Forces of Nature

1.
Forces of nature prevail.
Between the living and the dead,
We float like azure helium balloons
Invisible prey in the sky
Slaves to every whim that we do not perceive
Inevitably to burst at their bidding.
Nonetheless I have found a way through.

2.
Joy in ice and cold.
Smartly remove the element of luck for 80 quid,
Snow lays a blanket over grime.
Bose lays a blanket over noise.
Loss and separation cascade over every smile
But there is no more fear.
Fear is a consequence of hope,
What is there to hope for when all is lost?

3.
And for each thing lost another is found
Manyana and Santa Damiana
They make Zivania in my mother’s land
It all has meaning, though none of it connects
And it had to happen all at once because…
All things happen in one myopic instant.
How ironic to wash up on these shores yet again.

4.
There is the sunset that some must know
Do I regret its silent or screaming fall?
Alone in the sky in similar pain
None will know how we felt in the empty forest of that moment.
I certainly do not.
Except to know that you too were a force of nature.
There was the sea, the arctic wind, the birds.
The sun and you.
I half expected you to take wing
And you did. Thefts of ecstasy.

5.
The sweetest notes bring out the silence
Which silence is critique and indicts
Like all traitors I must hide
From the pen and from the past
For shame I have forgotten the lines
My finest poems lie buried in this machine
My soul transfigured into Kafka’s machine.

6.
Judas of the Labyronth, I have betrayed the simple
Economics of existence
Money comes and goes, but time only goes
What fool sells the irretrievable for what will surely be lost one day?

7.
Labyronth I’ve been helled too long
Rhyming couplets, Platonic ideals, golden doors
There is a dark and lonely tunnel
For a dark and Minotaury soul
Nonetheless I have found a way through.

8.
Dirty washing and rotten food
Decay blankets the flavour of the water
Smoke blankets the notes of the piano
Nonetheless I have found…
If a man cries alone in the forest
Does he make a sound?
My head emerges from the tunnel.
In the end it must all come out.