvidan sus balazos
sus silencios de pizarra lunar
y eligen festejarnos recibirnos llorarnos
con sus tiernas ventanas que lo comprenden todo
e inesperados pájaros entre flores y hollines
también plazas con pinos discretísimos
que preguntan señor cómo quedaron
sus acacias sus álamos
y los ojos se nos llenan de láminas
en rigor nuestros árboles están sufriendo como
por otra parte sufren los caballos la gente
los gorriones los paraguas las nubes
en un país que ya no tiene simulacros

es increíble pero no estoy solo
a menudo me trenzo con manos o con voces
o encuentro una muchacha para ir lluvia adentro
y alfabetizarme en su áspera hermosura
quién no sabe a esta altura que el dolor
es también un ilustre apellido

con éste o con aquélla nos miramos de lejos
y nos reconocemos por el rictus paterno
o la herida materna en el espejo
el llanto o la risa como nombres de guerra
ya que el llanto o la risa legales y cabales
son apenas blasones coberturas

estamos desarmados como sueño en andrajos
pero los anfitriones nos rearman de apuro
nos quieren como aliados y no como reliquias
aunque a veces nos pidan la derrota en hilachas
para no repetirla

inermes como sueños así vamos
pero los anfitriones nos formulan preguntas
que incluyen su semilla de respuesta
y ponen sus palomas mensajeras y lemas
a nuestra tímida disposición
y claro sudamos los mismos pánicos
temblamos las mismas preocupaciones

a medida que entramos en el miedo
vamos perdiendo nuestra extranjería
ei enemigo es una niebla espesa
es el común denominador o
denominador plenipotenciario

es bueno reanudar el enemigo
de lo contrario puede acontecer
que uno se ablande al verlo tan odioso
el enemigo es siempre el mismo cráte
todavía no hay volcanes apagados

cuando nos escondemos a regar
la maceta con tréboles venéreos
aceitamos bisagras filosóficas
le ponemos candado a los ex domicilios
y juntamos las viudas militancias
y desobedecemos a los meteorólogos
soñamos con axilas y grupas y caricias
despertamos oliendo a naftalina
todos los campanarios nos conmueven
aunque tan solo duren en la tarde plomiza
y estemos abollados de trabajo

el recuerdo del mar cuando no hay mar
nos desventura la insolencia y la sangre
y cuando hay mar de un verde despiadado
la ola rompe en múltiples agüeros

uno de los problemas de esta vida accesoria
es que en cada noticia emigramos
siempre los pies alados livianísirnos
del que espera la señal de largada
y claro a medida que la señal no llega
nos aplacamos y nos convertimos
en herines apiñados y reumáticos

y bien esa maciza ingravidez
alza sus espirales de huelo en el lenguaje
hablamos ele botijas o gurises
y nos traducen pibe riñe guagua
suena ta o taluego
y es como si cantáramos desvergonzadamente
do jamás se pone el sol se pone el sol

y nos aceptan siempre
nos inventan a veces
nos lustran la morriña majadera
con la nostalgia que hubieran tenido
o que tuvieron o que van a tener
pero además nos muestran ayeres y anteayeres
la película entera a fin de que aprendamos
que la tragedia es ave migratoria
que los pueblos irán a contramuerte
y el destino se labra con las uñas

habrá que agradecerlo de por vida
acaso más que el pan y la cama y el techo
y los poros alertas del amo
r habrá que recordar con un exvoto
esa pedagogía solidaria y tangible

por lo pronto se sienten orgullosos
de entender que no vamos a quedarnos
porque claro hay un cielo
que nos gusta tener sobre la crisma
así uno va fundando las patrias interinas
segundas patrias siempre fueron buenas
cuando no nos padecen y no nos compadecen
simplemente nos hacen un lugar junto al fuego
y nos ayudan a mirar las llamas
porque saben que en ellas vemos nombres y bocas

es dulce y prodigiosa esta patria interina
con manos tibias que reciben dando
se aprende todo menos las ausencias
hay certidumbres y caminos rotos
besos rendidos y provisionales
brumas con barcos que parecen barcos
y lunas que reciben nuestra noche
con tangos marineras sones rumbas
y lo importante es que nos acompañan
con su futuro a cuestas y sus huesos

