for my cat who passed on a few years ago …

For Scully, my beloved cat …

Scully, the avid reader 🤗

The Saga of Romeo and 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 …”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxfjSnMN88U

“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!

Scully whacking me at chess 😊

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Prejudice 2.0

Artwork from Google

prejudice 2.0

when the ghouls emerge, from deep within the recesses of our fungal minds,

our prejudice, our hubris, our misogyny, our racism, seeks fertile ground to take root,

to mutate into a new fangled, subtle fascism,

across breakfast table banter, seeping into politely civil conversation,

digging its claws into the common discourse,

choosing to settle comfortably into binary, zero sum opinions,

to make hate acceptable, if couched in the right language,

to make racism the norm, if sewn into the broader fabric of society,

to make misogyny humorous, a joke to be shared here, or a comment to be sniggered at there,

to make poverty the fault of the poor, branding the vast majority of humans as being simply lazy scum, chattel to be squashed or squeezed dry,

to bask in the ugly cocoon of greed, of ostentatious excess, to deny that privilege has been handed down, generation upon generation,

to gloss over the facts, to polish the brutal past, to spew the notion of not being complicit,

to make these abominable thoughts,

these despicable actions,

these repugnant beliefs,

feel at home again.

 

Quote from Google

the corrosive concept that “fair is lovely and thin is best”

quote from google

the corrosive concept that “fair is lovely and thin is best” …

fair is bland,

fair is a void,

of all the glorious colours of the rainbow devoid.

fair is lovely,

fair is insipid,

absent of flavour, lukewarm and tepid.

fair is lovely,

fair is cruel,

a self esteem-draining weapon wielded, from the corridors of corporations to the hallways of school.

fair is lovely,

fair is vile,

polluting minds with notions of white supremacy, sowing the seeds that the other is inferior, meant only to revile.

fair is lovely,

fair is an infection,

a fast spreading disease of the mind, rejecting all children of god, or to consign to the trashcan, the science of natural selection.

thin is beautiful,

skinny is best,

leaving the rest of real human beings to question themselves, and diet and starve themselves and imbibe pills and all the rest.

fair is lovely,

fair is a dagger,

plunged deep into the hearts of people everywhere, to breed the grotesque spawn of racial superiority, while intoxicated on that bullshit, the racists rant and blabber and swagger.

fair and thin is lovely ?

no, the kaleidoscope of humans of all hues and of all sizes is lovely.

NO TO RACIST DEMEANING OF PEOPLE !

NO TO BODY-SHAMING !

artwork from google

I am Woman!

Quote from Google

I am Woman!

Just when you think you’ve broken me,

with your cowardly fists,

with your diseased tongue,

I will not cower.

Your fake macho shell does not frighten me,

your violence will not silence me.

I am I,

I am mother,

I am sister,

I am woman.

I am woman,

powerful and strong.

I am me.

The very thing you can never be …

Artwork from Google

too idealistic ?

Quote from Google

too idealistic ?

in this world so harsh and stark,

may we be the spark that dispels the dark.

may we hold onto each other in a warm embrace,

regardless of colour, creed, gender, or race.

may we accept that we sip from a single pond,

may we acknowledge that the spirit of uBuntu* envelopes us – in a unifying bond.

may we cherish this bounteous earth, our only home, with respect and kindness,

may we open our eyes, and resist greed-filled corporate, personal, and governmental blindness.

may we love all, irrespective of who they choose to love, gay or straight,

may we accept that ignorance breeds hate, so may we banish those forces, baying at the gate.

may we teach our young that the objectification of women is not right,

may we strive to make every night, an abuse-free night.

may we face all forms of prejudice with a united stand,

may we find renewed strength by clasping a strangers hand.

may we realise that there is no place, on this planet, for poverty, hunger, and human despair,

may we appreciate that this world has enough for all, to from the communal orchards share.

may we start by introspection, by tearing off the blinkers of denial,

may we pursue to change that which is callous within us, even though that may be our hardest, personal trial.

may we tear down the walls that are built to divide,

may we emerge into the open fresh air,

with no longer the need to hide …

* – ‘uBuntu‘ is an isiXhosa/isiZulu concept that espouses “the belief in a universal bond of sharing that connects all humanity” – I am because we are.

Quote from Google

The Stench of Prejudice

Artwork from Google

The Stench of Prejudice …

When silent prejudice strikes

in living rooms with plumped-up sofas

a quietly insidious venom begins to seep

into the consciousness of the chattering ones as they sleep …

The beliefs held so true and so deep

appear stripped of all feeling

empty and hollow and without compassion

as the conceit grows in the chests of those with righteous passion …

The prejudice once firmly entrenched

is worn like a warm and comforting shawl

needing precious little to compound and to mutate

into the doctrines of superiority and of aloofness and of hushed hate …

We are all guilty of succumbing to this silent pervasive plague

as we sip martinis and laugh and shovel more food on our heaving plates

and as we slip into pleasantly inebriated moments we dare not care

to smell the stench of hate and prejudice and greed wafting in the cool evening air …

Artwork from Google

The Tears of Mother Earth

Artwork from Google

The Tears of Mother Earth …

Mother Earth weeps, her cries silenced, by the clinking of champagne flutes, as yet again, men myopic with greed carve out plans to plunder her more.

how much more shall you take, she moans, while men with noxious lust whoop with joy, their greed tainted with blinkers, knowingly stripping her further, in a blinded frenzy of self-serving savagery.

