After I graduated as teacher: East London High
Because I boarded at an ashram in Durban
Check of my first salary, went to it as thanks
NOTE: The Swami - "not good in Christ terms" - but the most abstemious & disciplined man I knew, blessed my gratitude. His name, Swami Sahajananda, or formerly Srinivas Naidoo of Estcourt, said I would always have Grace. I have never gone hungry, or very cold, 42 years on.
I wonder if there are Elders
wise
or more perennially surprised
who, looking back at their youth,
regret all their erotic time
invested in having peak
experiential sex,
And wish they had, instead,
done something, most anything,
more left brain dominant,
more theoretically
politically correct,
more economically prominent.
I so hope not.
Better off, I feel sure,
invested in abundant splatters of messy,
sometimes musical, health
Than overly divested
away from EarthTribe's gloriously peaking race
carried away by abstemious matters
of more disciplined pace
for securing capital infested wealth.
In Russia do not drink is infraction
if not vodka it causes rejection
whoever is abstemious is screwed
must live cloistered and booed
If I die
There comes a time
Time of death
No escape
But
If I die
Let it not be of AIDS
I knew i lived a lie
Of many friends
Whom i nicknamed friends
But were walkers
Professional sex addicts
Sex ametuers
But
If i die
Let it not be of AIDS
Of who i was
Of whom i became
And of what i leave
Let it be hailed
Of how abstemious i lived
Of how cautious i loved
Of how irrational i smiled
To them
But
If i die
Let it not be of AIDS
At a night in this autumn,
I sat abstemious under a pine
A place where usually belong to me in this university
When my arms and legs felt as numb as electric shocks
I could not help going back to my little office
Under the lamp
I saw many pimples in my arms and legs!
Clearly that they were made by the unnamed mosquitoes!
Oh, those poor little mosquitoes
They were left lonely in the Beijing campus
For such a long summer vacation
They must be hungry extremely!
The Ending
This old tramp ship
Rusty and tired
Her engine often stopped
It was a struggle
To start it again
The sun rejected
This ship sailed
In a fog of despair
The crew were
Residue
Of harbour debris
For the officer the last
Chance Saloon
Misfits who struggled
To stay abstemious
Some failed
Disappeared
In the night.
Off the coast of Peru
She died
Sank slowly
Beneath the ocean
With her
Tax avoidance
Flag flying
Went with some folks to
Gene and Georgetti's,
they marveled that
I only wanted a plate of
spaghetti
Went to Shaw's Crab House
and it was the same,
a meal of broiled Salmon;
they said
- 'that's so lame!'
No cocktails before dinner,
no bottle of Bordeaux,
no Beaujolais or Chianti,
just eat dinner,
then go
No cheesecake or cobbler,
not even creme brule,
that stuff doesn't tempt me
I don't care what
you say
You can take me to
Morton's, HyeHolde, Trader Vic's,
I'm sure it would've been
the same at Monsieur Ric's
Give me protein and veggies,
some carbs and 'good' fat
some seasoning, some water
and leave it at that
Sorry, can't help it
it's all only fuel,
even back in Dicken's time
when they ate all that gruel
Abstemious!
Be cooking.
Don’t eat from gastronomic hotels.
Insist jambalaya.
Kindly live maximally nutritious, opt pawpaw.
Quench.
Revitalize strength to undertake vital works XL,
Yields; zeal.