SORAYA AVENUE

Your mere presence made my broken heart race,

With throbs at once exquisite and forlorn,

But each moment we were in the same place

Convinced me I had no more cause to mourn.

You were just as I had remembered you;

Your eyes flashed like onyx set in diamonds,

Your skin was velvet gold – exotic hue -

Your jet black hair swung loose in silky fronds.

Your voice fluttered and flew with sweet laughter –

Another clue that this vision was really you –

You even had to meet someone after,

Waiting there on Soraya Avenue.

I woke and promptly damned my delusion;

I was betrayed, duped in my seclusion.

PICTURE

Loose tresses make you look like a toy doll

But your dark eyes are full of so much life;

Caramel skin makes porcelain seem dull

And your curved lips could lure me into strife.

I pray that you are longing for me still

Across the skies and high beyond the sea;

But not beyond the grasp of my strong will,

Nor the stretch of my curiosity.

I adore your comeliness from afar

But time will come when distance will recede

And we will reach together for our star

Then kiss as lovers by fate’s chance decreed.

Until then I’m bound to wait and ponder,

And as I wonder my heart grows fonder.

TEST CRICKET

Ground knitted green with barely a missed stitch

Smoothed by curators’ love and care and hope

But all eyes drift to the sunbaked bald pitch –

Can bowlers clinch or will the batsmen cope?

The home team fields in baggy greens and creams.

The catching men fidget and sneer and sledge,

Hardened by their rise to reach boyhood dreams

They’ve never wavered from their starstruck pledge.

Lusty blows race away and spread the field

To deep midwicket and backward square leg.

Chin music plays to bid the batsmen yield,

Good-length balls swing to dislodge offside’s peg.

Thousands watch on as if they’re in a trance

And there’s five days more of this gritty dance.

CHRISTMAS

That old cliché of hope in a new birth

Was His choice in this supreme miracle.

This failed world scorns it with disdainful mirth

And kneels instead for scams empirical.

Yet this sublime event returns like stars

And shoots across the skies of Babylon,

Making eyes brighten behind hellish bars

That keep us captive ‘til the eschaton.

So look to the heavens and see the child

Wrapped tightly in His mother’s agape.

Marvel at magi trekking through the wild

And the shepherds awed by the meek display.

Rid your heart of all your cynicism,

Present it as your grateful gift to Him.

IMPOSTERS

I strolled through valleys full of imposters

When I should have climbed scree to look for stars

For life is up to chance and not rosters

And easy choices bring us mostly scars.

So the record can only condemn me

For all judgements and errors of neglect

But there’s a field where I hope to be free

Of this world’s spiteful resolve to reject.

To kiss your lips is my last ambition

Because your eyes have set my heart on fire

And my blood pumps me into position

For my love’s task: your pleasure to inspire.

And this is my view from the utmost top

Above contours where all others will stop.

DEATH MASK

My own death mask has surely been prepared.

It waits upon a hook of natural time

And it is labelled never to be shared.

Unique, it fits no other face but mine.

I have no sense of what I was before

I found myself in this world’s brutal thrall.
There are no reminiscences of lore.

So what can there be after to appall?

Perhaps there is absence of chronic pain.

Could there be swift release from all regret

And freedom from quests to profit and gain?

None will condemn if I simply forget.

Donning my mask should bring to me no dread
For life’s sorrows can’t hurt me when I’m dead.

BROKEN IN EXILE

The sunniest of days can still declare

Downsides of lonely times spent pondering.

Blue skies don’t always mask cruellest despair

And soft breezes can’t stop tears wandering.

If you were here I’d be up for laughter

And I’d set my soul to your enjoyment.

Then we’d climb to kisses and much after

Upon the summits of love’s employment.

But I can touch you only with my heart

In dreams where sweet romance survives time’s tests

And desires fuse and never ever part.

Yet hope was slain when you were laid to rest,

Not coming home but in bitter sojourn,

Exiled, broken, and never to return.

ETERNAL FLOWER

My prize at day’s end never ever wilts

I see your face and hear your voice’s pitch

And I retreat beneath my warming quilts

To think of you before sleep turns the switch.

I toss and turn and stir and yearn and blaze.

An eternal flower flames my nightly stage

To light my bleakest corners and amaze

Just as you did before the mullahs’ rage.

I can never believe I left your side

Although your path seemed so well fixed and paved.

But now I know what pains you sought to hide

And how my pride meant you were never saved.

So rest in peace and know I’ve love for you
When next we meet to kiss and start anew.