I am Man

Us men,

almost always,

men,

myopic, impotent men,

our manliness oozing, seeping,

dripping,

soaking,

in swathes of red,

scarlet blood on infant skin,

hardened,

caked,

dried on cold, dead flesh.

Who am i,

a man,

myopic, impotent,

my swagger puffed on conceit,

my country right or wrong,

my god not yours,

my culture your caste,

tribe, sect, ideology … … …

Who am i ?

a man ?

knitted into,

shared humanity ?

Perhaps ’tis time,

to let this rotten, festering,

glossy, botoxed, tucked, trimmed, diseased skin,

moult,

laying stark this sham,

this theatre,

these lies, the maggots burrowing deep,

into man,

chiselling, smashing,

beheading, hanging,

shooting, bombing, drone-ing, killing, raping, torturing, killing, killing, killing,

excising man,

ripping man out of humanity.

Yes,

i am man.

my wishes are simple … … …

my wishes are simple,
desires few,
gazing upon a leaf,
nourished by dew.

my wishes are simple,
dreams hardly grand,
hearing birdsong in the desert,
together, hand in hand.

my wishes are simple,
my heart calm,
resting with you ‘neath the palm,

years rattling bones,
wrinkling skin,
greying our hair,
ever so thin.

my wishes are simple,
walking in the rain,

leaning on each other,
through life’s joy, pain … … …

For Pastor Martin Niemoller (1892 – 1984)

For Pastor Martin Niemoller (1892 – 1984)

when,

the hushed rage of prejudice rejoices in triumphant pomp and hateful ceremony,

and,

the silent dagger of complicit racism plunges deep into the soul of a world bereft of hope,

and,

the long knife of embraced apathy twists and turns,

then,

perhaps we’ll open our opaque eyes,

and perhaps then we’ll open our sewed-up mouths,

and perhaps only then will we whimper in mock shock and startled surprise,

for,

the festering hate that spirals around us,

in the fertile minds of quasi-religious bigotry,

is unafraid,

and speaks in the loudest baritone.

2.

Yet,

we accept,

we acquiesce,

we wish it all away,

but,

there will come that time when the lines are drawn,

when the purest hearts of silently smiling bigotry will hold the world in their sway,

with their cherubic, agreeable arguments sprinkled with pieces of fact that will kill, rape, pillage, and slay…

what then,

I ask,

will we do that day?

          _____________

” … First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me … ” – Pastor Martin Niemoller

Seducing my Soul

caressing the seductively swaying marmalade roses,

teasing the stealthily approaching morn,

the smell of you lingers,

on,

and on,

as I lie awake and allow my vagabond thoughts to wander,

to the thoughts of you, seducing my soul entire,

as I sat,

and as I basked,

intoxicated,
teased,
raging,
transfixed,

and warmed,

by the healing glow,

that embraces your being entire …

The Oblivious Sea

Loneliness slithers by,
its icy feel brushing past,
coiling itself around my being.

In the depths of solitude,
alone, torn apart by circumstance,

battered to a pulp by fate’s hushed trials,

my desolation is complete,

the final notes of mirth,
now scurry off into this hollow city’s street.

I try to scream,
cocooned in my shell,

none can hear my plea,

its plaintive call,

settling beneath the murky waters,

of the oblivious sea…

Violence against Women

(the following had to be written. the savage gang-rape in Delhi, India screams at our collective complicity by our silence and by our inaction)

MAN,
cowardly, brutal,
puffed-up on conceit,
self-assuredly bigoted,
as dead as stone,
stripped of all humaneness,
down to the bone.

MAN,
you kill, molest,
you batter, and you smile,
you smile,
when you hear the bones, the lives, the dignity shatter.

MAN,
you lie, humiliate,
You rape, and you laugh as a complicit society condones your escape.

MAN,
you have escaped,
too many times to say,

‘Man’,
that means you too, brother,
and you too father,
son, lover, singer, farmer, poet, thief, doctor, chef, engineer and the rest of you polite people,

you and your wretched array.

MAN,
stand up and stop the abuse now!

MAN,
your shameful hands need cleansing,

your soiled conscience is reeking,

of your manliness.

MAN,
stand up and stop the abuse!

MAN,
stand up! speak! Act,

for once,
put your testosterone to less harmful use,

lest your dwindlng humanity to the gutter,

you are prepared,

to forever lose