Homeward bound

In memory of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (1918-2013)

Yes, the world has grown a little colder,

a rainbow-coloured spectrum

of light bulbs shedding a crude light

on the gated communities of our minds

congregating as one, in this hour,

this severest form of reminder –

the great man is no more,

he is no longer

present to guide, yet to be remembered,

like a shaken leaf of insignificant

proportions announces the echoes

of the future winters to come in which I,

the lighter brother, may also mourn,

the one who ate in the dining room,

but whose outstretched hands you took

out of the closet;

and allowed to stand beside you

without fear; rest gently, sir.

Rest gently, unconquerable soul,

homeward bound.

Elegy in blue

for my stepfather, Peter

I screamed it:

at the top of my lungs,

facing the Mediterranean Sea,

and looking down at the subway tracks,

where broken memories dream.

I screamed it loud, at night,

in bed when I here you approaching,

and in the daytime too,

when no-one knows.

I screamed at the dead-lit stars,

at the crucifix.

I screamed it to the Lord Buddha

and to Jesus our Saviour

I screamed it at the reflection

in the fridge where the

prescriptions are;

at the empty medicine bottles

and the O₂ tank

I screamed it at these empty hands

that took your cane,

and at those that laid you to rest

on the operating tables.

I screamed and got the echo back,

the foreclosure of an unrequited prayer.

Malaria in December

I tried spinning
reality round its axis
for a while but
the old remnants
of dark December
seemed to work
their way
into the very fabric
of things.
Tell me
what to do
against the dying
of the day –
and the ghosts that
go with it?
A margin of poetry
in my life.

Published in Eunoia Review

I heard you died this morning

I heard on the phone

that you died this

morning.

And suddenly,

my chair was

a piece of wood

with cloth on it;

My book

a block of paper

with black ink on it;

The TV a plastic

and glass object

with filth flowing through it.

And all the food in my

fridge was cold and damp;

rotten.

Then the day lifted,

and the sun came out

and November was here.

And you:

a lamp turned off,

melted into the light.

Published in Rose Red Review

Ruin

I live in a ruin.

Beside: the stormed

beaches of Normandy;

Alongside: the remnants

of Dien Ben Phu;

Inside: central New Orleans.

Any battle you care

to remember;

A disembodied self -

not quite the self

anymore.

Published in Brevity Poetry Review

Dismantled

Here I sit, dismantled:

ice cold lips

where sweet whispers

once were.

Sealed in spite.

Published in Napalm and Novocain

Fine as Wine

So you really are gone.

Anyone there?

The flight of steps

leads to a dark-lit

wasteland of

humid bedsheets.

The room where

I died is where

you exposed me.

Cold, cold bed…

Thinking of Langston Hughes.

Life is fine,

Fine as wine…

Hey, Langston,

just for me:

sprout a

symphony of colours

out of the sound

of blue.

Published in Napalm and Novocain