esta patria interina es dulce y honda
tiene la gracia de rememorarnos
de alcanzarnos noticias y dolores
como si recogiera cachorros de añoranza
y los diera a la suerte de los niños

de a poco percibimos los signos del paisaje
y nos vamos midiendo primero con sus nubes
y luego con sus rabias y sus glorias
primero con sus nubes
que unas veces son fibras filamentos
y otras veces tan redondas y plenas
como tetas de madre treinteañera
y luego con sus rabias y sus glorias
que nunca son ambiguas

acostumbrándonos a sus costumbres
llegamos a sentir sus ráfagas de historia
y aunque siempre habrá un nudo inaccesible
un útero de glorias que es propiedad privada
igual nuestra confianza izará sus pendones
y creeremos que un día que también que ojalá

aquí no me segrego
tampoco me segregan
hago de centinela de sus sueños
podemos ir a escote en el error
o nutrirnos de otras melancolías

algunos provenimos del durazno y la uva
otros vienen del mango y el mamey
y sin embargo vamos a encontrarnos
en la indócil naranja universal

el enemigo nos vigila acérrimo
él y sus corruptólogos husmean
nos aprenden milímetro a milímetro
estudian las estelas que deja el corazón
pero no pueden descifrar el rumbo
se les ve la soberbia desde lejos
sus llamas vuelven a lamer el cielo
chamuscando los talones de dios

su averno monopólico ha acabado
con el infierno artesanal de leviatán

es fuerte el enemigo y sin embargo
mientras la bomba eleva sus hipótesis
y todo se asimila al holocausto
una chiva tranquila una chiva de veras
prosigue masticando en el islote

ella solita derrotó al imperio
todos tendríamos que haber volado
a abrazar a esa hermana
ella sí demostró lo indemostrable
y fue excepción y regla todo junto
y gracias a esa chiva de los pueblos
ay nos quedamos sin apocalipsis

cuando sentimos el escalofrío
y los malos olores de la ruina
siempre es bueno saber que en algún meridiano
hay una chiva a lo mejor un puma
un ñandú una jutía una lombriz
un espermatozoide un feto una criatura
un hombre o dos un pueblo
una isla un archipiélago
un continente un mundo
tan firmes y tan dignos de seguir masticando
y destruir al destructor y acaso
desapocalipsarnos para siempre

es germinal y aguda esta patria interina
y nuestro desconsuelo integra su paisaje
pero también lo integra nuestro bálsamo

por supuesto sabemos desenrollar la risa
y madrugar y andar descalzos por la arena
narrar blancos prodigios a los niños
inventar minuciosos borradores de amor
y pasarlos en limpio en la alta noche
juntar pedazos de canciones viejas
decir cuentos de loros y gallegos
y de alemanes y de cocodrilos
y jugar al pingpong y a los actores
bailar el pericón y la milonga
traducir un bolero al alemán
y dos tangos a un vesre casi quechua
claro no somos una pompa fúnebre
usamos el derecho a la alegría

pero cómo ocultarnos los derrumbes
el canto se nos queda en estupor
hasta el amor es de pronto una culpa
nadie se ríe de los basiliscos
he visto a mis hermanos en mis patrias suplentes
postergar su alegría cuando muere la nuestra
y ese sí es un tributo inolvidable

