Wednesday, August 31, 2016

LINGUIST

When I heard Satan speak
I recognised all the words.
They were the same
As those used by men and boys
And women and girls.
He sounded like a footballer
Who had muffed a kick.
He mimicked a drunk
Mugged by a poker machine.
He copied
Angry drivers,
Talentless actors,
Witless comedians,
And my own inner thoughts.
In short, he spoke our language.


Saturday, August 20, 2016

FISH AND SNAKES

It seems, at times like these,
Gladness has flattened patterns
And nothing rises to please,
Only sadness fattens.
Silence blanks out all noise -
It's impossible to hear
Waves slapping against buoys
As I walk the pier.
My eyes are blind to all that's bright -
Sunsets are grey, sprayed
Darker than moonless night,
Stars, jaded, fade.
Life reeks like discarded flowers,
Rancid and rank in hot sun,
No more sweet fragrant showers,
Now foul like death begun.
Once all I asked for was fish,
And you gave me only snakes,
Coiled up in a porcelain dish,
To strike at my mistakes.
Thus poisoned, the throb that splits
My brow, blow by bloody blow,
And my heart breaking to bits,
Are all that I can know.


Monday, August 15, 2016

THE TEMPLE

In the midst of a patchwork
Of orchards, farms and gardens -
Carefully cultivated lands
Set on rolling hills
Breathed at the beginning of time
By the spirit of the one true god -
There was a splendid temple.
Two rivers flowed
Through the purlieus
Ample water
For the sons and daughters
Of the hinterland –
Fruit, vegetables, cereal crops,
Herds and flocks -
And leafy trees and wildflowers
Of this most fortunate country.
The rivers were also home
To many species of fish,
Swimming in such abundance
That the riches of the land
Seemed almost redundant.
Somewhere, far away,
These streams spilled
Into the sea –
An ocean shining
On the edge of the world.
Despite the landscape’s marvels
Its majesty was surpassed
By the sacred magnificence
Of the temple buildings.
Walls of bright yellow sandstone,
Carved from mountains
In the deserts
Of less prosperous nations.
Olive green ivy,
Clinging to columns,
Defined the portico.
Between the creepers
There were decorative emblems
Of gold and turquoise,
And pictures of another heaven,
Framed by onyx and lapis lazuli.
The main doors were made of cedar
And their jams were bejewelled with jade.
In the centre of the sanctuary
Bdellium burned day and night,
Sending its perfume into the vast chamber,
Fragrant like myrrh,
Incense for a king.


Tuesday, August 9, 2016

SWORD

My feet fall heavily these days –
Slowed up by sticking to my ways,
Shocked by the times
And halfway crazed,
Walking at dusk,
Hidden by haze.

I should have been those ragged claws
That Prufrock saw
Before world wars,
Scuttling across those ocean floors,
Hard and silent,
Without a cause.
Like him I never ever soared,
I was a mere attendant lord.
He died wriggling
On a pin, gored.
They’ll come for me,
Wielding a sword.

But I hear the songs of magpies
Somewhere up there
In cloudless skies,
Or in a tree –
Leafy disguise.
Compared to me
They seem so wise.