Mother Earth is ill, diseased by the ceaseless pillaging, by us, her children, siphoning more and more, till heaven knows when, she shall be hollow to the core.

are we so blinded, are we so callous, are we so lost in our glazed orgy, to hack away her dignity, her bounteous nurturing spirit, her selfless giving of herself, to let her children, us all, to eat, to be healthy, to live, to breathe in the freshest air and to bathe in the most pristine rivulets, flowing through her very veins and arteries, those very arteries and veins which we slice and dice each day.

our Mother calls to us, beseeching us, asking only how much more can she be expected to give, how much more are we going to take.

her wheezing spasms are felt by us all, her pleading for help resounds, as we chip away at her lungs, poison her waters, belch bile into her air, continually desecrating our shared commons.

our Mother is as mortal as you and i, for she too bleeds, for she too chokes, for she too lies weakened, ill after being brutalised by her very own.

as we avert our unseeing eyes, our deafened ears to her simple needs, we turn our backs to her, refusing to acknowledge her consistent gifts to us all, epoch upon epoch, millennia upon millennia.

as we avert our complicit gaze, we stand indicted, we stand forewarned, that her bounty is finite, for if we plunder evermore, she too shall be forced onto her knees, exhausted by her persistent and consistent motherliness, for she too can give only so much, for she too is aging and in need of tending, for she too is mortal.

and when that time comes, as it does to all that is mortal, that she fades and slips away, it shall be us, her very children, consciously and with savage intent, who rained down suffering on her, our Mother, till she said in a hushed whisper:

I am famished.

I have nothing left to give.

farewell, my children …

Artwork from Google

just you, just me

Artwork from Google

just you, just me … 

i cannot walk this path alone, my footsteps dragging on desolate cobblestone,

so very distant from you, my dear, enmeshed in this straightjacket of fear.

so let me dream of us on some idyllic shore,

together at last,

alone no more,

our bare feet tickled by the ebbing tide,

at peace with each other,

side by side.

let us meet on that distant beach,

where joy beckons us within reach,

to a place where we truly live,

not just cope,

where crimson horizons infuse us with hope.

let us to that place of peace flee,

together at last,

just you,

just me …

Artwork from Google

you have my heart

Artwork from Google

you have the largest part of my miniscule heart …

you smashed everything apart,

your light shone so bright,

you lost me from the start,

yet, and still,

you breathe within me as i trudge through another day and as another night readies itself to depart,

your light shines so bright,

deep in the creased corridors of my fate,

for you have the largest part of my miniscule heart …

Artwork from Google

astrophysics, astronomy, and love

astrophysics, astronomy, and love …

she smiled, she looked at me, incredulous, her jaw dropped,

” how on earth can you be so sure about that ? “

well i had to explain, because motion at this velocity cannot be simply stopped,

so i thought, this was the bloke who sported mops of hair, yet couldn’t do without close shaves,

so i said to her, i said,

” gravitational waves “

          ____________________

Gravitational waves are disturbances in the curvature of spacetime, generated by accelerated masses, that propagate as waves outward from their source at the speed of light. 

source: Wikipedia

letting go

Artwork from Google

letting go …

scratching

at wounds

picking

scabs

unleashing pain

twisting knives

turning effortlessly

amid the cacophonous romp

of highfives …

letting go

of

scraped souls

eroded

by

dishevelled dignity

stung

wrung

strung

and

hung

to dispel quaint smiles

perfected over a million wounded miles

shattering consciensces

along the way

blinding

blinkering

rose-tinted phantasy

day to groteque day

clogging vision

hazing eyes

tugging

pulling

tearing

down

curtains

leaving eyes

blinded

blinkered

unseeing

unfeeling …

while broken stems

mend gently

elsewhere

plucked

along strings

strings

strung

and

strummed

igniting

numbed senses

sublime flavours

on clouds of

touch

taste

melding

fusing

myriad dreams

into

dreadlocked hopes

entwined

intertwined

knowing the paths ahead

to be

far from kind

still

setting forth

yet

moving

ever moving

forward onward

hearts ablaze

hopeful

letting go

of it all

leaving it all

far far behind …

Artwork from Google

as we walk

A Baobab Tree – Artwork from Google

as we walk …

though today we tread on broken glass,

our time shall come to pass,

when we may walk past the travails we seem to amass, 

and beyond the splinters of all that is crass …

A Baobab Tree – artwork from google

dawn breaking

Artwork from Google

dawn breaking …

dawn breaking

1.

willowy brushstrokes,

conjured sketches,

painted,

etched,

embossed,

hewn between forgotten morns,

waking,

splintering,

straining, against each other,

ceaseless,

relentless,

endless,

empty,

a vacuum,

an abyss of night.

