Hide And Seek VII

You will scratch yourself as you fall
on the sharp edges of tongues
if you don’t heed the whispers around you
and stop the walk on the plank. It’s not worth
the splashes of colours that will smear
the white of your shirt. Withdraw and listen
to the calls of your friends and see
their silent gestures wishing to wrap
you in bubbles for storage until sunlight breaks
the winter in your head again.
You need not be bloody nor your world, red.

Hide And SeeK VI

She finally broke into your world
like a piece of glass, sharp edged
but bearing a sweet wine.
Your boldness brought you closer
to her and you dreamed that soon
you would share your sandwich with her.
You struggled not to be twelve again
as you swallowed her concern for you
like a spoonful of cherry cough syrup,
while the one with the arrow woke up
when she saw how you kissed
the ornament with your eyes.

Hide And Seek V

She missed your catwalk
and meerkat pose so she whined
about her work and sighed
about the lights and irritated
everyone within her sight.
When we walked by, you stooped
to kiss your desk. She kicked
a fuss when we were back at our desks,
the lights were too white, the floor
was too hard and the air, too cold.
With your arrow in her heart
she walked the office, killing
everything that battled an eye.

Hide And Seek - IV

Telephone rang, keyboard dit dit ditting,
printer vomited paper after paper,
rain washed off footprints from the catwalk
and minds paused to re-assess the puzzle,
counting the sides to the polygon.
Gloom invaded the office like a virus
and people, hiding their cough, examined
the future like a specimen,
I wait like a candle in the mist
for the rain to stop and I can see
who will pass the light through the prism.

Hide And Seek III

She, my good friend, drooled
at me like I was her lover, hoping
that you would walk by and see
how she could be your lover.
When you were tired of walking
you poised yourself behind the cabinet
like a meerkat on the lookout,
hiding and seeking, seeking and hiding.
But you didn’t see the female
leopard stalking you by the side.

Hide And Seek II

You walked by and she teased you about smiling
to yourself again. She thought you were smiling
at her as as your smile turned into a grin
and you made a funny face, hiding a crush.
She asked you what you ate at lunch
and you replied in a riddle. While she pondered,
I answered but you did not look at me.
She bounced back with a riddle and I pretended
to read the newspaper. I understood
but you didn’t, just like she didn’t.
Eeny Meeny Miney Mo

Hide And Seek - I

You turn your trip to the filing room into a catwalk
to show your flair and hope that you will chance
upon the glass ornament by my desk.
You make it hold on to wisps of your presence,
hope that you will stop the hide and seek
and hold it in your hands to feel the return
of its warmth. You smile to yourself
as if it can see you from the side
or the back of its head, while another imagines
you are smiling at her and she follows
you to where she thinks you are leading her,
a dream that the ornament is her.

Awake

You wake to car sounds, radios, cold sunshine
and spiders dangling silver
thread after thread
in an opiate dance of threat.

You hear the sound of toasted leaves
crushing under heavy feet
and people creaking
from their sins.

You see their ghosts by the fire sorting out
bones to form skeletons
of heroes and saints
that never exist.

As you lie at your wake, you know the past
ate itself and soon would be vomited out
with the future now folding up
in your mouth.

When the Wind Howls

The wind howls
in the name of the rain
and blows the mind
to exhaustion.
Deja-vu steps
on the porch
seep into the air.
The world
becomes unconcious.
A familiar honk
stabs the dead.
A mother wakes
and bundles her child
back into her womb

April 30 - I See No Colours (The Series)

I see your face,
the paleness of its language
speaks in tongues
the colours of spring,
forgets its own anger,
patches every field,
seeks every nook,
caresses every glass blade,
and hugs every tree,
to turn stings to kisses.

I see your hair,
black yesterday, brown today
and prehaps red tomorrow.
It doesn't matter.
The dreads are gone now
and straight strands remain
to reflect the whispers
of an ocean's tune
that spans the earth
like a breath of mint.

I see your eyes,
the slant at the corners,
now broken free
from the dying echo
of a caged flamingo,
evangelised into sweet
mountain air tapping
on your neck, forgetting
its shapes but pregnant
with the music it carries.

I see your nose,
the slight turn at the tip
carries the spirit of death
like a cowboy in a showdown,
fingers fused to the trigger,
ready to spin black into white
at a wriggle and a twinkle
that can hang up stars
or split a nation like splitting
of personalities.

I see your lips,
the taut redness,
bursting at the seam
like a tight cheongsam
with just the right tension
to hold the lust in,
weaving wisdom into balls
of thread that slowly unreel
into cinematic viewsof a dove.

I see your spirit,
a melody that can do a treble,
a falsetto, a tenor,
and chain octaves and pitches together
like DNA polymers and molecules
entwined into colours
on the palette of an artist
painting just the right note.
I remember all the colours
but see none of them.

NAPOWRIMO