Sunday 20 April 2008

Vanilla

Her wrinkled scowl welcomes-
Time uncerimoniuosly.
She squats in front of the fire
As though she owns the element.
Her eyes-defiant, her hair- scanty,
She smells of cinnamon, age and garlic.
The kitchen she tames for a paltry wage.
She washes, she cooks, she assures:
But not her clothes, her food or her babies.
As I watch in horrified fascination,
She stirs into the sweet of my childhood-
Her imagination and angels' dandruff.

Friday 11 April 2008

Strength

The cunt yawns
Proclaiming ownership.
The weaker sex, the cleft
That swallows the strong
And gives up blood
And gives forth life.
Call it meek names,
Speak of its honey;
And hide your fear
Of its encompassment.

Thursday 3 April 2008

Insanity

Forty pills a week
Robbed me of my essence
I walked the line between
Truth and knowledge
But who then decides-
That the images I celebrate,
Or the songs that weep to me,
Or the wind that lingers-
A minute more to caress me,
Than it does, a jealous you
Or the passion than burns me,
Down to amber cinders
Or fears that snake into my soul-
Of confusion, of breathlessness
Make me insane and you sane?

Wednesday 2 April 2008

In My Heart, a Child I've Borne

A child promised to death,
A chimera, a silent victim
Of an illness he knows not of.
His people, the virus took to-
Humble graves baked in the-
Unforgiving, unholy sun.
But in my heart this child
I've borne, to love and to hold--
Till he transforms my sins-
To gentle virtues worthy of-
A mother who bled for him.