por eso cuando vuelva
                                      y algún día será
a mis tierras mis gentes y mi cielo
ojaló que el ladrillo que a puro riesgo traje
para mostrar al mundo cómo era mi casa
dure como mis duras devociones
a mis patrias suplentes compañeras
viva como un pedazo de mi vida
quede como un ladrillo en otra casa.
Martin Narrod Apr 2014
When at first it happens I want none of it. I even say no. I discard the plane tickets, the train stamps, the envelopes of money into a safety deposit box some train station off The Embarcadero and just head East. It frightens me, I'm horrified. The potency is developing in my inner organs, I can't cough right, sleep right, I just suffer and complain. Instead of doing things differently, they've made it so you can soak right in. Just strand yourself on the side of the roadway and they've got rules for you too. The sounds are torturous, the rooms are empty, and the men grow complacent and empty. Nothing is as serious as this. Four years ago a car, three years ago a plane, now I just shuffle and complain. I search for a key to my happiness. I look for it in desktop monitors, caramel apple lollipops, new cashmere vanilla candles, consuming six or more bottles of water a day, E-Cigarettes even, even those, I use apple juice, lychee nectar, mango sorbet, and chocolate fudge sundaes. I'm 40 up on the 140 I went down with. All the miles I'd walked in a firm step, a fever, a bag full of cheap wine for a man that works the car park. 43rd between 8th and 9th. Every thing is bright lights and theater nights. More pacing, there is gum stuck to every square of sidewalk, men and women wheel around a block away selling discount drugs in the streets and outside the Subway on 44th, in the Chinese food mart on 7th. They blow blow blow in their little plastic straw tubes and for $12 a drop they ask you to reach your hands inside their pockets, "take what you like and leave the rest. No one remembers it like this, the girls laugh practically upside down, they wear sky-blue light dyed denim overalls, covering all the parts of their shoulders but exposing their ****, they have plastic bags in their boots, and cute bobby bobbing hair cuts like water crest shoots exploding in lime juice. They pace too, but their legs are shorter, their conversations longer, the horns in their heads grow slowly out from midnight. The devil put the hate on them too.

Even the children are bigoted in this bicentennial. The ******'s nook is no longer the sewing shop in the corner of the strip mall up by Deerbrook Mall. I haven't seen a fountain with change in it since the 80's. The newest thing I heard about imaginations are that, "They come out the first and last Wednesday of the month, you gotta check with Game Stop if you want to pre-order the right ones." I think we must be on number 18 by now. There were four of us riding shotgun in the boxcar up to the valley last month, now they don't even run the trains anymore. One third of everything left to go.

I'm growing quiet; if they can't tell it's not my job to teach them. If they can't spell, I ain't gotta word to word combat that's going to come down on 'em. My brain is so uptight I can't sleep before sundown or sunrise. I see legs and oil futures with every blink. I listen to the old phone messages constantly. I make up stories to go with the missed calls. Still I hope everything will work out okay, because nothing is as serious as this. It makes me sick. It makes the guy undo itself with a brass nail, the blood unclogged from the rash from last month, I find out I'm toxic to poisons, and then I'm told that they're a prescription for that too. It wasn't a ******* rumor. The time to back up or move is now. A idle figure in an orange shirt, a tapestry that moves with every hallucination, forty, fifty, sixty hours I've never slept. I may have been years. My stomach is rusting from water with nowhere to go. I feel sick. I feel woozy, but I don't believe in feelings. I sit upright because I'm uptight, I turn my head around and look over my shoulder. But I know that any friend that's worth looking at me wouldn't arouse my spirit at this hour. There is a net that they speak of when everything's gone. It's the madness that transforms nothingness when the devil's around. Whole empires are crashing. Whole bottom drawers of unworn clothing, tagged and abetted stuffed into black crape garbage bags and drove off into the moonlight. I'm sweating and soporific, living half by half two in and two out, if I had the chance I'd try to remember just which way I get out. When I check on the rumors, when I say my goodbye, I know that I'm the only one sitting in this room of cocksure spirit animals and half-plastic book casings, and that no one whispers and no one cries, not even the bereft can produce a lullaby. I am dying to figure out how to move voicemails from iPhones to iTunes, I googled it while sitting down in the city last night. Poor service. 10 months. Not even one blame the famous few.

