How lonely can you get with all the

How lonely can you get with all the people in your head

Huh? In the far distance of your field of vision

is a bent old man with a savage cough. He clutched

at his chest and the rotten air in his lungs

is now the rotten air of the room. Don’t look

it’s rude. Besides, we just got here. I fear

we are in this for the long haul. The stars

will be out before we leave. I sincerely doubt

beer is the way to go. A coffee to get things rolling.

You may light your cigarette. No one cares.

The bent old man is straight again. He is staring

at us, cleansed and baptised. Yes, I would love to dance

but the hour isn’t right yet. Everyone is still settling

into the shape of their chairs. Maybe later, you can stretch

your legs, softly scratch my ankle and we will see.

NaPoWriMo 2013.19

it is you touching the page

touching you together

the first word the world

the vessel the chalice

the womb the name of death

the pulse in the micro

nano pico femto second

as it forms its brother

cleaves to it births it dies

rebirths in its brother

the vessels are broken

that were once whole

the name that was once

is now broken your hand

traces the shape of its death

(NOTE: The NaPoWriMo deficit, the 11 poems that remain to be written, will be written through May and posted up. I intend to complete the full 30 this year.)

NaPoWriMo 2013.18

What you said that day was

we are always rushing ahead

of each other, words

don’t meet us. 

 

I am the long branch

turning in turning in turning in

the sun does not perch on me

Summer is some distant season

I am already leaving

 

to meet you by some far mountain

by the shade of some alien sky

NaPoWriMo 2013.17: Gestures

It is my hands
attempting a language
by cutting air
by splaying out on surfaces
by clawing touching punching
phrases out of thin air.

It is my body
trying to touch the ether
to let someone anyone everyone know
that it exists beyond
the name it is called.

It is my bones
acting out their silent plays
their ancient histories
writhing in the forms they will take
in my pyre.

It is my gestures
that I do
They fly out of me
Somewhere in a distant star system
they carve black holes.

NaPoWriMo 2013.16

Vanquisher, lover of song, quick as the wind,
gentle as the falling tide, raging as the storm,
keep your slaughter far away

For this you can do
take what is offered
take what is yours
take my song to sate your hunger
take my voice to be your conch

Wanderer, armed with thunder,
your chariot yoked with our words
higher and still higher
your name has shattered the farthest spaces
your name has echoed in the darkest caves

I will sing your name
King of kings, storm of storms,
I will cry your name
into the lightning that splits the sky

Slayer, wield your bolt of bones
The dragon looms above us
His wings fan the air we breathe
His poison the waters
His flesh the food of our days and days

Break the mountain, raise the sun
I call on you, friend of friends
Come to me, Satakratu,
Come to us in our darkness

NaPoWriMo 2013.15: Gah lak tus – The surfer’s sermon

Children, children, look.

 

There is nothing for you now.

Your mountains will be sand.

Your rivers will be dust.

Your food will be weeds.

Look, your seas are dead.

Look, your earth cracks.

Look, your sky is smog.

 

 

 

Sleep, my children, sleep.

Dream of days with the sun

of fields and forests and tales

you can write about yourselves

Dream, my children, dream

He comes to deliver you

Dream of the land you have always wanted

Dream of the sky you have always wished

Dream of the waters you have always craved

 

 

He knows your thirst

he will quench it

He knows your longing

he will fulfill it

He knows your hunger

he will end it

 

 

There is nothing but silence

Yearn it, breathe it, know it.

There is nothing but his shadow

seek its shade, seek its succour, seek its death

There is nothing but nothing.

Learn it, believe it, know it.

 

 

When it comes, you will not whisper.

When it pains, you will not know.

When it kills, you will be dead.

 

 

Your earth is a figment

that should never have been

that never was.

 

 

I will sing of nothing

I will sing of you.

NaPoWriMo 2013.14: The wedding

We have gathered at the walls
Mother, the mandap is a diamond
it is the seat of gods
it is the stuff of stars
every colour is a song
every song flies to the bride
the heart of all hearts
the gongs and the cymbals
the trumpets and the fires
the shining eyes, the weaving dancers
Mother, we have gathered at the walls
in this night of nights.

A sea of light
draws closer in the distance
a far continent, a lambent universe
It is the bridegroom, mother
He is the tiger in the hills
we tremble at his approaching roar
He is the golden shepherd
we rest under his eye
He is the torch of the night
we pray, we cleave to his light

Mother, we are rushing to the gates
we are gathering for him
He is a comet plunging towards us
He is the thief of thieves
come to take what is his
His, the arrow that blinds the sun
His, the drum that turns the hour

Mother, the light, the light
The gates have opened, the walls tremble
the conch the cries the drum
the mad banners the flailing arms
the howling city the beat of the gong
the world is shattering

a violet sky now thunder
the dark the dark the dark
what mist what spear what blood
mother the lightning has blinded us
what slithers what growls what feasts

He has come to us, rejoice!
He, the trident to carve our skins
He, the fire to crack our bones
He, the scream to tear our hearts

is it ash is it cloud is it the marigold
the lily the rose the lotus what flowers
lord of jasmines
what corpse shall we kill
to build your city
what flesh shall we rip
to feed you deliverer
what names do we forget
to call ourselves

mother my eyes my eyes my eyes

NaPoWriMo 2013.13: Nachiketa

 

I

Go as the first
in the head of the many
Go as the middle
in the body of the many
Go as the last
in the dust of the many

In the house of death, abide
Go as fire
He will quench your thirst
Go as ash
He will wear your skin
Go as smoke
He will breathe you in

II

Father, I am here.
I have waited, fasted, prayed.
Who comes now? What hour
cracks the rocks, raises
these dead sands? What voice
calls me from myself?

What arrow with the face of fire
with the head of the crescent
with the tides at its edge
the four winds in its plumes

What shape this corpse
that smiles like death
that bears my name?

What question shall I ask him?

NaPoWriMo 2013.12: Hymn to the sun

I move above the waters
The waters, a mirror, a temple, a tomb
What moves in the shape of my shadow?
What womb, golden, tearing, disturbed?

The waters rise, a wave, a cloud
The waters fall, a rain, a prayer
The waters gather, a mirror, a shadow
I move above the waters

I spy the cracking womb
What cries in the darkness? I am its speech
What divides the waters? I am its eye
What does it seek? I am its hunger

The year, the hour, death
I move above the waters
In the temple, a horse is loosed
Its eye, the shape of my shadow

Its back, the skin of the sky
Its hooves anchor the earth
Its heart, the space between my breath
Its death, I offer to myself.

NaPoWriMo 2013.11: Now for something completely different

Two-minute Maggi

What boils, what simmers, what rests

is that urgent remembered taste

of you on my tongue. The waters have settled

the steam has wandered away, a brittle

cold coils in my bones, nestles the spaces

you traced in me. Everything cools. A blaze

of light, some crumpled plastic, the debris

of two minute Maggi

My skin still warm as a dying star

The memory of you, the fast fading hour

What has boiled and simmered and rested

In the depths of depths where mad gods dream

What rises now, what stillborn scream

has stopped my heart, what Lazarus

burns in the pits of me, dead 

no more but dying, leprous. 

Here I waste as everything wastes

in the ash of my tongue, in a remembered taste. 

 

 

(NOTE: A prompted poem, if it can be called that. This is the prompt. I was in two minds about sharing it as part of NaPoWriMo but it is a poem (sort of) and was written in this month so it goes up same as the rest.)