The Gift

My purple innards gnaw at their selves
And my body trembles and growls
Nauseous waves wash across my belly

The mornings seem bleak and grey
As if life has been rolled into a lump
Of depressing, slimy grey clay

Nights are tales written in turmoil
Of laboured breathing and a wrench
In my piteously lonely heart

I prepare the gift you so longed for
I grind my soul as my body revolts
I shriek like a mute banshee all night

My tongue feels like heavy lead
Your touch clutches me at my throat
My breasts swell and the pain spreads

Till I claw into my quivering belly
And seek to violate my own self
I seek release from relentless hate

At last, the mucous and the blood
Brings forth a creature of flesh
My repulsion does surge, take it away

Your gift, carved out from my body
You wanted my blood in its veins
I hurl it at you, and walk away

Compassion

The teething pains of a sapling
Kneeling beneath the gigantic oak
As insignificant as could be
My bruised knees and stubbed toes
You ignore, and tell me instead
Of all your blistering, enormous woes
I needed a warm, caressing hand
And a shoulder to moisten with tears
Instead you asked me the measure
Of a stubbed toe and scraped knee
In front of the killings and misery
In which lies cloaked, the world we know?

Femininity

Her protests were nugatory
Dismissed as a feminine wile
She was a pretty plaything.

The disapproval on her face
Meant nothing, and her tears
Added to her womanly charm.

She could be had at will
A woman, he liked to believe
Says no, when she means yes.

It was indeed convenient
It made him feel virile
To take and use, and own.

The Man

Now that we have exchanged our vows
You to be my master and me, your rag doll
Drag me into the cave and show me my place
Your bed, where I belong, I did take a vow.

I shall sit, master, at your tired feet
My hands will act as you wish
My lips and my words you command
Master, shall I press your feet?

Love you? Of course I do and dearly
Had I not, would I have sold my self
That too, for such an abominable pittance?
Love is my world and my world, at your feet.

I burn with fever tonight, oh master
But my duties come foremost, I swear
Part my stiff legs for me, I have not the strength
And show me that you are the man.

Ernesto

Impervious to the favonian breeze
You turn incarnadine, the soil;
Of generations of mute peasants
Imprecated by their own indigence
Your dream, to vivify the dead
To give voice to slashed tongues
To raise fists calloused with care
And dry tears with the heat of fire
Yes, teach the mould on earth
To defy the heights of empyrean
Your blood no precious than water
Your flesh carved out of earth;
You defied the mountains and
Changed the course of streams
Your love stained red flag-staff
Affixing your corpse to death;
And all for the sake of loaves
Of our anhydrous daily bread

Marijuana Dreams

Wispy circles of light
And rings of blue-grey smoke
The hollow of my eyes
Are filled to the brim
With smoky marijuana dreams

Life is suspended still
From a stalk of weed
I could just pluck if off
And drift away deep, deep
Into my marijuana dreams

Drops of sweetened despair
Fail to quench my black thirst
Leave me to my sorrows sweet
As life ebbs away, on tip toes
I’ll surrender to marijuana dreams

Untitled

Tired of all fears of the dark
Fear of great heights and falls
I stand by the edge of darkness deep
And gaze into the heart of fear

Plunge, I will, in wild abandon
As thoughtlessly as a truant child
I refuse to grow wings to fly away
I will look fear in its menacing eye

Like a vagabond drop of rain
I plummet through emptiness
Seeking to conquer all that I fear
And desolation like a tiara wear

No Title

Egged on by lusty cheers
And the compulsion to feed
The gaping mouth of darkness
Thriving within me
I tied my waist and built...
Built with blood-soaked bricks
And sweat-drenched tiles
Till the mansion of glory
Overpowered the arrogant sun
And made me feel ant-like.

Then with my own calloused palms
I smashed my bricks and tiles
Like a card house they did tumble
Smithereens of my borrowed dreams
Regret is not what I feel
Because beneath the rubble
Of this self wreaked destruction
Lie the green saplings of my desire
I know they shall breathe again
And challenge the sun above.

To Veiled Prisoners

Black bodies and flowing black scarves
Blotting out all consciousness of oneself
Blurring all differences and identities
Blending all unique contours to one whole
Banishing the will to de-merge from the mass
Bindings of subservience like shackles
Beneath black robes spirits lie tattered
Boundless depths of darkness abound