After tired comes guilty, after guilty the shame, after that apathy, after that I'm awake. I've never been good at being better than me. But those voicemails, I want them somewhere permanently.
Inspired by a Voicemail, Written for Britni West
Stu Harley Aug 2014
swarms of
migrating
fruit bats
beat
their wings
from
front to back
to the steady
heartbeat of
the golden sun
they move
swiftly towards
central Africa continent
seeking
the
a tantalizing taste of
the
sweet mango tree harvest
uncovered root
shall bear its fruit
Moksha Mar 2014
Swirling notes of earl grey and red
Tinkering bells of vermillion
Voiceless silhouettes of sea green
Silky fountains of chromium
Shining chimes of turquoise
Swirling thoughts of silver
Roars of violet
Shivers of peach
Footsteps of twilight
Shouts of mango
Kisses of the sun.
Butch Decatoria Jun 2019
Hundred six degrees
Of mid June heat, while we drink
Chilled mango Pepsi.
Fredy Sanchez Oct 2023
I believe you,
Even when each lie falls from your lips
Like tow colored crimson Mangos.
Softly falling apart in your mouth,
With each bite the nectar gushes out, before you spit the skin along with my trust onto the dirt floor...
I believe you,
even when you pick a lie from the tree in the yard.
The branches encumbered by the stories you claim as your own.
I believe you
even when I know the truth sprouted somewhere else
still i sit under the shade of your tales.
I believe you,
Because the alternative is
Hanging myself from the Mango tree
Odd Fruit for you to pick at your convenience
SKelly Woz May 2014
When day changed to sherbert
the taste of mango slipped across my tongue
and I caught stray licks
like wet snowflakes in the summer breeze.

For a moment
no hand could touch me with that
same love;
none have since.

My hobby of sunsets and sun
rise for 15 minutes of fame--
       for staring in wonder, then
                                 fading away.

skelly*14
sweet ridicule Aug 2015
kiss me with mango sherbet
in your mouth and sticky
orange tinted lips
these car tires are growing old
but I am young with three
dimples on my face
callouses on my fingertips
of my left hand
stop with the
'you're scared'
in which century does
refusal amount to fear
liberation by the pen drawings
on my hand consumes me
individuality is not dead I
am here
with fiery intent occasionally lost in
a girly figure with a small
waist and awkward ankles
don't dance alone dance a soliloquy
like the bruise on my neck

(labors of love are not
merely towards humans)
good night
Ceryn Mar 2014
An afternoon warm and dull and bland
Not so special for a nobody's girl in town
Hitting the roads on summer days
Hoping for a little fuss in her insipid space.

Looking for refreshments as the sun goes high
The girl decides to visit a kiosk nearby
Asking for a tumbler of cold cafe latte shake
Handing over some bucks to a lady so irate.

From afar, there goes a fine young man
Oh what a lovely bonus in sight!
Stopping by a lengthy row of costly cars
Not one from them seems to match his aplomb.

The day's warmth, no remedy, to his cool strides
Getting near, she looks away to dodge his hazel eyes
As he walks by, she looks up only to find him there
Gazing at her, but looks away when she pays a stare.

He heads off the streets, with no certain limit
To where his shoes might lead him to
While on a cafe nearby, the girl takes a mango pie
Just to get by the summer's funny tricks.

He enters the zone where the girl takes a sip
Of her heavenly cafe latte shake
Just a round table away, he takes a glance again
And the girl wonders just why he's there.

She checks her phone, holds her glass
Not even thinking 'bout the seconds that pass
Taking a sip, she tries to steal a glance
But in a jiffy, he's nowhere to be found.

Feeling disappointed, she rises from her seat
Leaving a tip on the beige table mats
But before she goes on, she notices a small note
On that young man's cluttered table top.

She reads a line from a song and it turns her on
But taking in the message doesn't feel right
It reads: *"Oh it's sad to belong to someone else,
When the right one comes along..."
c quirino Nov 2010
and then i am left,
at the upmarket stretch of sand
straddling this most unremarkable state,
quietly flicking my thumb against the blue lighter.

