Do Not Despair

To curl up in love

is to forget in protest

and remember every fear

as if it were victory.

After Running

Open sky, I lie awake.
Life calls out
in soft breaths,
hisses out of sprinklers,
and feeds on adult hopes.
Now it's dark, it closes in
and shuts me out.

I've Heard This One Before

Get shot in the arm.
Sit uptight.
Fret. Sweat.
There goes the night.

So, don't.

It's You

safe, safe
ever always keep
you'll, I'll
me never weep

Douse

A moment lingered upon us,
trembled
and sent the evening up in flames.

The Last Three

We'll remember them as days

that held us in their snare.

Some drove us now to laughter

and some then to despair.

MCQ

About Time

What did take a while

Was never to be had.

Hope is a smile

That once was sad.

Opinion Poll

is it the lot

of every man,

to be caught

in the plot:

i must while i can?

Page 3

Under the arc lights,
But over the top.

The swines.

How Careless This Must Sound

I was lost without a trace,
And then I was found.

Rapunzel-4

say it well,
this we know:
time is hell,
all else snow.

Hurry Up

Time to conjure up happy visions:

Sunday afternoon tea; a gaming stall;

vacations by the beach. Time to call each

'Still Life' and hang it on a wall.

Sadness

Silence rends my every hour:

Your eyes neither speak nor start.

Shut out all light and devour

Savages who sadden your heart.

For You I'll Be

I Love You When You Leave Me

Tongue-tied and tender.

Pretty High

What are the odds
of love on the precipice of greatness
being thwarted by a crooked nose?

Our Unfinished Business

Lies between covers
Of leather planners
And pleasant manners.
Suspended, it hovers.

It waits for our song.
It's a check on your list.
Don't get me wrong,
But do get the gist.

Conversation

"Easy, it's raining."
"Surely, you're gaining."
"There's a fire in my heart."
"Oh, please. Don't start."

Bare It All

Be more to me
than a happy voice
and the saddest heart
I'll ever see.

Koregaon Park

Ten o'clock. A light buzz

rings through my head:

Love flows through seven lanes.

Love - it's dead.

Have you turned in?

I woke you up
to show you how
I've turned out.

A Short Night We'll Make Of It

Feed me to your
mind's curious touch
and let this idiot distance
between us crumble.

Your smile is a hand held back.
My game is a placebo.

My Way

I wish it away.
I wish it would stay.

Fun

It's almost laughable
that love, or anything like it,
should've made us
hold hands, share books,
see eye to eye, converse
and beguile each other
in general.

I think we're done.
It's not much fun.

Soar

Fill me up, vacant

hour. This lonely plain is

promised land. Here lie

primitive sorrows in wait.

When all is lost and

all gained, torch this soul

and let me soar.

Road Trip

And so, my brothers,
we will grab
Fantasy by her hips
and bring to life
her softest thought.

This, then, is our resolution.

Clever Men In Search Of Love

Presently they were found, dead-in-motion.

In their ugly moment of defeat

they had, perhaps, tried recoiling

from the horror of it all.

I could have told them they didn't stand a chance.

The Story So Far

Death by midriffs,
Resurrection by duty.

Please

Please mind your head. It is full of ideas the world doesn't care to know.

Clarification

The pleasure of your company
Is not your boss.

Eventually

He'll sell out and move in,

no doubt, solemnly, into an attic,

sundry badges of his off-centre life in tow,

seeking his place among the riffraff.

Calculated

Since every

day must count

and each

life be lived

in its

own wicked

way, today

you shot my

hurray with

a harrumph.

Freedom

Freedom is a rabid, world-weary writer.

Rapunzel - 3

While it's light,

and we're deep,

let's flavour this coffee

with our fear of godmen,

and faith in deodorants,

without worrying too much

about falling in love.

Rapunzel - 2

"Just as well" and "Serves him right"
are but two ways to meet this situation.

Rapunzel - 1

What a pity
to see no proof
and have no option.

Beauty and the Beast

Beauty is easier than the Beast.

Your View

If the looker

were a hooker,

would she be

bad company?

Irony

A man and his life
are assaulted by kin,
and spared by voyeurs.

Compliment?

You are a treat
To a poet in heat.

Longing

I love watching
the winter evening
cuddle up to you.

Too bad
it must leave me
out in the cold.

She's The One

You will find her
on the other side of a sunny day,
tucked away in a greenhouse,
pickling her thoughts,
giving highbrow its bad name.

Let Down

They said she would bloom:
She ballooned.

Cause

His love for
her rises
in the morning,
travels up his knees,
and lasts almost a minute.

Effect

she rides (with) the siloviki
masking thinly her
cold hatred of all things
not lorded over.

beasts of her burden
and slaves to her form
line the streets
and pretend they don't.

Point Of View

love is
silent,
furious
and jaded.

it can be found
in the news
and on the streets.

it sounds
like a stifled cry
and answers to any name.

She Says

Let's just say
that the magazines he reads
are self-help books
featuring really pretty women.

He Says

In the end,
it figures,
the greatest threat to mankind
is premature balding.

A Dream

It was a mossy evening
and we could all but hold
cold, grey, bitter hands.

It was a windless moment,
and the one fort did,
as only lonely forts can,
nothing but look away.