Finally, closer I came to you,
Realizing that desire held for lifetimes,
Welcomed by the soft winds you blew,
The ancient memory, I forget sometimes.

The fool I had become,
Trapped in a mess, that Illusion,
Your sweet voice spake, called me home,
Said, " In dropping the question, lies the solution."

You touched me, so warm, exquisite welcome,
Wasn't the first, yet, so new.
Reminded, " There ain't nothing to do, nobody to become,
You are born blissful, so blue!"

That smell, the distant drops of dew,
The graceful fall to the earth,
For that one taste, my senses subdue,
With life answered, you gave me a new birth.

Here I was, exactly where I needed to be,
"All so strange", said my wonder.
"What caused this divine surrender?
Was it you? Or was it all just within me?"

Flickering light, images flow by
of cats and vamps and wolves on the sly
the undead tango with the dead
oh.. the books I have not read.

When something happens, something small
turns the whole place withall
popcorn doesn't pop no more
it's all a matter of blood and gore.

For when in the jungle, the quiet jungle
the lion roars tonight
the baser beasts fail to mingle
and move out of MY sight!

His hands are long,
calloused and inviting.
Scars tell stories,
scattered
across his knuckles.

He has one hand cradled in the other,
tapping and rubbing
his palm
with his fingers.

His mind is a jungle:
heavy, sticky, lush,
challenging to navigate,
surrounded by undecayed green
and unobstructed sea.

“Are you anxious?”
His hands are moving rapidly,
yellow parrotbills
flitting in and out of the tall tree trunks
and violet, epiphytic orchids of his mind.

Turning to face me,
he stretches his lips into a smile.
He assures me that he is fine,
but he doesn’t see any birds.

I have a cat
Black as midnight
With a tail strong
From bristling and curving into s-shapes.

He came to us younger and firmer
Fur thick with the muscle of the cold
From the hunt for somewhere else
And he was hungry.

My mother said he must have been beaten
Because he had learnt to fear a hand from above
So we stroked him from the side
Asking meek permission.

He learnt to recognise my shoes as
That one thing which brought love
And could not be human because
It did not shout.

I changed my shoes often when I learnt this
So that every day it learnt to love someone new
And now it fears no human
And sits warmly at our sides.

We called him Bagheera because
We know that he comes
From a dark jungle
Where only the strongest of heart can survive.

(memories from a lost youth)

When i was small the world was a big place
and there were lions at the bottom of our garden.
I never knew what a mortgage was
and i was never allowed to stay up late!
You got lots of presents at Christmas
and on birthdays we played postman knocks
and kissed girls in dark cuboards, he he.
Our toilet was at the bottom of the garden,
mum said our garden looked like a jungle;
so you learnt to hold your *** after dark.

Cos there was Lions at the bottom of our garden!

Footsteps in crescendo heading in its direction
As they descend the wail of the beast is now but a whisper
A man known for taking what is not his own
Now feels the brunt of sharp stone
The darkness above which gave him comfort;betrayed him
Hands reach for him from all cardinal points
His screams cut the stagnant air like a well sharpened knife
But his screams;those screams,go unnoticed
The crescendo turns to diminuendo
The dirt is now saturated with red
Justice had been served
The justice of the jungle


-Sharifa Palmer

Manes sneaks!

Where is the king?

King stalks!

Sneaks quietly like a slow breeze.

The wind dies with a big roar.

Love is a strong cat.

The lion endures like a hot jungle.

Strong,  giant quietly fights a rifle's bullet.

Wow, courage!

Roars die!

King falls like a brave soldier...


Copyright © Ronald J Chapman All Rights Reserved