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 Feb 2023
Arooz
I am always half awake,
Occupying the space between
Then                   and now
        Today                     and tomorrow
One half dreaming, dizzy,
                           Falling. Always falling,
Graced in gravity’s pull
I’ve never found the bottom
But when I do
I’ll just keep digging and
                 keep falling.
 Feb 2023
Arooz
My eyes are blurry with tears but oh,
How the lights glow in the haze
I try to step outside myself and
Ask the sky what made me this way,
But the fog only stared back silently

One single star blinking back,
The same star that I’ve always seen
Under the same sky I’ve always breathed
In the same place I’ve always been
Nothing has changed except everything
(And that, too, has faint traces of you)

You and I, I liked to believe we’re the same
But your life isn’t mine and your
Love isn’t mine. I’ll imagine
The distance between us, tied together
Over countless fields and mountaintops
Stretching from here to there
               lets meet somewhere in the middle,
               where it grazes Missouri.
               or is it Montana? I’m not sure but
I’ve always
Been sure
Of this heart
And I left it
In the airport
The night I left you
With sleep
In my eyes
And tears
On my cheeks



Oh, tears, tears.
(Prose pretending to be poetry here)
112018

When I was a kid,
You clothe me in white
You packed my things and put them in my bag
To which You also loved to carry.

You allow me to learn things with my fellow kids
Even if it's more of Your hard work, not mine.
And my heart was glad as I see you outside the window
I was confident because You were there.

I can recall that I was not good at tying my shoelaces
I was afraid to fall on my knees
Every time I miss securing them.
That's why I tend to cry and call on Your Name
And you were there to fetch me
And so You do it over and over again.

When we're home, You change my clothes
But You never complain about how untidy my uniform was
You always wear that smile on Your face
And my tears were gone even before I uttered, "Sorry."

One day, I no longer see You outside the window
And I cry to look for You
Even if You already told me that You're coming back to fetch me again
There, I started to understand that all You do is not just for me
But for our family.

I've learned bit by bit how to properly tie my shoelaces,
And I'm too eager to give you the result of my exams every time I go home
I remember how you say,

"Ang galing naman ng anak ko" when I got high grades
And how you encourage me by saying,
"Okay lang yan anak, bawi lang sa susunod,"
When my grades aren't line of nine.

Every day, You watch over my deeds
You always listen when I have something to tell
And when I'm home, You always prepare my clothes as I change.
 Jul 2022
Isaac afunadhula
If my heart pours out
If the rains turns to snow
Then my heart shall find rest
To the delight of the world

If a cry for blood burns like a fire
In the far land of kasheki, then the song of the heartland shall be sung by the hyena's

If the moon shodows it's beauty under the blue skies
A roar shall be heard in the sea deepth

To the voices of the earth
I just want to sing beneath the sun
beneath the clouds
If the words that we say sometimes mean less in this life of uncertainty then we ought to do better for the greater good.
 May 2022
Arooz
You're gone, the stage
Is set for heartbreak
The world dims, my
Heart dulls. Or sharpens?

I’m sorry,
I’m always so cold.

Foaming frenzy, I find
Stillness in your memory
Quiet collusion with the
Moon and a shameful confession-
I will go wherever you go.

Heart humming beneath you,
Breath held against sharp edges
Threatening soft flesh.

Patient hands to test this
Daring dance between us
Oh, let’s just see
What happens
Before curtain call.
Edited 2.20.25. Feedback welcome!
 May 2022
Stanley Wilkin
Dressed in black, dark eyes amused
She strolls into a room
With the specialised tread
Of a femme fatale,
Tossing her streaming hair in arrogant joy.
Her perfect body
Contains the calm and unexpected force
Of the sea, shifting in a moment between

Reason and fury.
She graces the men with sure-footed Arabic,
Stark, sibilant, passionate words
Laughing like a poem.
A Moroccan beauty,
Guedra dancing in the sun,
From the desert coloured mosque of Casablanca
Punctured by the worship Of 70,000 songs,
To the unremitting souks of Marrakesh,
Her complexity
Emboldened by the courage
Of poets.

She has a silence in her intellect
Such as few have,
Unusual evidence of a soul
In a world of franchises,
Her past imaginings deeper and wider
Than that of her peers,
Dancing to fast Gharnati rhythms,
Beneath imagined Andulusian sunsets
And glowing skies.
An effervescent scintillating gasp of fervent
Desert air, beating across her limbs
Moving gently towards silence.
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