Together Dancing

Beyond the city lights
There is a small river
Where stars still shine.
The music plays soft
And we dance to the soft beats
Of our few moments of liberation.
In this place that
Belongs only to us
In these stolen moments of peace
In these moments of shared
Sorrow and bliss-
We dance round and round
With our hands in the above our heads
And our tongues rolling with sound
As smoke created
From the fire in our hearts
That burnt bridges
Created islands of ash and water
And kept the light in our eyes
Rises and rises and rises...
As we dance to the soft beats
Of our few moments of liberation.

Beyond the moving mouths
There is a small space
Where words are still seen.
The music plays soft
And we dance to the soft beats
Of our few moments of liberation.
In the tangible darkness that
Belongs only to us
In the stolen moments of truth
In these moments of synergetic
Pain and balm-
We dance round and round
With our hands around our waists
And our tongues clicking with sound
As smoke made
From the embers in our hearts
That kept us warm
Protected us from harsh weather
And made us blind
Rises and rises and rises..
Yes we dance to the soft beats
Of our few moments of liberation.

Beyond the definitions of happiness
There is a place
Where there are no boxes.
The music plays soft
And we dance to the soft beats
Of our few moments of liberation.
In this place that
Belongs only to us
In the stolen moments of freedom
In these moments of shared
Anger and forgiveness
We dance round and round
With our hands out to the rising sun
And our tongues wet our lips
As the smoke made
From the ashes in our hearts
That flooded the floor
Blackened our homes
And made the soil fertile again
Rises and rises and rises...
Don't stop dancing, darling,
To the soft beats
Of the last few moments of liberation.

Waiting in the Night

I waited.

Like everyone else,

We knew where to find each other.

Here.

The moon was pale.

Between half and full. 

Its imperfections stark

Yet complete in its beauty.

The stars hardly revealed themselves

Shy of all the city lights.

But I had once seen them shimmer

When the city was quite. 

As I lay there waiting

Below the garish orange

Of the night sky,

The mosquitoes buzzed like

They had elicited the

Messages of the universe.

They didn't want my drowsy presence

To interfere with their

Profound connection. 

They prodded me incessantly

Perhaps now sick of sweet ooze

That flowed from starved lovers. 

The moon glided over the sky slowly.

Sometimes the clouds 

Behind which it hid

would race up between its edges-

Splitting and coalescing like thoughts.

Their shifting silhouettes were

Reminiscent of storms in the sea

On which a small white ship

Bravely kept afloat.

The concrete was lit up

By soft and ethereal beams.

Perhaps it was that month of the year

When even milk turned to elixir

If it bathed in the moonlight.

My hands,

Stained with grey concrete,

Reached to cup this

Half orb in my palms.

Its white halo

Almost

Drowned the pestilence 

Of the city below. 

Perhaps the illusion of 

Touch 

Would make me believe 

In the fantasies of love

Created by fiction and poetry.

Perhaps 

I could submit myself

To their illusions of

Courage, pathos

Ardour and tranquility.

There it was in my hands,

Something so very different 

Bound to the Earth by the same force

Made by the same elements.

There was a deep understanding

That settled like dust

Between the two of us.

Thousands of years of broken lives

Became mine

Billions of seconds of true bliss

Became mine

In that moment

When everything blurred

And

I no longer needed to reach into air.

The warm wetness in the wind

Mixed the sweet with the smoke.

I felt giddy

As I saw Venus blazing from afar

Even in the heaviest smog.

As moonbeams still touched my skin,

My eyes closed.

Everything real

And imaginary combined 

Into what absolved my thoughts

Purged them 

And then plunged them 

Into a darkness

Where there was

Incandescence.

When I awoke

I heard a murmur from the trees.

The sky had split into a pale blue

And my moon had slipped away.

Perhaps

It would sleep with a new memory.

Or Perhaps

It would intoxicate another continent.

But,

The night would still fill me 

As light would fill the day.

So

I waited.

Like some people,

I knew where to find myself. 

Here.

When I Stood

Things that should have been said
But weren't
Hid behind the curtains
That should have been dusted years ago
But weren't.

I stood there waiting for long enough,
Hoping that the shadows would
Move in the darkness
And turn into things I would recognize.

I stood there waiting till I knew
Darkness would always be still,
Shadows would always be illusions,
Dust would always settle in crevices,
And words would always trickle like water.

When I turned to leave,
I hadn't left it all behind.

Memories that shouldn't have been
But were
Grew on rough surfaces
That shouldn't have been damp
But were.

I walked away
Hoping that there will be roads
That would lead me to places
That would turn into Home.

I walked away till I knew
Roads would only have names and no mind
Places would only have structures and no heart
Surfaces would only weather with time
Memories would only shape mind and heart.

When I stood again
I was alone
And only the wind and I sang.