I wrote this poem at a point in my life when it felt as if the very ground upon which I stood was molten and unstable beneath my quivering feet. I felt as if I had lost all hope, save for a flicker of optimism somewhere in the corner of my soul. Many months later I can look back and thank all the true friends who have helped me through the process of finding my feet again. Here’s to all we love and invariably eventually lose:

For I have loved and lost

Loved and lost again

And now with the sun high in the sky

My blank thoughts expelled with the clouds

I sit and stare and wonder

How I have loved and lost so much

How my vacant dreams have led me here

To this place cold and bare

How yet another open door has been slammed shut with a thud

I will soar again another day i’m sure

Kiss the lips of the rising easterly sun

And dance with her till the dawn does us part

For I will love and lose

Love and lose again

Let my heart bleed into the morning light

And my feet fade before me

The disappointments of my life are but the perils of expectation

Dreaming of equality

In a world plagued with fear

My life, my parents, my dreams

Tanned, tainted visions of illusions of utopia

Where every man, woman and child are equal

In the humble eyes of nationhood.

Let my heart bleed into yours

And take me for a joyride through your centric tantrums

Your waylaid passions, your ingratitude

I once loved an idea, once cherished a passion

Strung from the chords of my bewildered soul

Now all that’s left are red shards of flesh

Hammered against the fading horizon

And you’re happy where you are

Save for a few make-belief regrets

Sympathetic plumes in an inferno of destruction

My thoughts waylaid, my wit purged

Dulce est decorum est

For the wits of the world and the science of inequality

When the ways of this world have run their course

And the plumes of the twilight no longer flicker

When there is no wicker left to burn,

No stratosphere to scatter

When my red heart is in a million pieces

Strewn beautifully across the serene earth

When there are no lines left to write

And no lies left to tell

When the stars lie dead and morbid in the blank sky

When evil has run its course, raped robbed and pillaged every last wit

And the pillars of your dreams come crashing down in the wind

Remember remember, that last burning ember, the power, reason and delight

You all once had a shot in this fight

Friends to love, families to adore and yourself to endure

And that there was a time when the ways of this world were meek and mild

With the wind in your face

And the times that we cannot erase

You looked at me from a wonderful place

At the cusp of your midnight haze

The dawn of a futile embrace

The death of a decadent phase

Inspired by the work of Sixto Rodriguez, aka Sugarman and Charles Bradley- who kept up the fight when all was lost and forlorn

Adieu my friend, adieu my heart

You are far away dreaming,

As the sun sets in the withering distance

And I find myself alone

With the wide world of enduring beauty before me

With the stars by my side

And the evening wind on my cheeks

I once loved you and you loved me back

We danced and smiled and cried

Dreamed in a land faraway

Of make-belief plains and grand plans

A serene adagio in the rain

My tears are the only raindrops that dance on this plateau now

Inspired by David Lynch’s “The Elephant Man” A tale of John Merrick