steven cooke, 8 march 2013
(please note dunners are debt collectors)
(Netto is a low cost supermarket)
In these isles of cheap illusion
the kids run free,
screaming for the sugar of childhood.
While their mother walks on
down wine bottle lane,
to escape life’s demons
for one more day.
The shells of beings look
but do not see.
Part time lives
in worn out trainers
minimum wage to stretch,
their withered faces
all smart price packed,
on another out of date trolley.
Buy one get one free,
a horse burger is a burger
a person is a person.
Each hiding themselves from the world,
Incognito in a world of poverty.
Tomorrow the kids will cry
each will find their jail.
The weight of despair
will sentence their lives
In these streets
You will find a different kind of humanity.
Where social security
hears the dunners knock
and boredom leads to exotic dreams,
wrapped up in foil of rainbow brown.
We all crave the womb
for the world cannot reach us there.
And behind the curtain
the detritus of existence survives.
Old men in young men’s clothes
with regret filled veins
counting the burglars sin
as the blue light of night closes in.
The child becomes a woman
and woman carries the pain.
Another babe born
the hand of indifference
grabs another box
Of powdered baby milk,
for family allowance is her work.
Life belongs to an electric token
and a chip pan of joy
her disfiguring pleasure in life.
These are the isles
where no one has a name
complete with a special offer of sadness.
Existence is a hangover for under a fiver
for this is the sum of life.
and no one will take away
this credit on society
our triple (A) rating of poverty.
Gert Strydom, 8 march 2013
For a while the autumn sun
hovered like a fire ball
in the night sky
and the last
of summer’s heat
was still here.
Like leaves on a huge tree
the stars appeared on by one
filling the night sky
and amber lights started to glow
in the street and the evening’s serenity
unfolded like a big blanket
spreading out with the night.
Crickets started to shriek
and frogs started croaking
and a bright yellow moon
lit up the sky
and this night
there is only you and I
and its wonderful to be together.
Gert Strydom, 8 march 2013
Our love that was lost
has been again found,
but at a terrible cost
heartache drove me into the ground.
Our garden is again blossoming
while in love we carefully plant
kisses and caresses,
swear to each other to be true
and somehow I forever new
that this day of happiness would come,
even in the darkest night
dreamt of you.
Satish Verma, 8 march 2013
You catch what was convenient
for age of denial. The exit.
Not being for nothing,
a better half of a belief.
Dependence was increasing
on wounds inflicted on others.
I stop at the mid of road
to turn or not to turn.
For the lost parapharases of existence.
The myth of amorality
was getting a new title. I close
a chapter of non-committance,
walk along a wheel chair.
I am not limbs, not topless.
The toes are prodding on a green vein!
Satish Verma
Geetima Baruah Sarma, 7 march 2013
Bordoichila rushes
To greet her mother,
Enthusiasm turns wild
And some heavy shower.
Proceed of destruction
All throughout the way,
Lightning, thunderstorm,
Trees tremendously sway.
Her advent conveys
Onset of spring season
And Assamese worldwide
Enjoy their Bihu celebration.
[Published in the e-magazine 'Bordoichila' on 14 April 2012]
Short note: 'Bordoichila' refers to a thunderstorm that hits Assam and the neighbouring states (North-East India) during the spring season every year. As the powerful wind lashes, trees get uprooted causing severe damage to houses, light posts etc. According to a common belief, 'Bordoichila' is the name of a bride, who longs to meet her mother and with her long hair unfastened, she dashes towards her home for an annual sojourn.
Alicja Kuberska, 7 march 2013
Night comes slowly.
It turns off lights and colors
And silences the sound.
See,
How the long shadows of trees
Close the day.
The light hours run in the
Sand – glass of time.
Morpheus pouring dreams
On our eyelids.
Hug me, lets go together
To the dream land.
We will return tomorrow
To begin next day
Gert Strydom, 7 march 2013
From light years far away in space and time
You are the architect
who takes care of a planet the size of a dime;
a far off small object.
You ordain our days and to us intimately connect
as a kind of loving being
giving sanctuary, even if crudely we do You reject,
with You are disagreeing.
Still You are protecting everything that is living,
constantly giving light
even to those who are in rebellion, unbelieving
who yearn for the night
and of Your kindness we do not have true sight,
we judge You incorrect
as a supreme being that rules by force and might,
giving You no respect.
Gert Strydom, 7 march 2013
Humanly we leave words on paper,
while we try to determine the language
of Him who is the core of the Bible story.
*
We take things consisting out of flesh and blood,
that has got living energy, want to take the elements out,
while we search for the code of life in mortal material.
*
With our mental capacity we are valued equal
to animals that mutate
while the Bible teaches us about a creation story.
*
We think that we know the figure road of the universe,
compose theories that declare things in space
while amazed we do look at the great works of God.
*
Three dimensional we see things,
with length, breadth and depth in which things do fit,
while immaterial we do grope at the boundaries of love.
Gert Strydom, 7 march 2013
When the time comes where human science,
maths and learning do not anymore correlate
with that which is written in the words
of the almighty God,
when man exalts himself like a god,
has no esteem
for the words of God
and wait upon another mighty being,
and does regard himself higher that the creator God,
does see his laws of human rights more important
than the commandments of God
without any respect for the Godly law,
then God in His omnipotence will go much further than any science,
He will reach His hand to the stars and let them rain down,
will shake the earth with earthquakes and tear it open,
and let the oceans swallow the islands
and the wide world will know
that the judgment of the Lord God is coming near.
When the last mighty angel blows its trumpet
Jesus Christ will appear in the sky
and each and every human being will know that He is greater,
much mightier than any reason, mathematics and science,
that He Himself determines all things,
when He comes to fetch His children.
Satish Verma, 7 march 2013
A severed head sits upright on mud floor
coruscating in moonlight. It was a meditating
Buddha with eyes downcast after a perfect death.
With indecent exposure there was no artifact
to celebrate. The steel was rusted and the name
erased from the asylum.
You walk like a stranger in your home,
possessed, in merciless purity. The greatness
of unbeliever touches a giant guilt.
Satish Verma
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