2.

still,

hope blazes,

bright,

radiant,

smiling,

though measured,

disciplined,

while embracing,

enveloping,

and always

surrendering to the eternal promise,

raging,

hungering,

aching,

the promise of a new dawn breaking

Artwork from Google

tread lightly

from Google

tread lightly …

Tread lightly, for many hearts lay strewn upon these roads,

alone, their plaintive calls heard by none,

just the birds whose doleful odes sing out in the dawn skies.

The world sleeps, the daily grind yet to begin,

when polished shoes shall trample those lonesome hearts,

that lay on roads where garbage trucks rid the new day of yesterday’s memories,

where leaves and crushed petals are swept aside,

and tattered hearts, alone again, creep into corners to hide

 

from Google

moonbeams

Dr. Carl Sagan 1934 – 1996

moonbeams …

struck by moonbeams,

my nights devoid of lifes nectar, hope, dreams,

are at once, emblazoned,

awash in the hues of your smile,

sketched, engraved,

carved, painted in the rainbow shades of your eyes,

your eyes, free,

unfettered, unshackled,

shedding the burdensome weight of lies,

knowing well how mercilessly fickle time flies.,

so allow me to drown,

in the ocean of your eyes,

we’ll fly together,

away from it all,

into your dreamy skies …

Quote from Google

h o m e

Artwork by Banksy

h o m e . . .

what is home to the vagabond soul,

                   spiralling,

                   splintering,

                   skewered,

                   unwhole.

plodding along,

                 paths of

              broken glass,

comforting,

                   cajoling,

                   assuring

             my tattered soul:

that these desolate moments,

                

                  must

                  also

            

                  pass

Artwork from Google

in these times

Artwork from Google

in these times …

In these times,

when you feel the walls closing in on you,

in these times,

when you feel the world to be hypocritically untrue,

in these times,

when you feel all your lifeblood being sucked out of you.

In these times,

when people seem shallow, heartless too,

in these times,

when you feel yourself a bystander in your own life, not having a clue,

in these times,

when every breath seems a mammoth task, when the air seems sucked out too.

These are those times when nothing offers peace,

when no solace can be found,

when all you feel is dragging yourself along the tear stained ground,

these are those times,

when asphyxiation threatens your soul,

when you scream with all your might, without hearing a sound,

these are those times,

when the world is a blurry haze, with a rancid stench that keeps jabbing you on the rebound.

It is in these moments,

when all hope disappears,

when all is lost in trepidation and gnawing fears,

it is in these moments,

when you plumb the depths of your soul,

when you beseech the Gods above even as your faith may have taken a toll,

it is in these moments,

that you fight to smash the shackles, so you may be free,

it is in these moments,

that we wish to simply,

be …

Artwork from Google

s h e

Artwork from Google

​

She …

remains out of focus,

an elusive portrait hard to find,

etched deep in the innermost recesses of my mind.

she,

strays into view, a mirage,

a burnished silhouette, an imperceptible blur, 

though through miles and years, my soul has been infused by her.

she,

fills the void, the fragments of my days,

a welcome guest,

sifting emotions from empty space.

she,

caresses my scribbles in the singing breeze, dancing with effortless grace,

my odes hardly deserving, as they vanish without a trace.

she,

renders me mute,

a wild dreamer of sultry thoughts, sensuous visions, enveloping and warm,

as we travel far, far away, from the cacophony of the swarm.

she,

embodies all of nature, her subtle humanity a healing balm to me,

swirling magically across time, spreading our wings to soar free.

she,

comes as she chooses,

an untamed spirit,

soothing a lifetime of my bruises.

she,

rouses me in nights of slumber,

her breath brushing my cheeks with kisses too many to number.

she,

remains the enigmatic one,

a burning riddle,

staying within me as each day is done.

she,

is my constant, consoling my days, gentle as the leaf, 

that in the wind sways,

she,

deserves so more than me from fate,

she loves far too much, and she has no room for hate.

she,

arrives each night as i lie awake, 

whispering that we will always have each other in this cellophane world,

so irredeemably fake.

she,

stays with me, and within she me stays still,

through the years, the tears, dwelling deep inside me where she always will.

she,

who knows how desolate this world can be,

she,

who remains the sustainer of my hopes,

she,

who unshackles the chains that bind me,

she,

who sets me free …

Artwork from Google

cellophane skies

Artwork from Google

cellophane skies …

 

when cellophane skies fall

swirling down

settling gently

on marshmallow clouds

of chocolate whispers

velveteen murmurs

form crisp peppermint kisses

hazelnutty dreams still burn bright

and

the feeling

feeling roars and rages

and so

may it rage forever on

through rough oncoming tides

always

through ensuing epochs and ages …

Artwork from Google

t h r e a d s

artwork from google

threads …

threads, weaving through splintered nights,

strings, embroidering clouds aflight,

patterns, woven,

hewn, chiselled,

etched, sketched,

wrought, in bowels of fiery pain,

loss, helplessness,

grief, love, aching desire,

forged, burnished bright,

in sweltering dreamy nights,

a moth to a flame,

lapped by tongues of fire,

alone, at last,

to rest,

away from the flimflam,

far, far away from the ceaseless, ravenous game …

artwork ftom google