Coward

I stand at a crossroads today

Knowing not why or when I have come here

Not knowing why, makes me question the veracity of my experiences

Not knowing when, fills me with answers that I know are false

I thus stood at the crossroad today

And for the longest time nothing happened

And it was good

It was good because I was for once sure of this feeling

And this feeling was cowardice

True and naked

I spat away at the dust of comfort that had settled in and I went down one path

I walked long and hard

Thinking that I knew why and when I had set forth from cowardice

I stumbled at the end of that day

Only to realise in cold sweat

I stand at a crossroads today

Knowing not why or when I have come here.

mithrandir

"Find out what you're afraid of and go live there."

Chuck Palahniuk

Paper Cliché

The writer writes the story.

It inspires the poetry in the poet.

Who yells it atop the roofs and roads.

The people hear it and are shocked and some are inspired.

The father tells his wife, she tells her daughter.

Who tells her little brother.

He sleeps on it and dreams of it.

Years go by and the brother sleeps the dream away in prison.

The air is filled with the words.

On death row now, the inmate is asked,

"ANY LAST WORDS".

He narrates the story.

His little boy writes those last words down.

The writer,pauses and tears the paper and throws it away.

~Mithrandir

 'And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.'

~Khaled Hosseini 

Pick-up Ettan: Part Fiction Part Childhood

Every morning all the kids in the block used to wake up, brush and dress up and eat breakfast," One should never go to school on an empty stomach!" Says Pick-up Ettan. Pick-up Ettan is highly disciplined when it comes to what enters his Pick-up and what leaves his Pick-up.

Pick-up Ettan's get-up is a white pant-shirt combination. On special occasions a white shirt-white mundu. His Pick-up is a yellow 3 wheeled beast with a black round head. No horns required. It goes "tup-a-tup-tup". And everybody stands in attention at the gates, waiting in to be swallowed up and taken to the ooschool. On bumps the Pick-up, she goes "tuppam-tup-tuppam". It was a musical beast that Pick-up and Pick-up Ettan, that most venerable of conductors.

Once the Pick-up went "tuppam-tup-tuppam" over the bump and came down heavily with a "tappusss...". We reached school late that day. Pick-up Ettan got yelled at a lot by the ooschool maash (teacher). We didn't see the Pick-up or Pick-up Ettan the next day. After a few days, one evening we saw Pick-up Ettan, a forlorn figure with eyes closed under a tree.

His get-up of white and white pant-shirt, was dirty that day.


~mithrandir

Written and Unwritten

I met this girl once, we gave each other many books.

She gave the ones that were already full and written to read from.

And I gave her blank ones, unwritten- for her to draw in.

And there was happiness.

-mithrandir

Note to self

Pick a match stick, light a smoke

Burn a few lungs, live a dream

Open a bottle, pour out your heart.

Hide away the bore you are 

Smile a fake smile , live everybody else's lie

Be with all those who call you-friend, walk away

Nag about life, pretend somebody gives a shit

Look up at the sky and as everyone sighs, 

Hold your breath and wait to die.

~mithrandir

" Take a writer away from his typewriter and all you have is the sickness that started him writing in the first place. "
~ C Bukowski


onism - n. the awareness of how little of the world you’ll experience


Imagine standing in front of the departures screen at an airport, flickering over with strange place names like other people’s passwords, each representing one more thing you’ll never get to see before you die—and all because, as the arrow on the map helpfully points out, you are here.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IrBlmpqh8T0

~ The dictionary of obscure sorrows

Oxymorons

I closed my eyes and opened my mind,

I saw you in the cold, wrapped in a warm blanket.

I was far away behind you,

But you turned and were closer than before.

I took one step and walked far after,

You were sitting and leaned back to a time to come.

I didn't know how to play but in boredom I whistled,

You strummed your tunes endlessly, to sadly deaf ears.

~mithrandir

"Peculiar Travel Suggestions are Dancing Lessons From God"

-Mr V (and le petit chat)

The shepherd who missed Christmas

It was a cold and dreary night when the shepherd woke,

Alone, neither man nor sheep, there was naught but smoke.

He cursed at everything available at hand and made for the door

Hurried tracks, shoddy packing up and the planning was poor.

"What would have scared the Moses out of them..."

He wondered and something above him shone like a gem.

"You... are late... aren't you now...the Lord's been born"

The shepherd looked like somebody had popped his corn.

"I'm a free man...I don't abide no lady or lord !" said he.

The voice coughed irritably.

"Your compatriots arrived to be witness to the birth of a God."

Eyes weary he barely caught the last word.

"Most poorly organised and publicised then"

The voice had had enough of the world of men.

"All these gods, they come and they go..."

"With millions and millions in tow..."

"This one will be different...this one is God for mankind"

The shepherd huffed," What god is difficult for a commoner to find"

The voice said," He is going to preach love and peace..."

"Really! who milks the sheep eh? who makes the cheese?"

"I don't want no lord, show me a God who can find his sheep!"

The voice was a symbol of silence allowing these words to seep.

"In due time he will look for you, leaving aside all the rest."

The shepherd snorted, winked and gestured in jest.

"Though you have missed him, he will seek you."

"When he does, I shall prepare him good bread and some stew!"

The light was now dimming, this seemed a lost cause.

He fired a last one,"Best let the big G find me or old Moss"

A feeble voice now spoke, "This is heaven we are talking about."

"Green pastures and a bright sunshine, now go away and don't shout."

The light was gone and the shepherd was all alone.

In the distance many stars now brightly shone.

The shepherd inhaled in deeply the sacred night,

And was glad of this sacred sight.

He was of simple mind and of simple need,

Good food, laughter and sleep and no better life to lead.

~mithrandir

"But who prays for Satan? Who, in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?"
Mark Twain