Best Smouldered Poems
Blue
twinges
of lament
cast gaunt shadow
o’er my dreadful pang
as a grim mist segued
into dark claustrophobic
cantons where rabid zeal of hearts
once smouldered from magma’s deep red vein
Yet I cling to golden dawn recall
of lazy strolls in lush green mead
wild sniff of purple heather
neath sun-drenched sky aflame
gusts of joy rippling
froth-rim brook waltz
now toilworn
gaudy
dream
My first husband
Wore out the arms of his chair
Digging his elbows
Into the soft upholstery
Of our marriage.
I made bright covers with
The fabric of family life
Home, children, pets
But the damage smouldered.
I bought new chairs
To fill the empty rooms
Of divorce and loneliness
But missed the old upholstery.
My second husband
Came with a brand new suite
Cushioned with conformity
It felt comfy and safe.
.
When times are good friendship blossoms
It fragrances all about
The sweet perfume of love
Let’s all about know
That no ill-will can see the light of day
Animosity can however set in quickly
Like a fast blowing wind
The sand castle of friendship can scatter
Far and wide
The shallow foundation
No match for the storms that now rage
This vitriol
Coupled with self-eroding contempt
Often puts paid to reconciliation
How fickle is friendship
How swiftly and cruelly it can be reversed
Turning to hatred
Leaving deep never healing scars
On one’s psyche
A fraternity of equals
The players of this social tangle
Had hoped and wanted to be
Sadly for some it wasn’t meant to be
Like hot water left to cool
The cold of unfriendliness may set in gradually
Or pour down with viciousness so abruptly
The reason can often to the injured party
A mystery be
The building blocks of unity
Are suddenly set alight
The flames of friendship past
Can burn oh so bright
Words spoken that cannot be recanted
Wound with skill
How advantageous is past familiarity
The knife knows where to grievously harm
Maiming with willful intent
How artful is treachery
Rage uncontained
Poisons all
A scene of no holds barred
A spectacle most dismal
The victor is but a fool
To think he has won
For he only fans the flames
That inevitably will consume him
Dirty laundry aired carelessly
Reeks mostly acridly
The recanting of embarrassing moments past
The venting of animosities that smouldered for too long
Is often too much to bear even for
The feuding ex-friends
There is no going back
From this point onwards
Thoughts and memories are ransacked
To find a grain of now apparent Ill-will
The petty of yore
Now comes to the fore
Life can sometimes burden
One unnecessarily
To acknowledge hurt caused
And to seek an end to hostilities
Is a road less travelled
A strong man or woman
You surely must be
To want to salvage what was once held dearly
But now dumped carelessly
What a tragedy is friendship
That once was
And never again will be
Fumbling for my lighter I saw you:
unlit cigarette awaiting illumination.
I smiled - appealing for enlightenment,
and you came to my rescue, igniting
my interest with a spark of ardour.
You struck the match that lit our love.
You struck the match that made our match!
Thoughts, dreams, hopes and plans kindled
in the embers of that moment, and smouldered....
then bursting into flame, lighting our darkness.
We built walls of assurance -
a sanctuary of hopeful anticipation.
We tended the garden of our desires, and
pruned the doubts and fears until they
withered and died with the failures of the past.
We invested our lives in the vows we made.
We committed to mutual commitment, and
took the tentative connubial steps toward
a future of togetherness - that was then -
then - when love was all we had - we promised......
....Our walls of affirmation still stand.
Our flames of longing still dance in the
moonlight and welcome the dawning of
a new day. Sun-rays of optimism appear
behind clouds of dissension and
in the garden blooms of assurance shower
us with petals of solidarity. We disagree,
but agree to differ, and sit together
on the fence called compromise to watch
the sun set on our disparity....cordiality restored.
We retire to the shelter of our home.
You pour the wine, I strike a match -
our hearts and hearth glow with confidence
as the fire takes hold. Fumbling for my lighter
you anticipate its loss ......and rescue me once more.
I watched her perched on a chair
a picture of loveliness
She unaware
as she ate a peach
and juice ran from the corner of her lips
down her chin
I walked over and licked
to take a sip.
She looked up at me with that certain
look I new so well
Her lips were wet and shiny
and I knew she wanted to kiss her
I could tell.
I brushed my finger tip
over her top full warm soft lip
gently and teasingly
as we moved closer
and yet closer.
I cupped her face in my hands
and kissed her passionately
the smell and taste
of those sweet juice laden lips was just to much for me.
Our tongues relished the feast
She now breathing more rapidly
as I rose to my feet
I picked her up and carried her
in my arms
as he wrapped hers around my shoulders
still kissing her as we both smouldered.
I laid my prescious lady gently upon the marital bed
and propped the pillow under her head
and the lavish feast
really began.
Peter Dome.copyright.3014 Jan.
(Up-Tempo Shuffle)
VERSE A
Each war of personalities
Within your crowded soul
Reaps a gasp of mystery
Anticipated - anticipated ...
