I've been tossing around these yin yang thoughts
these black and white coloured juggling balls
One moment they're shot puts, as heavy as lead,
Then they turn light as bubbles and hang over my head
til I let my gaze down and they float up to the clouds
And I'm sad til they fall again

So everything hangs on a perpetual question mark
Assuming the dark is what takes us
Nihilist and philanthropist
could be synonymous
In the cold abyss
Is this what drives those geniuses to commit that stupid sin
In spite of all that's been

And I have crazy trips where I'm held to trial
By an animal court and when the prosecutors called
He states all my wrongdoings but finishes saying
It's all in my head, they've nothing incriminating
There's no weight to the case, I should be on my way
So I escape but I always feel guilty

While in the amazon the trees are creaking
And the fleeting calls of the forest
Are a sure sign that the worlds in sync
As atoms vibrate til their energy's spent
We hold the gaze of the stars but the earth will spin til they're gone and replaced by the day
And this happens again and again

I've walked with robed men marching single file
And they raved about the beaches on which they'll retire
Said this journey is only a passage you take
The destinations all that matters, so its wise to save face
Even if you must repent each waking day
That's a sacrifice you'd better make

I know this kid, all he owns is a single glass marble
And he tells everyone he sees it's the most precious thing in the world
There could be millions of them out there but this one is everything we need
He says within it there's a cosmos suspended in a timeless swirl

And that it's bigger than any planet
it dwarfs v y canis majoris
And it contains the souls of all of us
So will inevitably turn to dust should we ever choose to doubt it

So we're advancing towards a new age
I'm confused as to if this ones on its last legs or in its infant stage
I'm constantly shifting my gaze from that three point framed stare
To rest upon the soft green light that sits at night upon the bay

Meanwhile I'll jump back on the conveyer belt
Have machines shape me and stamp me and spit me out
and send me on my way
to where I just can't say

And ill swim frantically to keep from harm
As most of us do from the moment we're born
Like a fish in a bucket
just dodging bullets

And taking time to perfect our goose steps
Or stumbling clumsily like a toddler with arms outstretched
I'm forever thankful to have so many motherly hands
That will reach out on instinct at any sign of my unsteadiness

Because men are not as mighty
as they would like to think
They can be brought to their knees by single microscopic parasites
Choking on grains of rice
Or a calculated smile
from across the bar
The masters of the universe
Blinded by specks of dust
Or bed ridden, coughing up dignity
And eventually beaten into submission
pupils like black holes gaping in recognition
Clinging fearful to someones holy vision
Or with palms shown in resignation
That we all go the same way
And in the night the storms will erase all the prints in the sand and the clay

I've been places that will go on as before
From when their knuckles pale to when their empires fall
Where there are people who know the value of each and every soul
And aren't concerned to acknowledge the debts they might be owed
I swear they have no bounds to their being
like they've swallowed a universe that's still expanding
And they will toil in the soil to provide your daily bread
When we have drained the well they'll drop their buckets for the dregs
I don't know if its giving up
Or just fool's luck

There are demons that come to occupy us, foul ideas attached to cathode rays
Or jumping out from inbetween the lines on the pages
Of the new daily gospel
Straining iris muscles
Working hard to extract everything to the backs of our brains
Our ear drums sync to the cadence
Of whatever song the dj might play
And we only need to hear it once
To hum the tune for the rest of the day
And they hung crosses on the west wall and on the opposite
Affixed altars to the trimurti and burnt some incense sticks
It's the way its been forever
and we don't know any better
Than the stories told to us snug in our beds when we were kids
But nursery rhymes have such dark undertones
It's the aspartame in their fizzy drinks
It's the milk building their bones
The saplings grow with vines wrapped round their branches
It's down to luck if they grow up straight
Or manage to resist it
But more often than not
The tree that sprouts up
Casts wiry appendages into the sky
Like the defiant hands swiping blind in the night
So speaking as a self proclaimed escapee
An uprooted and plotless Houdini
I can't do anything more than plead
For you to turn the pages
Read anything
Set about challenging everything

my friend and I are pulled up on the side of the road
and we're both out of ideas on which direction to go
We've been doing circles for hours and the tank's running low
I'm in the passenger seat staring out the window
and I'm content for now, the panorama's got me gripped
But my friend, he's sitting, shifting, biting his lips
Thinking over and over the turnings he might've missed
But there're no road signs here and no map exists
I've contemplated stepping out the car and walking
out into the forest, just that first steps too daunting
It's something I've often dreamt of: going out on a limb
wandering far from the pot holed roads and everything

