So....
You're 25.....
You've survived!
25 years and
more than 25 tears shed
over 100 times
25 beers
Not counting 25 lies
And 25 broken ties
Or the 25 and more blows to your sunken in eyes
Here's to the 25 + shovel strokes
To get you out of that deep dark hole
The hole you were birthed into
25 years prior
With no voice, no choice
No written down plans to escape from fire.
But you've jumped from that window of the 25th floor building;
Each story built
from each year
that you're holding.
Not knowing if you'd collapse
from your fall
Or relapse
or perhaps
even survive at all.
But you chose to anyway
Better lie dead smashed on the pavement
than go out burning away.
Took a long time to hit rock bottom.
Never dreaming you'd reach the ground,
never thinking of your feet
or that you'd land on them.
But you made it!
You've crash landed!
Took 25 years until you couldn't stand it.
And now you're standing up
for the very first time.
From the crash
and the ash
and you're feeling alive!
Took a dive to realize
This whole time inside
That you've got it in you.
The strength to survive!

The world is dancing
to the lawless music playing through leaf stalks
with amber wine in our tall glasses
from which I could taste the blood
of the crushed dry earth
pouring out and running down our adorned fingers.

I can see glimpses of faces
from within the cracks of our masquerade masks
the tattoos of dry tunnels of the deep dug rivers.

The mercury dust is streaking down our strained necks
and the glittering garments we are wearing
are clinging to our hot skins with films of sweat
drenching us with a sweet burden.

The feathers are coming off our sequined disguises
making us sneeze and cough
faltering our steps
lost in the haze of smoke
rising beneath our feet
and we think it is the mist carrying us.

And yet here we are spinning the globe
between our strapped heels
unaware of the embers within ashen depths
unfurling slowly
and we are still unaware.

©Malintha Perera 2014

New Year’s Celebration

Among mad men in drowning corridors,
built on rusty foundations,
tethered to rotting, sugar-coated
grins, and nestled in the trashcan
of our neighbor’s backyard –
a candle we cannot see burns
out over the mountains, the
ones draped in vacation photographs,
the same set your kitten is named after,
a geological setting, a historical
lesson, a discipline of chances
strewn into another’s handshake
sweat left on the public
bathroom door handle, a smudge
of lipstick left on the countertop,
next to powder – a scene
unimagined for nonexistent detectives.
In a drunken state, we decide to play
Gunshots or Fireworks?
And we laugh when we are wrong.

Yee hee hee hee haw
ha ha ha ha ha
the old Laughing Santa wished
íFeliz Navidad!

with his eight little reindeers, carrying the sleigh
he came swiftly, flying our way
sleigh bells ringing, whooshing through the snow
his sturdy little reindeers, rushed in a row
Dasher, Dancer, Prancer and *****
Comet, Cupid, Donner, and Blitzen
they swoosh and crash and dash and scoot
they bolt so fast, and look so cute
children singing and dancing with joy
as he showers some glitters of happiness in sky

It's an occasion of celebration
there's no room for sadness
let's spread the joy by doing
a random act of kindness

Yee hee hee hee haw
ha ha ha ha ha
the old Laughing Santa wished
íFeliz Navidad!

i will make a potion,
and put it in your drink,
you will loose your motion,
you will stop to think!

i will take you home,
and put you on my shelf,
i have to do it all alone,
cuz santas elfs won't help!

i tried to talk to you
but you didn't want me there
now i have to nacrotize you
to get you to care!

i asked santa for you
but he didn't seem to care
i wass good all year too,
but that got me nowhere!

now i'll put you to sleep,
in a blink of an eye,
you'll be mine to keep,
for the end of the time!

so let's celebrate tonight,
for the best year yet to be,
as you sleep in decorative lights,
marry christmas to me!

This time I am determined,
that trophy of superficial happiness shall be mine.
It is my time, to shine, to dine, merrily, be the star that never shone.

If I could gather your attention,
Just for one second of your time,
because time is of the essence.
I would like to raise a glass,
to my shimmering, glimmering, future.

Long live this temporary sentiment.
I shall be happy, for as long as possible.

She wants the trumpets to play.
She wants them to play all day long until their lungs give out.
She wants to see them marching down the street, keeping the beat of another failing heart.
Don't start. I can't.
I cannot pick your roses,
I cannot breathe in the sulfur of your departed memories.
Don't make me weep at your parade.
She stayed long enough to orchestrate the players.
Stayed long enough to write the tunes.
Stayed long enough to make the costumes.
But not long enough to watch the charade.
Watch it blossom and screech and wail
There it goes down the street named after you.
There it goes with you at the helm,
Waltzing down to that other realm,
where we get to watch you pass.

I don' wanna live my life...
I wanna lead it...
so that It must wonder
What I'm gonna give it...

Then I came to know,
What the life is...
Life's a celebration...
Or Celebration of life,
IN THE NAME OF THE BEST WITHIN US.