Dubai Days manuscript

Long Weekends Whereupon the Driftwood Rots




1st Apr 17




Life and lethargy linger where long weekends
yawn.


Gritty eyed dawns stay in bed holding the week's
labour at bay.

The butchering of fey butterflies on the meadows
where the donkeys bray,

Is held in abeyance


Because the monotony of mindless brutality gets
boring after a while.


Then the painted mask peels back revealing a
relieved smile.

There's a white flag splattered with scarlet spots.


A message in a bottle clinks against the rocks where
the driftwood rots.

Looking at Men in Bhutan Mirrors

May 18

I went for a lost weekend in Bhutan
Which lasted a year.
I went to find myself
But only refined my fears.
There were moments
When dialogues with myself
Ended in violence and stalemate.
The light at the end of the tunnel
Was the headlights of an approaching freight
Train. And I flitted fitting into the gaps
And wrestled with no’s and many a perhaps.
The skirmishes spilled over
Into the streets of Darjeeling
And I needed there something stronger than tea.
Our wee lives are not the epic adventures we
thought they would be.
So much more mundane.
The wretched, the insane and the inane.
We are barely extras upon worn stage
And behind rolling cameras
That play not to the critics nor to the gallery but to
the cash tills.
In Bhutan, my ills
Made me feel better,
Not the worst for wear,
Although I do confess,
The worst for drink.

I held hands with my fears
And headed west,
Home to find myself
Where I last left myself.

Looking for Black Cats in Dark Rooms



26th March 19



Oppositions

Rise and fall
Like rulers do.

You were too much of a fool

Not to fall prey.

Their indiscretions are forgotten.

Your suppositions are confounded

And your stars are landed
With a crash and a blaze.

A monk in a yellow robe with a shaven head,

Lotus position,

Fishing in the ponder.

He knows the truth

But says nothing.

Anything that ever lived, died.
Love and justice have taken refuge

In the world you stalk,

Lurching from scoundrel to thief to murderous
maniac.

Your zeal once steel

Now is a feather floating
At the bottom of the ocean

Where dead-eyed fish glide by indifferent.

You search for faith incandescent

But it’s like a fool

Looking for a black cat in a dark room,

Which isn’t there.

Labour night to noon

But beware the dreams that glow in your heart.
Such things may tear your world apart.

The Price of Life



22nd Dec 18


Your dollars,

With your vows,

Burst into flames

In the blazing dumpster fire.

Pound per flesh

Is no longer necessary.
The barrier that you face

Is skin deep. In the rat race,

Kith and kin

Are helpless to your plight.

The countdown begins

In the space of a blink.

And what was once unthinkable
Is now commonplace.

Most death certificates

Are written on dollar notes.

The bodies burn to ashes

With the cash

That cannot pass with the soul onto the other side.

















Love Within



17th Sep 18


Find the love within.

Love beyond is not a thing always viable

And relies on others

And others are not reliable.

They dry the rivers of hope,

Honey and milk
Into a trickle.

Fickle folk.

Roll upon the ropes

And maybe sometimes

Roll with the punches son.

Just when you think it’s all done,

You find there’s so much more yet to come.

Making Good



19th Apr 19


I make good on my promises

And my threats.

Don’t let me stop you

Setting sail on a sea of regrets.

Your maiden voyage

Is paid in pillage.
Goodbyes, farewells and so longs,

Disappear upon the horizon with the throngs.

Marooned

May 17


The ocean was mottled cobalt and turquoise where
the sand beds floated to the surface at the fringes of
the shore.

Amore no more.

Like a man dying of thirst marooned out at sea
Surrounded by hundreds of miles and fathoms deep
of water he can't drink,
I find myself alone in yet another city
Surrounded by millions of others Robinson
Crusoes.

















Middle-Aged Delusions



28th Dec 18


I go back home

To remind myself why I left.

Bereft of reason, every season

Feels like winter.

A perpetual hibernal hell.

Life starting at 40 is desperate propaganda
Bandied about by droopy, midlife-crisis struck 44
year olds

With dismal success rate in a night club of peachy-
faced pert-arsed debutantes.

The insane are well adjusted

In a world driven blind by its own narcissism.

You settle for soul-aching, dead-end jobs and crusty
scraps and eating odds and ends to build up a
padding of flab to comfort the blows that have
become monotonous.

Sonorous,

Your curtain call and time in the limelight is being
hollered.

Follow it.

Answer the bailiffs thump on the door

And find an asylum
To subvert and destroy.

Mind Over Matter

25th Sep 18

The Madam Bovary
Of Uzbekistan
Blows a kiss
As she pulls up
Her garter.
And Goethe
Sighs
Saying
Such is the world.
Dubai doesn’t care
And it’s all well if you’re fair
And the fun
That could have been had,
Was -
By somebody else.
Pay your dues.
Pay Du,
Pay Etisalat,
Pay Dewa,
Pay Salik,
Pay the police,
Pay your VAT,
Pay pay pay
The price
Of being alive
In Dubai.
Pay and pay

Because God’s given days,
We’re meant for this.
It is a matter of mind over matter
And you don’t mind
Because
I don’t matter.

Monogamy


th
18 Aug 17


Monogamy

Monotony

Lobotomy

Sodomy

Infamy

In for me
Stick it in for me

Stick it into me

















Mother Earth Violated



28th Jan 19


She’s become the thing that rises up on its hind
legs.

The tale told of old which sounded like pure myth

Is the holy of holies after all.

Driven into remission,
The everyday folk are run through the mill and
ground to powdered grain.

The mercenary plough forth again

Sparing no one

And razing everything...

Coming from within the plexus of the political
world,
There’s deep contempt.

The snakes and ladders become entwined
and the shadows in the house of love are spurred
on.

Cowboys don’t always wear Stetsons and shoulder
holsters.

The good, the bad and ugly are within all of us.

Make hay while Mother Earth can still sprout it
through her pores.
All the men she adores

Flay and bleed her

From their birth to her crypt door.

No Man’s Kingdom Lasts Forever


10th Oct 18


Just like you and I,
Stars and civilisations
Are born and die.

The millennia grind empires
Over epochs into dust
And toss relics into time’s pyre.

No king reigns forever and nothing lasts
Because nothing was meant to
Other than the Maker nestled among the stars.

No Wolf Will Blow My House Down



20th Sep 18


Through howling gusts

And taunting flames

And pluming dynamite,

I’ve seen hearth and home blight

-ed

Decimated.
I made believe

Through a dearth of respite and relief

That the last time

Would be the last

Only to find myself wandering homeless again.

Nothing protects me from the pain

And the threat of more attacks
That darken my door

But no wolf will blow my house down

Anymore

For

I have foregone

The sanctity of home
Forevermore.

Bold Strokes



10th Feb 19


All your intuitions

Were wrong

And that’s ok.

Did the ladders turn into snakes?

You’re unsurprised.

What is living, if not keeping alive?
Go back

Into your self

And left on the shelf,

You’ll find, was a blessing in disguise.

Hold on.

There’s a smoulder

And then
A flame licks

And then a blaze.

Before you walk away,

Think.

Everything but the kitchen sink

And you’ve outgrown your skin.
The door opens

Both ways.

These streets were where you grew a little older

And in assured age, you’ve grown bolder.

The rat race can be trapped

And you’ve never fallen for the trappings

Of power, money and vain glory.
A man today reminded you to pray

For their redemption,

Not your salvation.

Kneel and bow your head.

Is that the time?

Draw the drapes

And go gently to bed
Because you’re head

Needs to roam.