They Say

Some say
Contentment is a fool’s emotion
Empty days pass

Others say
That only the grave brings serenity
The gravedigger hovers

And many say
That only slavery
Brings security

And then there are those
Who burst onto the scene
Blooming like summer roses
Pleading for liberty

Dancing

On the edge
Dancing on broken glass
Ideas too pale
Too insipid
To be mine

And so we dance
Adored and applauded
By our audience
The stage is ours
We waste precious hours
Entertaining strangers

Who clamour
For the kind of glamour
That we provide
But they will never know
That we are both dead inside

Angel

Angel-children
Singing in Sunday school
Daemon brats, hovering
On the line between
Heaven and hell
Cowering, beneath the birch
For this is all that they deserve
‘A burden on the parish’
From the moment they were born.

Savagery

His savagery penetrates me
I detect something unearthly
In his nature, at his core. Something
Sublime, celestial, a self-appointed deity
He is everything to me

But others do not see
What I see. They see something
Bestial, a throwback and we wince
As the whips crack. So we
Retire, abandon all that we desire

Our worldy goods – an impressive
Funeral pyre. We watch as the fire
Reaches higher, reaches higher
And then we turn from the world,
Enveloping ourselves in one another

Words Flow

Skin shrivelling, shivering,
Shrinking within, imprisoned
I am decaying, listening
As words flow from the gigolo
Foundering beside me
A hapless harlequin curled
In my fist, feigning fondness

It is all moonshine
He will never be mine
He is my courier, singing
Bringing me messages
From the world beyond
These pale walls
As I am crumbling

The metropolis calls
And everything falls

Gossips in the Suburbs

Gossips in the suburbs
Dwelling upon my debauchery
Their noses twitch. Their tongues wag
Imprisoned within my dry, sardonic eye
I am hollow now and my highbrow
Interests arouse their suspicion
I have violated some sacred tradition

My self-sufficiency is my deficiency
My long-forgotten flaws are resurrected
And the devil drives and drags
My spirit out of the mire
My life-force wells up, it overflows
In the end I was led astray
Or so they say

Those mendacious madams surround me
I will not succumb to their demands
For this is the role I play
The evil bitch, the local witch
And viciously they turn on me
'The time for waiting is over,' they say,
'And now you are going to pay.'