The Social Chameleon

The Chameleon

1.

strange creature
blends-in
or at least tries to

could be seen as deceptive
stealthy

alas the chameleon cannot resist

its hardcoded genetic imprints make it so

2.

‘The Social Chameleon’

laughing
wandering

trying to fit in

always

harder
craving acceptance
wanting to belong

somewhere at least

so please take a minute
&

think about this for a while …

grow up someplace
then leave

start someplace else
then leave

start someplace else
then leave

start someplace else
then leave

start someplace else
which happens to be here

now
where the social chameleon is presently

starting someplace else …

Ps: “The Social Chameleon” also goes by the label

though often an epithet

‘immigrant’

            ______

(inspired by the poem “The Good Immigrant” by Maria Jastrzębska)

defiled …

defiled …

why do I do the things I do why have I lied cried trampled upon the best of souls shredded promises while sermonising & a-preachin’ about this and that and all the manure in between but but but the naked truth despicable contemptible heinous even wags it’s gnarled digit my way a liar & a cheat guilty a thin veneer & a charade guilty an almost sociopathic lack of empathy yet bemoaning it’s absence in others a high ‘n’ mighty twisted two-faced man who is more akin to those he rails against and so accused I stand and guilty I plead no excuses to be regurgitated none of those poor attempts at rationalisation cos’ once the truth is set free unchained deshackled let loose upon me the smug purveyor of this and of that always the railer-against the puffed-up chested indignant aberration of ramshackle words and and of so much worse oh yes this be truth I speak now for better or verse …

randomising

memories of tangerine pathways blanketed in cinnamon sugar sprinkled over sensually warm thoughts reflect in her eyes of granite seeing through my lemonade words my styrofoam scribbles my polythene verse lost in the glittering bazaar of deadened inured consciences wrapped in tattered spirit cloaked under bruised memories enshrouded by welcomed apathy ensconced in chariot of gold removed from each other by choices chosen regrets regretted excuses excused cop-outs outed while tick-tock the accusatory gnarled finger of time wags cajoling threatening as blueberry skies sweep it all away

for now …

talkin’ walkin’ along blues

talkin’ walkin’ along blues …

I’ve walked a lot
been carried many more times though it comes as blow to the almighty ego but if we’re bein’ honest let’s let slip the hounds of self-indulgent quackery

cos’ I’ve been a-walkin’ just about long enough to know

and you can call me a pinko commie-lovin hypocrite if you like but there’s got to be something in that ‘let’s share this world we’ve got’ stuff those old geezers like lennon & groucho were spoutin’

cos’ I tell you with all the stuff I’ve seen

I sometimes think my eyes have been takin’ a batterin’

for seeing stuff no one should see

oh but you know all the yarns I keep a-spinnin’

cos’ you’ve carried me through those rivers of thorns

valleys of shrapnel
meadows of steel

you’ve carried me across those turbulent oceans of tears

muted howls of despair
silenced sobs of loss

and still you keep pullin’ me
hangin’ on
holdin’ on

stopping me from a-drownin’

while I’ve spent my days jesterin’ & a-clownin’

but fooling not a soul but myverygoodself

and so I cling on

cos’ I’d been in Jo’burg and now the smells of ol’ Delhi tease me

tugging at my heart

sayin’ not much

but enough

‘you’ve been gone awhile. come around. it’ll still feel like home’

that’s why I love the blues oh yes I love the blues

there’s no knowin’
what’s up ahead around the bend turning the corner

no knowin’ what’s a-comin’

like life …

a few minutes scribble …

a quick scribble …

aren’t we all the same?
aren’t we all confounded broken pained ecstatic fractured joyous sad indescribably happy proud secretly snooty twisted within our own hearts yearning for something more than this crappy deal called ‘life’ cos’ there’s got to be something better something bigger than the lustful pursuit of monetary physical emotional psychological sexual gratification that last but the blink of an eye yet we hunt prey upon choose profits over people whom we see as cannon-fodder for our wiles schemes capitalist profit filthy rich obscenity and still we bring up our kids with (trumpets sound) traditional values religious beliefs norms cultural shackles the need for greed by emphasising material and social gratification over respect and understanding for one another as a race, the human race and we shove this down our very young ones’ collective conscience and then in mock shock and horror we feign surprise indignation even at what they’ve become while we carry on living our hollow lives an empty shell that needs to be stuffed with God and Nations Flags Religions Castes Tribes Ethnicities and yet we feign horror we plead ignorance

I like that. Pleading ignorance.

because it is true

words paltry meagre words that are just that ink on page binary on screen meaningless if not imbibed drunk soaked in absorbed lived breathed made love to lost hurt cried over beaten up

because nothing changes until we you I me him us her them she all of us the race the human race shun greed love one another repect tolerate at the very least each others uniqueness in this cosmos of unimaginable size our pallette our shared human night sky and just as the ancients spoke of the night sky as a blanket and the stars as being little holes in that blanket piercing through seemingly all-encompassing darkness so to may we know that the stars are suns like our own and that like all suns they too must flicker and fade and i dare say that if that cosmic connection, between the singular you me him she her and a star of immense mass, the shared fate of both star and me her him she you are essentially the same – to burn out and to have the embers spread through the oceans of emptiness that float between you her him she I and the  countless blazing suns – if this insane weird  worthless nugget of cosmic coincidence or not is not enough to keep us from tearing at each others throats perhaps then I shall concede defeat and yield to those who cling to hopelessness but not today

not at this moment

not now

not yet

hope 2.0

hope 2.0

1.