but it's too windy, at the water's edge
in an unremarkable state,
where no one recognizes me,
that bagpipes start playing

the wind acts against my fingers,
they are too delicate, too feminine,
no callousness ever affixed to these,
my ten silken extremities.
© Constante Quirino
Trinity O Jan 2013
He reads
my cuticles
the way Daniel
reads palms
and knows
that I am
not worthy
of wifing.
Cutting
the peeled mango
flesh, the body
knows how
to hold some things
even when it doesn’t

have the angles
or hands
clean enough
for a child
of its own. And
I’m still
bleeding
and bleeding
and giving it away.
Prathipa Nair Apr 2017
Standing innocent ten year old
In the courtyard full of greenery
My Grandfather's effort in the soil
Looking at the bunch of plantains
Hanging vertical yellow smileys
Fragrance of ripe bananas
Filling my mouth with water
Giant mango trees full of king fruit
Orange-red ripen mangoes with crown
Smiling at me handsome monarchs
Red chubby tomatoes looking up at me
With a pony tail on each ones head
Either big or small none are like a twig
Shining green chillies with anger
Nodding their heads to capture
Dozen of aubergines in violet dress
Covered one part of the soil
Oh ! Jackfruits are ready to pluck
Spreading the sweet smell all over
Like children on mother's waist
Climbing creepers holding bitter guards
Seen as lighting lanterns of villages
As a farmer, my grandfather passing inspiration
Respecting our soil and farming
Robert Ronnow Aug 2015
blueberries gasoline and prostate gland
breast cancer Wonderbread and pacifier

controlled experiment space travel and honey
peanuts inductive reasoning and electricity

tornadoes torture chamber and biscuits
copyright car radio cantaloupe

golden eagle lunch break tomato
Romanian songbook rhubarb and barbed wire

always hungry nevermind meat loaf
goosefoot mango juice Ipad

mosquito bite city street and broccoli
Chinese cabbage female *** drive water sport

pure contralto goat yogurt new year
black death white light and green tea
www.ronnowpoetry.com
Shashank Dwivedi Sep 2012
I miss my childhood everyday

This missing increases day by day
I  miss those days of happiness
which were full of joy and naughtiness

I miss my grandpa's magnificent love
I  miss my grandma's food serve
I miss my village and my darling home
Now I am sad and alone

I was used to go garden daily evening
where I see the day changing
I play their with my friends
who were perfect in that and were legends

I miss stealing of mango from trees
I miss those mountainy friendly trees
I miss play of hide and seek
we hide on guava's great peak

I miss my fields and ponds
I miss that sweet smell of my lands
I miss the scolds of elders
I miss my village builders

I miss my grandpa's old shoulders
I miss my village's brave soldiers
I miss my cow's sweet milk
I miss my cranky and playful tricks

No one can return my childhood
And that hunt for fruits in woods
I have left my childhood very far
But I need life like that with no bar

I am hungry for that love of village
my hunger becomes more with age
In this world of stress and worries
I want back my childhood glories

Life is such a name
That plays with everyone, a different game
But in every game there is some hopeful ray
I miss my childhood everyday.



(27 march 2010, Lucknow)
Mary-Eliz Apr 2018
There once was a man who liked to eat grunion
he ate them with ketchup and onion
he ate them for lunch
he ate a whole bunch
he ate so many they gave him a bunion

There was a lady who liked to eat cheese
but when she ate it she started to sneeze
she'd sneeze and she'd cough
till her hat would fall off
and she developed a terrible wheeze

There was a young girl who ate cantaloupe
while she rode on the back of an antelope
she rode along fine
and continued to dine
till her antelope tripping, slid down a *****

There was a boy who liked mango
when he ate it he did the fandango
he'd throw out the peels
then with a click of his heels
he would dance a beautiful tango

There was a lady who loved carrots
but so did her large group of ferrets
if her ferrets were there
she had to give them a scare
to keep them away from her carrots

There once was a man who liked to eat soup
but when he did it made his ears droop
it was hard to recoup
with ears covered with goop
but he just couldn't give up his soup

There was a young lad who liked waffles
Though they made him feel really awful
he ate them with butter
then he would sputter
and develop a terrible cough-ful

There was a man who loved to eat stew
but when he ate it his face would turn blue
it was truly a ghastly hue
he looked like he had the flu
as if he was sick through and through

