art-time-collective

The whited-out streets are ours,

Fresh snow glimmering under neighbourhood lights,

Illuminating the few trees still left on this block—

A less-than-perfect stage, but it’ll do.

*

You can be little red riding hood, I’ll be the wolf;

Or be Grettel, lose Hansel, I’ll follow your crumbs;

Perhaps be Rapunzel, and let down your wet hair,

Snowflakes melted by warm thoughts and delighted breaths.

*

Better yet, be yourself, and help me turn this field into houses.

We pack together snow, like images of one another;

They brilliantly fall apart in our mittened hands.

Laughing, we tumble and look up, astounded—

*

Above us, trees are frozen in their reach,

Knowing spring won’t come for months.

At our feet, patches of Goldenrod are in dramatic sway,

Like wailing mothers of dead Italian soldiers.

*

All around, life imagines better times,

And darling, as your sweet voice

turns to harsh keys on a computer keyboard,

I realize you and I are no exceptions.

Filed under: broken hearts, verse | 5 Comments »

With midnight tracks awakened,

She hands you one last swig of vodka revelations.

Fuzzy mice, like thoughts, dart back and forth,

Frantically weighing their options

Under the cycloptic eye of the approaching train.

*

West, she smiles, with well-liquored lips;

You fumble with the lid for an empty bottle,

Setting small goals,

While she comes up off the ground,

Ready to devour the universe.

*

She makes her way towards the tracks;

You brace her stubborn swagger.

Let’s leave it all behind, she says each time,

As she fades through your jacket’s warmth,

Into an erratic pulse within you.

*

Now, through eyes worn thin by countless years,

You watch mice sleep on the long-abandoned railbed.

No one knows where she could be;

There aren’t many people left that knew her,

And even those that did…

Didn’t know her at all.

Filed under: broken hearts, verse | 1 Comment »

It is not easy being here.
I was actually doing this so innocently.
You could ask me anything.
Our world is made up of many struggles and hardships.
Life carries on and is actually a vicious cycle.
I will do my time and face the world with total boldness.

Hope you are doing okay?

The heat is kind of unbearable;
the Sun Shines with all it’s glory.

Where are you?

In a split second the weather changes.
There’s heavy downpour and I start to shiver
cos the rain brings a lot of cold.
It’s sort of having 4 seasons in a day.
It’s going on 15 years.
How could I not adapt.
In my room with 24 others,
I’m in my own world.

The sky in different hues
actually amazes me.
The moon is also my thing.
Please don’t cry softly.
Smile on thinking of me.
Though it is painful to be treated this way,
I know this nightmare will be over.
There is no budget for me to survive.

Can you hear me?

Everything around us is so beautiful.
Our creator is marvellous.

Filed under: broken hearts, verse | 4 Comments »

Soldiers rouse my slumber
Apprehensive rest
Soldiers plague my classroom
Where is freedom now?

Awakened by the pitter-patter
The raining down of lead
Imprinted in mine ‘I’
Uninvited sorrow

The hysteria of tears
Desensitizing children
Of every tribe

Violence attaining violence
The ends reflect the means

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