there are moments when life seems bleak

when the burdens of today

choke & tear & twist life into a spiral of havoc

leaving spirits beaten-down

fatigued

&
weak

2.

ah but there is always a sliver of a rainbow

after the slicing rain

so …

let it rain

let it rain

let it rain

The Saga of Romeo & Juliet on Valentines Day

The Saga of Romeo & Juliet on Valentines Day …

that day of the year once more

the zombie-apocalypse-horde descend

foaming through aisles in this-or-that store.

they seek, perhaps, absolution for ‘that one time’ and, of course ‘those’ other times before

when you felt the splintering of your very core

while he mumbled apologies that sliced through your bone | your flesh like a saw

so, yes, it is ‘that’ day of the year once more

the cat’s night to sashay through the front door

knowing only too well she’ll find me right here looking the grumpy old bored boar

and now look who’s purrring like 1-coolcat flopsilly sinking to her majesterial floor

“oh please not the ‘I’m really not into valentines day blah de blah’, you old boar!”

that unwipeawayable smile seems to say

“who loves kitty hmm who loves kitty”

by then as was with the Borg

resistance is futile

so you flopsilly flop down next to her

and as she permits you to you to brush the now “greying-cos’ of oldage” lil’ hairs under her teensy furrry chin

you begin to hum a tune,

‘Romeo & Juliet’ oh yes that 80’s Dire Straits song …

“… and he says …

‘you & me, babe …

how ‘about it …”

…

…

…

“Romeo & Juliet”

Written by Mark Knopfler

From the Dire Straits’ studio album ‘Making Movies’

Released on 17 October 1980

Lyrics

“… A lovestruck Romeo sings the streets a serenade
Laying everybody low with a love song that he made
Finds a streetlight steps out of the shade
Says something like you and me babe how about it?

Juliet says hey it’s Romeo you nearly gimme me a heart attack
He’s underneath the window she’s singing hey la my boyfriend’s back
You shouldn’t come around here singing up at people like that
Anyway what you gonna do about it?

Juliet the dice were loaded from the start
And I bet and you exploded in my heart
And I forget I forget the movie song
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong, Juliet?

Come up on different streets they both were streets of shame
Both dirty both mean yes and the dream was just the same
And I dreamed your dream for you and now your dream is real
How can you look at me as if I was just another one of your deals?

Well you can fall for chains of silver you can fall for chains of gold
You can fall for pretty strangers and the promises they hold
You promised me everything you promised me thick and thin, yeah
Now you just say oh Romeo yeah you know I used to have a scene with him

Juliet when we made love you used to cry
You said I love you like the stars above I’ll love you till I die
There’s a place for us you know the movie song
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong Juliet?

I can’t do the talk like they talk on TV
And I can’t do a love song like the way it’s meant to be
I can’t do everything but I’d do anything for you
I can’t do anything except be in love with you

And all I do is miss you and the way we used to be
All I do is keep the beat and bad company
All I do is kiss you through the bars of a rhyme
Julie I’d do the stars with you any time

Juliet when we made love you used to cry
You said I love you like the stars above I’ll love you till I die
There’s a place for us you know the movie song
When you gonna realize it was just that the time was wrong Juliet?

A lovestruck Romeo sings the streets a serenade
Laying everybody low with a love song that he made
Finds a convenient streetlight steps out of the shade
Says something like you and me babe how about it? …”

…

…

…

…

you good people have yourselves a special valentines day too!

💙

warning: lame-assery ahead

talkin’ poor eyesight blues …

straining to see
woods from trees
birds from bees

while by the by
sanity flees

a-leavin’ meself barely afloat on sympathy-seeking seas

cast adrift

a plastic bag
swept hither and thither
across the blurry breeze
(apologies to Katy Perry, if you’d please)

while by the by
eye sees

darkness encroaching jabbing needling
shoving me down

to my knees

while by the by
the noose of ‘accursed vision-soon-to-cease’

begins to tighten
and to squeeze

the livin’ daylights out of the few dim strands of sanity thats still a-left in my ‘higher faculties’

while by the by
I’m jus’ talkin’ poor eyesight blues

and I jus’ wanna be that guy
who for once
gets a kinda
whatchamacallit

‘premium-back if unclaimed for x number of years’ deal for his oft-unpaid dues

who scores loads of ‘sympathy-sex’ as I play the clearly disturbed yet disturbingly good-lookingly blindingly charmingly soon-to-possibly-be sightless fellow who is ridin’ the giddy waves of gladly accepted & much-welcomed ‘oh my I’m so sorries’

while by the by
the truth concedes

and by the by
the light recedes …

nb: the above is a ‘work’ lol of fiction, & thusly, any at all exact or approximate sentiments expressed above bear no resemblance whatsoever, exactly and approximately, to any person/s, livin’ or dead, you scheme?

dead as in its curtains.

khal-laaaaas.

word!

things she said …

‘smile’, she said with a wink,

‘smile’.

I smiled.

‘kiss me’, she said, pulling me close to her cinnamon lips.

‘kiss me’.

I kissed her.

‘I’m happy’, she whispered, her warm breath in my ear.

‘I am whole’, I whispered to her,

and to myself.

‘I am whole’.

peace | love | uBuntu