There once was a lady who liked custard
she ate it with pickles and mustard
a strange combo, she'll grant
since she's not even pregnant
when she was asked she'd always get flustered
Total silliness! Feeling playful lately.
Kody Banda Sep 2015
The other day I passed by a homeless family
All 10 sitting under a mango tree
They didn't have much but they seemed happy
Now here we learn a valuable lesson
We don't need money to solve everything
Maybe peace is a lot more simpler
Smile show a simple or two
Or try to have a conversation with someone new
We all co exist in a world that was meant to be limitless
But now we engage in a never ending conflict
That's so sick, it makes me nauseous
So let's be cautious
Of how we let the young kids talk
It can go from a computer screen to a life long sentence and a death row walk
Cause look ignorance is bliss
And we can't pass this
We learn to respect and prioritize
But we fail to realize that this can also lead to carelessness
It's nothing less than how we carry ourselves
We minimize this never ending flow or we criticize
So *** it who cares what he's wearing
Your tearing this kid apart with his tagged clothes
But you don't know the story
Never had anything like a young Kody
Grew up in the projects a 12 story building
Moms a crack addict never tried rehabilitatin
Dad works 9-5 trying to fulfill his families ever needs
Living off of food stamps and EBT
This **** is no acting like TNT
Plenty was never in his vocabulary
He prays to god and at times asks "why me"
Feels like he's being beat
Feels like everything is getting worse in this universe
So next time you think you are cursed with having it worse
Listen to my words and every verse
Cause world peace is key
It helps us create an ideal reality
sergiodib Apr 2021
MANGO the kiNG Of exotic fruit.
Originally grown in MANGOlia.
PlantsMAN GOlden skin.

OrANGutan, noble creature,
more human than huMAN GHOsts.

Enjoys fandANGO but loves tANGO.
Member of a quANGO.
Tryina feel giggin while looking up liNGO.

Never won at biNGO.

MAN GOes the tree stays.
poeTREE
Maggie Emmett Aug 2014
At Summer Solstice, the Sun is far
distant from the celestial equator
and that day is the longest of the year.
From Khufu’s Great Pyramid at Giza
the scarlet Phoenix with the golden crest
swoops silent and low across the Delta.
Only half a millennium of life
before it passes to the flames of fire
and is reborn again from charred ashes.
This yang bird, fiery and blood cardinal
a solar flare blazing incandescent
pumps joy from the igneous heart of earth
erupts red hot energy volcanic
exciting and swirling the power of Qi.
Sun’s light and heat brings universal life,
and worshipped as Samash, Mithras and Ra,
Aztec God Tezcatlipoca,
Greek Helios, Phoebus and Apollo.
Now comes the agile Phoenix, sunset-stained
Broad-winged and gliding in the cloudless skies
Certain source of abundance and plenty
Plump-rich each berry, mango, peach, pear, plum.
Squeeze juicy sweet and succulent to taste
Summer full blown, mature and glorious.

© M.L.Emmett
Stephan Sep 2018
.

Nothing more than a pretty smile

There she was chasing a rabbit
with 1 am coffeecakes and weak tea
She didn’t notice I was watching
from the branches of an olive tree
A lone smile hidden amongst
swirling smoke rings in a foreign accent

To the gazebo she ran
with its straw grass tables
and pleated cushions in hibiscus
print fabric no one would sit on

My eyes followed her as she
darted around manicured boxwoods
and cherub statues spitting water
onto sleeping lily pads,
following the same schedule
as the other…identical

She came upon a dandelion
and asked politely, “Pardon me,
but have you seen a…”
The **** interrupted,
“Didn’t…don’t do drama dreams
dancing deliriously down
donut distracted ditches”
“That’s dumb” she replied
with a giggle and a snort

This must be her fun, I think,
trying to catch a white ball of fur,
big, then small,
then smaller still like a
thimble seeking a thread,
when now she is stopped
in her ziggy zagging tracks
by a June bug singing,

“I see, I see, in front of me
Dessert, dessert, set out for free
A chocolate pie, a chocolate pie
in menus written on the sky”

Perplexed she climbed upon its back
and flew, holding onto
red leather shoulder pads
with black dots changing shapes,
ducking winged arches that
covered the vestibule they
soared through when a sharp turn
pitched her to the opposite side…