But in the cocoon the catterpillar's well fed and warm
He needs not worry about the happenings outside of its walls
He just waits, knowing one day his whole world will unravel
And he'll be reborn with wings

Often I contemplate if there's a difference between
Leaves underfoot and leaves floating downstream
They'll be matter one day, then irrefutably fade
And return back to the soil they were born from

But there's no success in drawing on analogies
To calm the nerves of one found as wanting as me
When that butterfly first flaps its wings, its with subconscious belief
And the blind freedom of the stranger standing alone on the beach
But the real world's so vivid that it strains my eyes
The spectrum's so vast, noone sees in black and white
So leave that outsider in his cell 'cause empathy feels so right
The most treasured of our gifts and yet our greatest plight

And I'm happy in the shackles of an existential mind
in the forest i know ill meet others walking that line
I'll open the door, step out the car and walk
if I could only find the switch to unlock it

She'll be turning heads til the day she wilts. And she'll lay in strangers beds, wrapped in their quilts, ignorant to the possessive nature of men and their longing for her to lay with them again. And her looks will serve her - a springboard up the ladder. Designer conditioner to soften her hair so ravaged from cruising in her open top car.

Not done

Picture the scene
A multitude of dreams
confined in one city
A wealth of beliefs
And they're all correct to me
they might as well be
Cause they planted several seeds
And each one became a tree
So despite my misdeeds
I'm sure every god is pleased
with my wishing to take heed
of everything I see

But this morning there was word
that down in the earth
there's unsavoury creatures
so odd they border on absurd
But they didn't just occur
or awake from some slumber
they were fashioned by the fingers
of men that lust for power
Now they're biting at our heels
They've got the academics reeling
Maybe those spacecrafts will appear
And relieve us of logical reasoning

Unfinished

I keep chipping away at the stone
Working my fingers right down to the bone
And although its proudly displayed at the front of my home
I'm not entirely happy with the piece as a whole
Seems there's always imperfections to chisel away
But I've gotta be careful that I don't erase
Any indication that she ever possessed a face
There's just too many intricacies to appreciate
So I'll pack my tools
In the darkest corners of my room
And should she catch the eye
of some art collector passing by
no price would be discussed
only the requisite that he must
do his best to bend his tastes around her charms

Not done at all...

The walls of this house have crumbled so many times, but we just built it up again, and we've lost so many canaries down in the mines, and we've lost so many friends. All the fallen feathers swept under the rug, those sorry shaven children kept like lambs within a pen, there's countless shards of shattered metal buried beneath the mud, there's fierce energy coursing through you but one day it will be spent, and we can't locate that swollen city but I don't think anyone misses it, our hands are full with forecasting the coming weather, our wealth best invested in the brains of future professors, well keep our eyes kept focussed on the road, our heads never bowed low, putting our best into lugging the wagon that contains a young boy with eyes aglow, but lo and behold, hes a heavy load, and were falling like raindrops in the ocean or pennies in a well, i bought a single ticket for the carousel, to spin me round against my will, i dipped and rose to a simple tune til the horse it slowed and was finally still, and I was too tall to ride anymore, so I felt I should dismount and leave, and let another jump on and enjoy the ride that goes round and round and round and

where the sun rises they'll sit all morning
Where the sun sets they sit on their hands