But just a flash of golden-green
One sweetened liquored gaze
I'm on a slope that's slippery
Intoxicated - intoxicated - oh
CHORUS 1
I drink you like a madman - ma-ad-man
With cubes of sugar, sugar - sugar, sugar, Baby
I'm clouded like a bad man - ba-ad-man
Bittersweet those sugar highs
Behind your absinthe eyes
VERSE B
You share your social destiny
Your bitter wormwood heart
Those classic drastic emojis
Interrogated - interrogated ...
But all you have to give to me
Is that mossy smouldered look
The surest way to poison me
Contaminated - contaminated - oh
CHORUS 2
I drink you like a madman - ma-ad-man
With cubes of sugar, sugar - sugar, sugar, Baby
I'm clouded like a bad man - ba-ad-man
Bleeding heart for all that lies
Behind your absinthe eyes
BRIDGE
Oh-oh, I drink you in
Oh-oh, that sip of sin
Oh-oh, I'm lost if I begin
(Solo)
CHORUS OUT
I drink you like a madman - ma-ad-man
With cubes of sugar, sugar - sugar, sugar, Baby
I'm clouded like a bad man - ba-ad-man
Angels weep as heaven cries
Behind your absinthe eyes
I drink you like a madman - ma-ad-man
With cubes of sugar, sugar - sugar, sugar, Baby
I'm clouded like a bad man - ba-ad-man
Drowning in a sea of sighs
Behind your absinthe eyes
Behind your absinthe eyes
Behind your absinthe eyes.
* The music for this song has been written, and it WILL be on my upcoming
album/CD - watch for updates on my web site @ www.bahku.com *
i hate a night as this
minutes turning as the fan
slow and back again
metronomic
lives slipped past each other
spotlights on dark water
arc light dimming
tenebrous
murmured civilities
faucalized voices
whispers in a wine glass
monosyllabic
days years months
rusting like old coins
forgotten in a sewer grate
mineralized
calendar of moments
flying backward and away
burnt years like autumn's leaves
cold smouldered
tannic blood alkali veined
sublimated heart
simmering on a soul's backburner
as I roll back over
to this polar night
What recently smouldered
now grips to my shoulders
a prickled and frosty forepain,
a pre-emptive breath
while selectively deaf
to the gut contradicting the brain.
No plural demise
from oceanic eyes
could drown my heart ablaze,
my will shall not bend
while I share with a friend
that I would miss your cobalt gaze.
At your side I am taller
but apart I feel smaller
'til I know I will be there again,
you're all I have got
and I need a fresh shot
your toxicity is leaving my veins.
In a few days I'll be yours
and I'll feel restored
negatives will be erased,
it's nice that I care
but I'll hold off to share
I am sure it is just a phase.
Brendan ain’t ‘Able’
The teacher preached that we are all ‘different but similar and
love should prevail’ as the ruler came down in seven lashes
on the bare bottom in mathematical precision and so the pattern
was formed in bright red strikes and strides for creativity shelled
Two canes plus three canes had equalled one cane for Brendan lost in
the world of artistry fantasy mild mellowed dreams anticipation of
cruelty abandoned for a more equal world of compassion and kindness
Diversity does not mean we all have to die by the hand of the sword
But the ground rules were laid the nucleus centred the core enshrined
on the altar of learning of fear and conditioning the human condition
Surely Cain had been forgiven while Brendan was not just so able
What a premise to believe all need to be governed by rules and by fear
Brendan himself became governor received medals and glory on the
killing fields of purple hearts while his rainbow receded smouldered
in ashes and blood scripted the fiction that wars must be waged on
others infidels and the weak and the meek who simply don’t learn
Anarchy has been misunderstood for the chaos projected bedevilled
by the teachers and soldiers whose bayonet is the ruler the wooden
spoon for the worst form of governance inflicted by the concept that
we as the people and People could never know best are derided as sheep
Who says it is utopia that we cannot govern ourselves one step at the time
inch by inch like the face on the weapon that had patterned his cheeks
‘Rule thyself not thy neighbour’ let us stand up and rebel oppose the
dominion of dominant forces overthrow the rule and the ruler and live
10th March 2017
Insanity was at its peak again
Humanity degraded. . . debased
Lives of fellow beings became toys
They massacred thousands
For the Holy war
They smouldered while laughing
Matchetes and cultlass were freely used
Heads roll on the street
Part of body littered major road, even in Major street6
They are fighting for Allah
Whose commandment is for all to love one another
Who are they then fighting for?
Are these men not really insane?
Insanity runs down their veins
Ignorance gush through their blood
Wickedness reigns in thier heart
Men that are not fit for our society
Must we wait again
For another display of insanity?
We must stop it now.
Alayande Stephen T.
12.32am
12/10/2008
An account of brutal massacre occasioned
By unbridled religion intolerance in
Kaduna State, Nigeria in 2002 during the aborted
Miss World Beauty Contest in Nigeria as
Narrated by an eye witness Latifat of UNILORIN.
