poetry, creative writing, musings and art
Gone before long, such a shame
A moment into his voyage, he capsized in a watery grave of lily pads.
She sang to him, she lured him in, with crystal petals and a mischievous grin.
Intoxicated by flowers, and inebriated by lust, her voice reverberated within his head,
And whimsically, she braids her hair, and watches his boat break among stones.
Just another fool, yet another fool
And the love of a fool doesn’t last very long,
So he may as well suffer a siren’s song.
I don’t need you to call my name to summon me from the depths of hell
In blue-black flames I listlessly dwell, wide awake just for the sake of staying warm.
Remember, December is never far away, and yet it’s been ages since I’ve seen the languid drift of snow
It melted away with all I used to know of your voice, your escape, your sordid show.
I don’t need you to call my name to douse the flames of hell
I’ve come to know them very well, more than your deceitful, demonic spell.
The dark place where you dragged my soul is only a curse if I make it so
I’ve come to peace with death and darkness, with hate and pain and years alone.
Instead, I watch in the glimmering lights as my shadow pirouettes across the floor
Light as a feather, dead as the earth, joyous as the sun, lovely as the moon
Glowing with the fierceness of the sun at noon, I delight in that I won’t hear your voice call
My heart became a rainbow after an endless tear fall
My name is not for your lips; it is for my final and joyous withdrawal.
Upon a glowing satellite I make a morbid wish tonight
With teary eyes, I hope to make a pagan sacrifice on her life
I’ve never seen a star fall, but I confuse the flashing lights of jets
In the midst of their midnight flights, but I’m disappointed by yellow lights
Hear me, clearly, white plasma being in your angelic glow
Fall down from your reign and ease my pain
Use your thousands of years to alleviate my fears
And take your brilliant heat to melt things frozen in my memories
Not unlike you, I want to be born anew
I can’t fight the hurt and lies that have passed before my eyes
I can’t wear away the scars that speckle my skin like black stars
But you… lucky you, you still shine true through the darkest dusk
You have no surface to be succumbed to rust, to negligence or dust
Though in time your flames will explode and you’ll be mine
You’ll fall so rapidly, your tail will spread for miles against the sky
And I’ll be there, I swear, to make my wishes come true
But tonight you live, and I have no use for you
Yet I fear the day you pass away, and I’m not there to pray
And ever worse, I fear you’ll pass away
And all of my hopes will dissipate along with your silver flame
These trumpeting geese wake me every day. Their deep voices carry in the foggy morning rain.
I ponder upon how it is that many things with wings found light ligaments in place of their feet:
A bat is just a rat that finally took flight to escape the plight of the destitute streets.
A caterpillar would be a worm, but at some point it learned that beauty could be found underground, or buried deep in a cocoon.
With silk woven without a loom the worm still weaves the softest cloth. So why do we think the butterfly is so much more beautiful than the moth?
Its dusty wings are dull and tattered like our neglected things atop our mantles, or the wardrobes’ cobweb-laden wedding gown
Left with whimsical memories of the freed doves – and the dove is just a pigeon that we love for her soft, white down.
But does the pigeon know that we see her as a clown? Why is she the pauper while her sister wears the crown?
And lastly, the crying girl who leans over her balcony finally dives into the sky with her good-byes damp on her pillowcase.
She didn’t fly then, but found her wings in the pile of things discarded from her room shortly after her guest-less wake.
Her body slumbered, forgotten, slowly sinking to the bottom of the geese’s’ foggy lake
Where the vultures can’t find her and feed down to her bones; where all of the things with wings can never travel, she rests alone.
But in the sky she’s learned to fly with the bats at night and the geese at dawn, and through the day all of the things with wings preen her feathers and sing her songs.
The same things who couldn’t grow wings carry on. Undaunted still, though not yet angels, they simply meander along.
I see a cloud hovering above the lake, meandering somberly over the trail. The water longed to fly off like the mallards, rolling like cotton across the water.
Fog, lucky you. I grow weary too. The heavy mist conceals my vision, but the breeze blows it softly until it disappears.
I want to fall into pieces, light and dewy, and take off with the wind at dusk. And after the sunlight illuminates the droplets with rainbows – so as to make my last appearance beautiful – I want to begin again.
Up in the sky, in a cloud, a brand new raindrop with no memories of the grimy pond, the darkness or the cold. A rain drop won’t grow old. Neither will it die, but it will collide into the sky and become new, unjaded and unabused.
How I envy you.