Landing with a thud,
her new dress now soiled
between the wrinkles in time
that had ticked away
on a clock faced sun named Ray

She cried carrot tears,
orange sherbet streams
on peach tone cheeks,
marmalade miseries
and mango miscues
piddling on her patent leather shoes,
ready to give up

When it appeared, hopping happily
Jumping into her lap
and licking her face
She caressed its fur, removing
sticker burs and scratching
just the right spot, as its right rear leg
thumped with joy

Then lifting the bundled bunny
to her face, she kissed it tenderly
with wild cherry gloss lips,
or should I say…kissed me
for you see, all along, it was me

And you thought I was nothing more than a pretty smile…..
Elizabeth Mayo Sep 2014
My heart's yearning, singing, flinging itself
our there to people with joy I

listened to the school nurse talk about
eating a mango with her bare hands

over the kitchen sink, red and ripe,
juice running down her arms

and I was so happy, I want to live where
ripe mangoes drip off trees.

where a mother wraps me up in her arms.
where it's too balmy to be afraid,

where I don't have to stand up straight,
back straight, don't have to live showing my fists

to show my back isn't bent, my heart is still beating,
my soul isn't dimmed or scuffed.

I want to write poetry that makes the
world sing and stories that give girls wings.

I want to be a child, unconcerned and wild,
wings at the heels of my feet, but
I want to help my sisters sing.
Ignatius Hosiana Mar 2016
Must we wait for stars when our love seems enough to light the way
can't we be moons for the nights, shall we keep waiting for the day?
are we going to enjoy the beams from our eyes
or just remain poles apart longing for the moment beaming sun will rise?
must we always wait for sleep  just so we finally dream
can't we conciously dare to dream about letting our passion scream?
shall we wait for Oceans to dry,can't we build bridges
will the door of our affinity last that long on these rusty hinges?
are we enough for each other or are we going to hunger and thirst
won't we question us all the time or will we completely count on our trust?
Won't we crumble and stumble in the dark caves and stormy waves
will we stick together even when karma turns us to slaves?
must we wait for the saddened birds to sing their songs
can't our hearts sing in appreciation of finding where they belong?
won't we keep dreaming of finding a better place to live in
if we can't make a better place of the historical cities within?
will we forgive each other when we make mistakes
won't our humanity and faults determine the long this takes?
why wait for the joys to write poetry and stories of romance
can't we pen every dance, delightful or sad by any chance
Can't we do everything it takes to be closer than this
shall wishes be our embrace and virtually flying forever our kiss?
will we be able to endure the long while we only have us at Heart
until it's no longer like that, until we cease to be oceans apart?
can we always press restart when we pause and when we hurt
won't we fail to pick up, and at the first fall this love might depart?
must we wait till we have enough cash to own mansions and yacht
can't we find content in the little,in starting together from scratch?
will we hike up the hill together, toil and sweat for the fruits
shall another remain down the foot and look on as one perspires?
will we extinguish our flames or just embrace the burning desires
shall we seal the cracks,won't we look on whilst
they tear further into canyons and consequently mute the lutes?
must we wait for the mango of our attraction to ripen
shouldn't we peel the bitter Exocarp and with salt eat the endocarp raw?
can't we make the best of the opportunities that are open
instead of looking on at the flowers of us waiting for them to grow?
must we wait to follow in the footprints of tales of true love
can't we just pave a way to a new plot ,one we deserve?
must we painfully wait for the engagement ring to decide
shouldn't we be jumping onto the motorboat of life and enjoying the ride?
I want to feel you.
Scraping against me.
I want to taste the,
Mango in your kiss.

Drag from your chest to your neck.
to claw from your ribs down to your hip.
I want to feel you on me.
And taste the citrus on your lips.

Starving for the touch of,
Hoping for your grip.
Trying not to think too much.
About your blackberry bliss.

Distracted by your hammer hits.
The water against the ship.
The boat begins to tip.
Spilling fruit into the wavy rift.

— The End —