CREATURE OF LIGHT

Tags

dark, Life, light and dark, poem, poetry, satire

CREATURE OF LIGHT

perhaps it was a dream
a dark dream

me in the kitchen
stirring the pot
realizing
it is all
about dress code
our capacity
for survival

wear the wrong cut
of cloth and you
are dead as a doornail
they will find
the detergent to
clean away your flesh

perhaps it
was all
a dream

but the stronger
I stirred
the darker it was
becoming

and me
in the kitchen
imagining myself
a creature of light

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SO BARELY MEAN

Tags

Good versus evil, Humanity, meaning, poem, Universe

SO BARELY MEAN

the battle in my soul
between good
and evil
is no big deal
no Rocky/Apollo
fifteen-rounder

needing Dr Lecter and
St Francis, to referee, blow
their whistles when
I get way too demonic,
become angelic holy

this little scrap, storm
in a
teacup, backyard duel,

hardly
the fate of the Universe
resting on its outcome
hardly the great feud of
history between
rich and wretched poor

no just
my inner oscillations, of
no spiritual importance
for what
is good
and what is
evil to such dull, malformed
creatures whose lives
so barely mean?

FIT

Tags

Alien, erotic, female, love, male, philosophical, poem, Poet, poetry, poststructuralist, science fiction, sexual symbolism, touch, Twist in the tail, Universe, wordplay

FIT

there is an alien species
swarming in my bed

their queen
whispering sweet
alien nothings
in my ear

telling me that
we are
made for each
other

her wings
are enough to carry me

and that, in spite
of the tricky
linguistic differences

we are
a perfect fit

FROM THE GET-GO

Tags

climate change, greenhouse effect, Humanity, poem, poetry, satire

FROM THE GET-GO

cloudy, gassy
from the get-go

so why should we be so surprised
to find ourselves authors
of the greenhouse effect?

we who
have loved
to see ourselves
mirrored in
water, in glass

this in preference
to cracking the code
of the stars
(much good
that did us)

we who
speak so many languages
speak in
tongues

and yet the planet
boiling, surrendering
once again
to the sea

need that blue screen effect
to wipe everything clean

THIN

Tags

books, Humanity, loss, pain, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, self-sacrifice

THIN

the veil
getting paper
tissue
thin

he felt he could
reach through
touch
something

catch, grab with
both hands, or
himself
slip through

things changing, final
truths to accept

he felt so cold, the world
so cold
began
to burn his books
to share their heat

ALIEN

Tags

Alien, Humanity, identity, poem, poetry, satire, Universe

ALIEN

the stars
always
baffled them
enticed them
entranced
them

they scanned the galaxies
listening, waiting
for alien civilizations

in time, they became
aliens themselves

LIEBESRAUM

Tags

love, poem, poetry

LIEBESRAUM

I am not
big on
lebensraum

Universe expanding
or contracting

I will give
up my
spot in
the Sun
in the
time-space
continuum

my place
in the
queue
especially
for you

because of
and despite
the fact
I love you

ALL THE BIRD ISLAND POEMS

Tags

arrogance, male, poem, poem poetry political moral, poetry, power

BIRD ISLAND

who would have
thought it

that white
could be the
sick death colour
of hypocrisy

yes, manne,
R1, R2, R3, R4:
this in essence was
what you were defending

the better
to facilitate the lie
in all such circumstances

smeared with a holy
patriotic white
skin cream

who would
have thought it

open the door of
that history
and you
just fall through

*******

AND NOW WE SEE
(for the sexually tortured
of Bird Island)

and now we see
what it was about
this total
onslaught

the demon of fear
demon of power
demon of
history

here on this tiny
fortress of an island

where these
might bow and
do service to
their
truly insatiable,
unspeakable Lord

for
what was manifest here
who in
their apartheid white
right mind
will ever believe

that has not been washed away
slashed, speared on
those razor sharp, sharks’ teeth
rocks that
encircle this island

keeping out
keeping in

turning this offshore outcrop
into
outskirt
of Hell
into impregnable laager

***

silent, secret,
safe

you can
scream
all you want to

no one
will hear you

and if they could
what would they do
what would they say?

who can
speak,
say

a word
against this
faith

this ceremony
this
special allegiance

deny
the true hypocrisy
of these
saviours,
these guardians?

whose
deeds

masked as always
in history of white.

*******

REPRISE

rock retains
is super-
absorbent
see here:
where we
have cracked open
this jagged granite

nothing flows
the island is dumb

as if it
could find words
anything could
find words

the darkness of this
perverse hypocrisy
far too
deep a stain
for poor belief

******

LOST BOYS

the birds, the sea
the needle-sharp
impassable rocks

they
deaf to your screams
did not
ask your names

for this was time
of total onslaught
and everything
that power
needed

power
desired

power would do

*******

VOELL
VLERKE
NIE
TEENSTAANDE

die koeell
is deur die kerk
ek het
dit opgemerk

hy gat ie wegvlieg ie
voell vlerke nie
teenstaande

but now
profit is to
be made
we can go
spend the day
dreaming of
what went on here
will prepare
you for
Hell in
the most
refreshing
fashion

you can package them
al die toere na ‘n bevofkte hele
nuwe eiland
van
apartheid lunacy and
military perversion

see what
power can do
waneer jy mos
het ‘n voell
(when you
have a dick)

so let’s all
bandwagon this one and
jump on that lighthouse
(Zapiro
drawn it
accordingly)

let the choppers drop us
just
off the coast
when everyone
is swart gevaaring
no one is
watching

Oh the lighthouse and
the island
are
going down
de-
elevating

not much time now
before die deure spring
oop daar by
die senter
van
die
inferno darkest

and
deep

****

NOWHERE MAN

Tags

poem, poetry, satire

NOWHERE MAN

nowhere man
learns
nothing
from history

only machinery
(hopes he might
one day
become
a machine)

listened to The Beatles
before
following blindly that
path to
annihilation

for, if the species
is headed that direction,
who is he
to argue?

telling his children of
Jack and the Beanstalk, three
little piggies
headed to
market

that beautiful, mythical
monstrous
world-leveling place

RES COGITANS

RES COGITANS

was digging my
grave
(actually
more of
a shallow
hole)

when the
excruciating pun
“digging for
dignity” just
kind of
dawned on me

though it was
hardly sunrise
(the day already
well into
its course)

I do not
remember the
exact time or
actually
anything

the bullet in
the back of my skull

ending my
ending all
consciousness