Tag Archives: poetry

Traveller

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Cloud shadows slink among verdant hills

As winged scorpions speckle the air.

The modest murmur of breeze and wave

Is punctuated by staccato calls

Of feathered sentries, alarumed

By movements both broad and subtle.

A sudden stillness hijacks all,

Water rent astride by bow and oar.

A lone traveller, immune to life,

Slices the water in a multihued dugout;

Eye set on the horizon, oblivious

To anguished muscles and sinews,

Passing through the natural world

And yet so much a part of it.

Eddies left behind are enveloped

Quickly by unseen currents;

And all that was before

Is as it was again; peaceful, silent.

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Forgotten tribute

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0

Railway 4

A nation born

On the backs

Of men not welcome.

Forgotten thanks

Never remiss,

Never too late.

Humble peace for your

Nation-building sacrifices

[Dedicated to the sacrifices of the Chinese population within Canada as they helped build the railway system that connected the country shore to shore, as commemorated in an art instillation in downtown Toronto]

Building a trestle, the basis of a bridge perhaps

Building a trestle, the basis of a bridge perhaps

A lone man stands in the line of fire should that rope fray

A lone man stands in the line of fire should that rope fray

His safety harness, a lone hand

His safety harness, a lone hand

Rainy night

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2

Background lights reflect off watery pavement

Watery applause

filters through my window;

an atmospheric

stream of consciousness,

rafting my mind

to memories thought lost,

of friends, of love,

of pain, of loss.

Flushing rivulets

clear out the old

to make space for

sunnier days ahead.

Heavy rains make for sodden cycling

Heavy rains make for sodden cycling

Rain drops in such profusion that ripples annihilate ripples

Rain drops in such profusion that ripples annihilate ripples

Missing you

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4

Image

I lie here, staring at the ceiling, and I miss you.

The stillness gently stirred by your breathing,

The sound of your hair sliding from the pillow,

The scents of the day rising from your skin,

The emanating heat of your body in repose.

A space lies empty beside me, undisturbed;

Duvet in quiet slumber, chaos contained;

Sheets unpressed by the weight of day.

Only one heart beats in the silence.

Only one mind wanders in the dark.

Only one body occupies the space of two.

I lie here, vision blurred, alone and I miss you.

Ode to a Loan Shark

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0

Ouch, sayeth I

As sinews disrupt

Their femured rest

To lie astride the knob.

Where once my leg

Did show spritely measure

Now it does lie askew

Rent for rent’s sake.

Principled currency have I

Yet usurious interest

Abandons my very soul

To restless piscine slumber,

To don wearied galoshes

Of most compressed clay.

Stir not thy ire

Brooklyn-ed Vincent

Thy due is nigh

As the night is dewed

I would not lie now

Lest I should lie forever,

A cornerstone of commerce,

Tenement to history.

Vis’t me but anon

And thy dower is done;

Do me in here

And you’ll none, I fear.

(Image is property of owner and is used here without permission, so please don’t hurt me.)

Null and void

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The sounds of the city

Echo through my brain,

Filling the void with

Impulses that dissipate

As suddenly as formed.

Photonic reflections

Bombard my eyes and

Yet I see nothing

As I stare into

The darkening distance.

As empty as the bookshelves

That lie to either side,

My mind is a canvas,

Devoid of tint or brushstroke,

The words of yesterday

Replaced by so much silence.

The mind has wandered,

I know not where,

To seek adventure

In environs yet new,

To channel its destiny

In fields not yet furrowed,

Leaving only a husk of humanity,

A shed skin, abandoned shell,

To signal its former home

In the expanding universe.

I cannot know

If it will return,

But remain a sentinel

On constant watch ‘til death.

(Image is property of owner and is used here without permission. I don’t recall why.)