ON BENT KNEE

Many have been my night of loneliness

When solitude at an arm’s length

Stood ready to enter if called

On bent knees for a plea

In cool calm voice to appeal

Silent voices blurring on the ear drum

Only to warn, to chastise

To console not confuse

HAS SHE NOT KEPT QUIET FOR SO LONG?

Has she not kept quiet for so long?

Have I not said it all, the same?

My deep breaths, my tearful eyes

They still speak for themselves even now

Have you not seen it all, my hand?

Have you not measured it all, its length?

How my sweat never got dried up

For a future very gloomy even now.

Bear me witness, that clear truth

Coming out of that weary soul

Which will not be heed to

I know she knows I know:

Countless fruits from the stalk

Countless gifts on her table

Countless words of promises

Have still not paved the way

If she knows I know she knows

That what I know, she wants not to know

But from them whom she loves most

Her, they have loved little if not

At the moment when eyes see it all

Differently: beautiful and peaceful;

Can it all end, suddenly, so soon?

If wondering thoughts can breed it all

Moments shared would forever turn dreams

That ever happened but for a while;

Moments gone will they wish

Should they end with one who touched the heart.

Heh! Will she ever speak?

Hmn! Will it ever be for me?

She loves me but what is love’s crown

Which ends not at the altar?

What is love’s depth and foundation

Without a chance to trust and understand?

What are kisses which bears no fruits in the womb?

What are words flowing from the lips of a coward?

What are promises made not of the truth?

Many have been my night of loneliness

When solitude at an arm’s length

Stood ready to enter if called

On bent knees for a plea

In cool calm voice to appeal

Silent voices blurring on the ear drum

Only to warn, to chastise

To console not confuse

My heart still grows fonder forever

Its beat, still faster at her presence.

Has she not kept quiet for so long?

Have I not said it all, the same?

My deep breaths, my tearful eyes

They still speak for themselves even now.

DEEP DOWN THE HOLIEST HEIGHTS

Deep down the holiest heights

Above the abode of the salted sea

The moon will shine its shadows

Reflected by the barks and branches

Alone aloof, speechless silence

Meditated minds, busy fingers

A colourful loom of old

That the sun’s eyes shine

Very much like its own

My old age your old age

I will wake up with the itches

And will not complain

Very difficult the task to undertake

But will have to embrace it

Till the end because I’ll be there

Someday and soon

Bright eyes that will fade in colour

Seeing or not seeing with aid

And on bridges will beg for alms

For strong adherents to support

Will I be here

Someday and soon?

Aching limbs that soak up the bed

With tears holding on to a stick to walk

Waist that bends not without a support

A groan or even a proclamation to the maker

Who alone will come for them

Someday and soon

Will this be, my old age

Like your old age

And if it be can I resolve

Many have stayed to endure

Many more will have cursed its passing

With their love ones that day, if soon.

When the head is decorated with gray

And footsteps become feeble and frail

Imprisoned appetite

And attitudes

Will reap an everlasting peace or worry

Some day soon

our neighbours

Like a tortoise in race a hare

Not in haste to pass the line

Leaving his pearls unsearched

But slowly with it

Like a duck in the falling rain

Steadily through the piercing torrents

My impenetrable feathers will hide

And not get weary or tired of the fall

Like the ostrich I will not be

To hide my head in the earth

When my whole body faces it all

The shameful and hurting winds

Like the crab my whole body my home

My protection from the up sky

The unfriendly winds but not man

His sharpened iron and fire

Like the eagle to fly up high

Up the cloudy sky and forget not

The fall, my precious golden eggs

That I’ll leave out there

ON A LONELY FENCE

On this lonely fence

Stood there as if in glee but in beauty

No parade in the open sky

The open vast expanse

Because by the chill

Her feathers are clipped

An ill fated bird

The days came by

Like one having a pray after its tail

The nights were lonely beside the drenched tree

This rained on her all which was soaked up

It wet her eyes

Fallen rain from the leaves

Like tears from a broken tear gland.

As the moist winds blew above her head

Their leafy parts came near to tap her

To soothe those aching and weary limbs

Where the birds have flown without perching

And have lost part of their molten wings.

The dawn awaits you for its flight

Sending relieving kisses across the horizon

The pollen grains on those colorful petals

Give off their aromatic pleasure to the smelling senses

Charging the arid air and freshening its staleness

Will you still stay there on that lonely fence?

I saw longevity in your enchanted voice

And as you flap your wings in the heavens

They paid homage to you: the moon and stars

Because eternity drew nigh your molten wings

Will you still stay on that lonely fence?

The rains have seized

The vultures sit on their eggs above the tree top high.

The threshing floors abound in wheat

The brook, still fresh to see its sediments

Will you stay on that lonely fence?

Up,

Shake off the drops on your wings

Flap and fly.

Higher and higher into the breezes

Into territories not encroached and virgin woods

Into realms, dimensions and incarnations

We will be here awaiting your return

Go, go, go …

Till you can go no more.

© Emperor Leander David


NB

First publish by 'Our Empire' on Google blog

Made accessible to social media pages of
Walk The Talk Group/ JP International (Jubilee Projections International)
and their allied pages.

a head in a bow

I only bowed my head

And the eyes that met it

Joined in a grandiose salutation.

May they understand when I smile

And cry with me when those tears drop.

When the heavens open

Stay longer at my side

And not fail the gentle dew on me

With its showering voices.

The basket is lifted off the fowl

And still the same place, it lay

Waiting a hand to throw corn.

Who said we are under a spell?

Wake up! Those sleepy eyes

Move those strong trunks

Let them say!

Black is ours, let’s keep it

Let us say:

In dignity, in pride

Free from shame

To build and protect, care and guide

In our service to man, land and God

Long ago the basket is lifted up

Long has it been our stay at this place

Why this ache:

Waiting and

Waiting a hand to throw corn?