Feathers and wires are collecting dust,
While she's twisting and turning beneath the sheets,
In a house of cloth a man treats a cut,
By burning some incense and caressing the skin
And this can't be written off as a
trick of the hand
It's an insult to even consider such things
His knowledge might as well be as old as planets, but this man's
ashes have been scattered on a westerly wind

and they land between the pews of a church in the projects
Where a special guest stands with a bald little girl
And the audience watch teary eyed, but he doesn't relent,
he keeps up his act as he screams to the skies
"Let this devil-bought sickness be gone from Gods child!"
so many prayers have been whispered on sleepless nights
her mother watches on with so much hope in her smile
That she coughs up a fortune and lets her daughter die

where the sun rises there's energy flowing
where the sun sets men formulate plans

Who can say what he glimpsed was a white sheet or spirit
Or if the crossroads we met at were already paved
If the ley lines over my skin were telling her secrets
It's as deep as a black hole and malleable as clay
So i place my faith in the narrow line of my vision
Accept what's above and behind me to be unexplained
Cause in truth its a tapestry intricately woven
And we'll unravel it to the end of our days

I remember stumbling over a trickling stream
in the clear water I caught a reflection of me
It crept and meandered and that was its lot
but it has carved its existence from the soil and rock
And maybe one day it will rage and roar
Provide hope for lost souls on its way to the shore
all the way to the shore

So in a word to the young, in mind or body
Don't despair when you find your head bowed in defeat
cause its bulbs that sear, rather than flicker and glow
that are the ones that fade most swimmingly

like a starling chick taking its first flight
From the break of day til the dead of night
Waiving calls for caution from its mother
And descending like a meteorite

Your world's as predictable as a spinning top
It goes past in a blur and it shakes and it drops
So don't wage that futile war against gravity
Give in, darling, enjoy falling with me
And we can lie together as adjoining pieces
Of this implausibe puzzle, leave it incomplete
We'll just sleep and eat
Yeah wouldn't that be sweet

But its always night on my ocean of dreams
And its in my nature to bow to the fear
I'll trust my moral compass, keep a stern head
Remember I can't sail starward but the illusion's still here

And ill brave to take my only choice
stick to the things that I enjoy
like the simple satisfaction of skimming a stone
Seeing how far out over the water it goes

The rainfall collects in the gutter
It's come all the way from the sea
In bed I'm dreaming of another
I awake to find you and I'm filled with relief
The slot machines been spinning all evening
He's got dollar signs burned in his eyes
Not sure if he's losing or winning
Just aware of the image of freedom held strong in his mind

I'm lying at the foot of a towering coconut tree
its reaching for that golden disc and I'm sheltered by its leaves
And I can't even remember what it is I want

There's men farming deep in the ocean
Showing no respect for the dead
While windmills spin in synchronization
But there's no incentive in lining your pockets with air
As they tally the numbers keep growing
Til its impossible to keep up
It's the same with the ones that were owing
The scales are weighted, the system was created corrupt
There's logos pasted all over
our cities,
On every shop window and door
Soon there'll be no walls left to graffiti
And the streets marched in silence on route to the liquor stores

But i lie in the shade of the ever striving palms
Let the grove embrace me in its indifferent arms
And the detritus beneath me is giving me hope for our kind
Not swayed by the wind, nor longing for that golden light

Tasik.

Backing up while travellin

I pull my cart through the heart of the hills,
hawking fruit at the market
for as many hours as I will,
and when i have had enough
then I will pull my cart back home,
its not the high life that I've heard of
but its the highest that I've known,
and then ill sit,
and watch the tv for an hour or a minute,
or entertain the whippets with some stories of when I was just a kid.

now I'm not sure of the time
but when the sun sets to the west,
ill man the porch and watch the world go by
to ease some of the stress,
and then my daughter serves the dinner
to our growing family,
it warms my soul to see my great grandchildren
contented and healthy,
and then ill sleep,
and when the sun rises to the east,
ill again reap all of the rewards
of the day that I am so grateful to see,

and we'll wile away the day kicking balls and flying kites,
unable to distinguish mountains from skies

No Easy Road...

