Tag: Poetry

Take long walks in untamed unusual parks
Have pointless meetings in start-up restaurants
Join that contest you know you’ll never win
Take some paths that lead nowhere
Because nowhere is a place too
Most times, nowhere is a place of rest

You ask me questions then you tick boxes
What does that mean?
I have more to say but language fails me
Because the fire and the deadly heat
They linger in my head, like living ghosts

There is another story that I need to tell you
One whose box is not on that page
You think you are somebody?
I used to be somebody too
With colourful clothes and shiny shoes
And a handmade bag to carry my things

There in the fading horizon
Lies a place I can never return to
You too will never see that place again
This body is the only memory left of it

So call me a different name
One that does not tie me to the journey I’ve travelled
Do not bind me to the water and the tide
Or chain me again to the fire and the flames
Call me a name that preserves something old, something beautiful
Call me Damascus

The depth of your gaze
It takes me to everywhere you’ve been
You make me nostalgic from memories that are not my own
And long for a place that is not even my home

How can  you know yourself so well?
The shadowy spot in your place of light
The speck of truth that hides in your lie
How long did it take to come home to yourself?

You look at me as if you know things
As if you have the answers to questions I cannot ask
As if you see through the bravery I wear
Long before I am home, where I can take it off
The way I take off my coat

I wish your completion was contagious
That by loving you I too could be complete
That I could find the home that lives in me
Perhaps it can be… contagious
Except I do not love you
So I must find
Other ways of being complete

Two teenage girls with made-up faces stand gossiping in the corner
And then magic!
The doors open and shut and they disappear
A man in a suit leans on the pole, reads a book about Obama
He shares the pole with a boy and his roller skates
A well-dressed woman constantly checks her watch
Another well-dressed woman sits nervously at the back
A grumpy man by the door yells at a little girl for brushing against his bag
A young mother tries to fit her stroller in a little space in the isle
The woman across her asks to pass her crutches from beneath the seat
And then magic!
The doors open and shut and the combination changes
A young man with dreadlocks carries a shopping bag
A couple with backpacks and a travel guide hold hands and share a kiss
A teenage girl carries a textbook and a file with other papers
A tired looking woman uses her scarf to cover her mouth
The doors open and shut and the magic keeps happening
We are city people!
In that wagon we are shuffled and reshuffled like a pack of cards
And given out to the city, to make of us what it pleases

How many roads have you walked?
You have been walking for so long
Trying paths that no one has ever taken before
Taking breaks in valleys that you never talk about
Crossing dry rivers that you only followed to quench your thirst
Only to find them lifeless

When you walk into homes you leave your shoes at the door
You say it helps you rest your feet
I have seen them swollen, and cracked, and dry
Sometimes you say they burn
You say it’s just fatigue
Even though you stroke them when no one is looking

Even after all these years- a lifetime
I don’t know about the things you wonder about
When you disappear in the middle of a conversation
But I want you to know that I have seen your shoes
And I know, not many can walk in them

I want you to know that it’s ok to rest your feet
Or to tell us that they hurt
And sometimes when the hurt feels heavy
You can tell us where you’ve been, and where you never want to return
Or you can tell us what you miss, and what you’d like to see again

Perhaps we will be brave and walk you there
To these places you never talk about
Perhaps not
But I want you to know your shoes are big, and strong and worn out from bravery
Not many can walk in them

You say you never go anywhere
But I have seen you travel
The way you look at her
Your whole being becomes a place
And that place is not here.

Me,
I am a place too
I’ve taken you everywhere I have ever been
And to some places I have only imagined
I have seen you bathing in the red sea
Even though you have never gazed upon it

We don’t belong here you and I
Let go of my hand
Go to the places you visit in silence
I too should like to travel alone now

It is hard not to think of you
As I take a cock screw to open the bottle of wine
Entertaining a different crowd
Remembering what is was like to share it with you
I hear friends’ voices from across the room
Just across but I am so far away
I miss the joke that makes them roar with laughter
As I lift my head from trying to open the wine
They are ten sentences into the next conversation already
Just like you are a million sentences from the conversations we had
On nights that turned to mornings
Of watching your face, looking for the opening of your eyes
Wondering how anyone could be so beautiful
Silently praying that those mornings would never end
But life, like a rogue wave would pull us apart
Into the perpetual present
At that time I knew that I would see you again
But never imagined that our memories of those moments would change their shape
Into a shape constructed by newness and disappointment
One that would make you unknow our moments together
A hand touched by another, a face stroked by another
The cock of the bottle pops and the wine spills a little
I take my first sip and join the crowd
Laughing, dancing, no one ever has to know
That my only wish is that someday
I’ll learn to open a wine bottle
And not feel the ache within my spirit.

We used to go years without seeing each other,
And when we were finally together we found,
We were still the same people.
We would say this, and laugh about it.

You are different this time.
Your laugh is not quite as light as I remember.
The silences between us feel like naked patches that need to be covered,
With words that mean nothing at all.

You start conversations that you never finish.
You say some things are too sad to talk about.
Since when did sadness dictate your path?
You, who used to seek closure in verbs.

I’m afraid I’ve changed too.
There are questions  I am no longer able to answer.
Lines I have become aware of, which I never used to see.
I’ve learnt to build walls and break them down in the same instant.
Sometimes a second too late for a conversation to remain flawless.

Let us start again old friend.
We are no longer the people we used to be.
Re-learn me and I will re-learn you.
Then we can see,
If we would choose each other again.

The curtain goes up, the lights come on
A young woman sings a beautiful song
She has the voice of a bird, they say
Then another comes, dances like the wind were made of water
And another, who utters verses of rhythm and rhyme
Words so beautiful they would make any tree bow

The audience applauds, the curtain goes down
The performers go their separate ways
Each disappears into a different crowd
I never hear of them again
Our destinies don’t always have to be tied to each other
Perhaps that too is a beautiful thing

Darkness!
It seems to be all that surrounds you
It has a sound and it has a smell
Because nothingness is its own kind of sound
And emptiness can have a strong smell.

Crawl!
Crawl today like you did yesterday
The light may be too far to see right now
But crawl and believe you are moving towards it

Breathe!
Whatever you do, you’ve got to keep breathing
Even if it’s the only thing you do today
With each breath time passes, and time carries a torch
That torch gets brighter the longer you breathe

Light!
It starts to look dim but not pitch black
Dimness when you are used to the darkness brings hope
Both the load you carry and the sky you see
Will get lighter and lighter from here on now