“What on earth are you doing?”
The rose bush beside me scolded. She had dropped her foliage and retreated into the ground at the coming frost. Nestled safely in the earth, she snatched what nutrients she could before the soil became dry and lifeless.
I, on the other hand, was not one for cramped spaces. The cold didn’t stop the sun from shining. I dug my roots in and slowly rose.
“It isn’t spring yet,” she grumbled from down below. “And you don’t have any leaves.”
“I know,” I replied undauntedly, stretching a bit more.
There’s something funny about flowers versus weeds. People give roses as gifts, preen and nurture them. Weeds on the other hand are aggressively removed. But now that it was cold, all the living things retreated to warm and cramped places, to return again when the air was sweet and welcoming.
For the rose bush, that meant she would not be tended to, and without attention and care she could not produce roses. The cold made her retract her red petals with nothing around to pollinate them; now she was just a mass of hideous thorns.
I, on the other hand, could do without the attention. I sprouted up laboriously until I reached my peak, summoning my round golden flower and spreading the petals proudly.
“What are you trying to prove? You’re a weed, a stupid dandelion, and nobody thinks you’re beautiful.”
I didn’t care what she said. It’s stressful to be beautiful, as the constant fear of wilting goes hand in hand with the fear of death. Beyond that vibrant facade there are only thorns being disguised by that bright demeanor. I am what I am, there is no illusion. A dandelion, a little golden flower, modest and robust and not afraid of the cold. I love the sun in all conditions; the wind, rain and frost won’t change that.
And being ugly isn’t terrible. I suppose many prefer not to look at me, but in a wide meadow I can be left to my devices with my other golden friends. They’re somewhere far away, but when I’m ready I’ll throw my seeds into the wind and find them all again.
The concept of beauty is so harsh. There are days I do feel I would rather be a rose, but I won’t miraculously become one so I may as well accept what I am. In the end, I don’t mind, as it means I’ll be strong enough to survive the winter. I’ll get to see beautiful things: falling red and orange autumn leaves. Fine, white powder snow. Young children playing, swaddled in thick knit clothes. Kindling flames from new love that comes from being kept close indoors. Scents seeping from kitchen windows of spices and seasonal treats.
And when it’s warm again, my friend the rose bush will have missed these things. She’s blind to real beauty, I think, as are many of the perennials.
Discouraged as I may become when I peek at my reflection in a frozen puddle, I cannot – I will not change. I am not “beautiful”, but what is beauty but a color? Beauty in my world is life and the longing to live it. The breath from every lung, the pulse of every vein and the blood in every heart. The flickering wings of a dragonfly, the silken web of a spider and the chiming sound of a cricket. The deep pupils of the open eyes that silently oberve the world in different spectrums. The morning sun and the hope of a fresh new day.
And the smile, of course, that you push to the surface when it’s cold, when you’re tired, when the world around is harsh.
We are not all roses, but we can choose to be strong and bloom anyways.
This hollow town tried to deceive me, to make me believe that she is beautiful.
But the houses here are all empty, the doors are locked and the curtains are pulled.
The streets were paved of the blackest asphalt, void of any shine or shimmer.
The sky is grey and the clouds are dense; the sun is dull and the stars are dimmer.
I traipse around in search of a sound, like the bark of a dog or a child’s chuckle.
The frost has made a treacherous ground and the ice is biting at my knuckles.
I tell myself winter is a dreadful season – I’ll like this town much more in the summer.
By the time June rolls around my heart’s grown weary and my eyes start to wander.
I’ll pack my bags and run away, I tell myself that I’ll find a safe haven.
The airport isn’t far away, and it’s just a few miles to the train station.
As I gather my things, I hear muffled screams, and a wild wind pushes closed all the shutters.
I hear the door latch from within, then the walls are filled with low-pitched mutters.
One would assume a ghost or ghoul or forsaken spirit was roaming around.
But I was familiar to the cries and the desperate pleading of the lonely town.
The same voice whispers me to sleep at night and burrows in my dreams.
It takes this melancholy, empty world and fills it with warm and tangible things.
She puts a light dusting over my mirror to obscure the ugliness of my face.
And she rattles the vents and the water pipes to kill the awkward silence in this massive space.
This hollow town was meant for me, she’s kindred to myself and my hollow shell.
I guess I’ll stay a little longer, until one of us finds a tenant viscous enough to fill
That black and gaping empty space that swallows anything warm and real.
Beyond this Smile 