Birds

Has my canary lost his voice?

Do we evacuate these mines?

Everlasting hope

Now speaks with a croak

You're a magpie

Frantically screeching under the influence of rock and folk

Park Life

You drink wine

 Until you are blind

Under the streetlight in the night.

In a park

Where children once played

Your words

are misconstrued

and you talk like you know

what is right.

You say we are endless

yet definite

immortal yet doomed.

You tell me we are all heading

for certain death

“We will rot!” you shout

And the statues stand tall

Once men of great virtue

Immortalized and encased by stone

The world spins as your words

Slur into speech

You talk of purity and

the fall from grace

You speak with such certainty

With a voice that commands

Your expression is strong

Yet your shoes

 Remain untied

You’re a series of limericks

A book of lines

A page full of contradictions

You say “they” are leading us

“They” have a plan for us

“We are all sheep in one heard”

Yet when the sun breaks dawn

You turn to me and ask

“Where will I sleep tonight?”

Young Love

Our lives once resembled a fictional love story. You know those stories you see on an overstretched canvas with glowing skin and parting lips as lovers exchange affections. In theatres, audiences are wide-eyed and grinning, staring at the successions of movements, stupefied and absorbing this portrayal of “true love”.

 Retrospectively, we emulated those wide screen romances. We had our love letters and songs, phone calls and e-mails; we exhausted all of our resources with the sole intention to shout out across this vast and expanding world, those three famous words: “I Love You!” Our love persisted, overcoming long distances and lack of engagement. I would daydream of the day you and I would reunite in a home of our own. I saw our picturesque lifestyle unfold in my mind while I drew hearts around your name in my paperback notebook.

But now I see that all of this was a farce, a hoax, a dream of happily ever after that obviously could not match up with reality. We grew apart. You have your band and I found a new man... perhaps this one will be worth dreaming for.