I was dreaming of soaring when I was sharply woken
by a low incessant rumble that had filled out the room
and as I stirred I realised that the window was shaking
from the shivers of discomfort that gripped at the moon.
Dressed, I headed out to find a riot in full swing;
had to pull my jumper up to keep from breathing the fumes.
From what I gathered it all started as lawful protesting –
a reaction to some changes they’d announced on the news.

So I’m told the police arrived with their intentions set -
some talk of order and then they set about throwing their weight -
they barked some commands at the people, tried to keep them in check,
but there’s only so much coercion a riled rabble will take.
When light returned front doors stayed closed and the streets lay wrecked,
the scene was haunting as the soundless morning after a quake.
Now I’ll be first to lay my sword down and I’ll never forget -
it can take seconds to destroy what took an age to create.

I proceeded on swift feet to get away from the brawl
and arrived upon the high street where the shop fronts glow bright.
Even though the street was empty there were eyes on the walls
and they all followed me intently ‘til I slipped out of sight.
Among entrancing displays I noticed someone had scrawled,
“Come on through our doors and you’ll be part of the hype!
We know the diamonds in our precious rings will serve to enthral
and if you’re hard up, that’s just fine, you can pay with your life.”

I walked on slightly perplexed but moreover uneased
and took the route on impulse to the bus station.
I’d a gut feeling that this wasn’t where I wanted to be,
so I picked a bus at random and I went to get on.
The driver stopped me at the door and demanded money,
but with my pockets lined with lint he said nothing could be done.
As the early morning rain came I retreated off the street
and in the doorway of a temple I waited for the sun.

There a boy with a curl either side of his head
warned, “be meek or you’ll burn in the fires of hell.”
I said “you circus tiger cub, you’re being pulled and not led.
I see Gehenna in your eyes and you’re not even twelve.
You don’t have to live in awe as your idols intend -
climb the ladder, put that heavy scroll back up on the shelf,
and maybe when you’re taller and you’re much better read
you can sift through that whole genre and decide for yourself.”

The words that left his father’s mouth, I couldn’t believe it,
and with his tone of voice rising I took off pretty fast.
I walked home with hands in pockets, soaked through, weighed down
with thoughts of that poor kid who had no questions to ask.
Back in my fortress I felt anxious and watched TV for a bit;
an inspirational speech about colour and caste.
I sat wrapped in a blanket as a man stood at the pulpit
shouting, “Thank God almighty,” but the moment has passed.

Indifference Blues.

If I could have my way within the prison of my mind
I would appoint you as guard to keep my sentiments in line.
You could seal my untamed adoration for you in a white chamber;
a clean, secure place where my doubts couldn’t get to her.

With my anger draped in chains, you could lead him to the chair
and with that action you’d ensure for us a worry-free future
because no matter how I try he seems impossible to supress.
So as my contentment yanks the lever could we quickly share a kiss?

I can hear the mournful wails of the convicts on the wing
as they rattle on the cages while my anger’s giving in.
His cleansing screams are echoed by my pride and vanity,
but in the true picture, the lever’s manned by my complacency

because not every breath is meant to be a sigh.
We should yell and howl and cry and sing and be silent when we die.
There's so much time spent waiting and wasted words said to the sky
that it’d be criminal to stay silent
when my words might act as treatment
and help dispel all those demons
that are a bane upon our lives,

so if you could leave the cell doors open, I think that’d be preferred.
You could help to quell the riots with some smiles and soft words
and my anger can run wild at the injustices that occur
‘cause in some ironic way I think that makes me happier.

Weeds.

Listen up good, kid, ‘cause it’s vital to see -
you may be a coin fresh from the mint to me
but in this garden you’re just another scattered seed;
of no exceptional value nor above decree.

And your mother and your father are no towering trees
despite what your admissible awe leads you to believe.
Like most of us they’ve accepted that they’re more like weeds,

so it’s about time you embraced humility
and recognised you’re just a puzzle piece;
a servant to sunlight and gravity;
a grain of sand at the will of the sea.


First post in a long time. Writers block is an anus.