Serenading you with my sincerity
assembling praises in your name
your one glance falls in place
a thousand emotions it resurrects.
Dawn is the new dusk
you pretend and wave it off
but the beauty in it
like an elephant without a tusk.
I wander to find peace
to render apologies apiece
my state of mind eloquent of a mirage
and I stay true to this farce
reality sickens me to the core
bringing redundant conversations to the fore.
Dredging up new barriers
setting up new boundaries.
Parsing life stuck at this juncture
now I run slower
and a lot less hunger
our differences like embers
time smouldered them
now settled beneath the ashes forever
still flickering by power of faith
memories waiting for someone to remember.
a carvery the sadistical it plough the salt on pewter it swords poles, rods,
it makes that satic it means a Conan, it twilight it scourges, it raid the emcamp it ask not
a baby humanity it ask not in eye, it had it gouged out
it asked the arm torn off it asked the nimrouiB Khan it asked it carried the a pole 50foot og long it made
it decapitated its own men women, child has thrown o'er these off a wall, 10s oh thousands
i sleuth it winds, it smouldered they ofh it made decapitated, a head oh a stick, do tell oh the inge
it taught og these own it asked oh me taught of the body og
women, i asked it Sorceri it Sargent it ask og me how is it the sticks, here is Herod, it me plough how we did meek it slaughtered
be me it taugh a central og it body part removal made a fistula
feed feel not it make of a feminine it made she, it stolen her it made i
me slouch a i a child is made a man, he Wilders the post
be k be known it hunted humanity it body become of apple
When the repellant acid rain came,
the silica image gloomed darkly
into sobbing disintegration
Embers of flickering hope
smouldered deep in the heart of despair
Passion dying to be re-ignited,
only sparked
a saline immolated tearful incineration
Distance was a skeleton key,
overcoming temporal relativity
was a spatial mistake
Stretch marks of lost time ...
candles snuffed
on the anniversary cake
Emotional composure
had an elasticity expiration due date
Hardening of the arteries —
love can’t flow in a vacuum
Premature, incubated promises
won’t grow in a dark room
Umbilical desires
got an ultrasound hole cut in the chest
Covers unturned ...
pillow sighs smothered a feeble breath
Bosom reasons for embracing neglect
is a mirage yearning
Borrowed time is an unrequited debt,
paid by the spurning
When the Venus rains came,
the mirror image burned brightly ...
then disappeared, ever so slowly
Death of an icy love affair,
dissolved
in glacial, decomposed fashion —
As misty, crypt wails
ascend in the deserted air
Why did we anyway?
Never thought id write a poem for you
Walking from the guest house in the pouring rain
Just to get to share a drink
You wouldn’t have walked if you hadn’t wanted to
You could have called and just said I can’t make it.
Time just seemed to fly when we were together
Conversation never seemed to stop it just happened
So what happened why did you do it?
We both knew it was wrong
I should have said no, you should have said no
So why did we anyway?
You made me fall hard, you made it harder still to forget
Nothing will compare to what we had
Like teenagers on a first date
It was always like that, electricity in the air
Something smouldered and burst into flame
We both got burned
We flew too close to the sun and died
Falling from the sky to our death below
Years ago now but still like yesterday
You made me feel alive
I looked forward to each day
So why did you do what you did?
Just answer me that!
So what happened why did you do it?
We both knew it was wrong
I should have said no, you should have said no
So why did we anyway?
Did you just forget and cast away what you loved most?
Or was it all just a pretence?
Just a snare to catch forbidden fruit
Why did you take the apple, why did you share your heart with me?
Did you hurt as much as I did?
Just tell me, why did you??
Has the laughter in your eyes died too?
Do your eyes reflect your pain like mine?
Just a dull reflection of what used to be.
So walk on, go, you know you have to…….
We both knew it was wrong
I should have said no, you should have said no
So why did we anyway?
All of a sudden, the town sort of changed,
As though the years had heaped all their dust in one go,
Reshaping the atmosphere and structure,
Erecting a darker, more feral architecture.
I sat on a bench in the square with a Diet Coke,
A Café Crème silently smouldered in my fingers,
And the ambience bristled, dangerous sensations
Tingling playfully along my gooseflesh arms.
When I was a kid, I remembered, it had felt safe,
Sure it looked crab-apple old, but solid;
Now slightly surreal – a Kebab Shop, a Cost Cutter,
Peddled addictions in the stead of grocers and cafes.
And the windows, once lit, once bright and wide,
Inviting day and night casual window shoppers;
Wares now squirreled away, shut behind steel and mesh,
Blinded produce, unless you have X-Ray eyes.
A car blazed past, peeling paint, hubcaps spraying rain,
The driver wore a reversed baseball cap,
His boombox roared culture of nine-thousand miles distant:
“Yo, mutha, today you die – rat-at-at-tat – today you die…!”
I smoked and drank coke and felt my childhood expire,
It had been years since I sat beside the Great War Cenotaph,
Yet the life that had died so very long ago for me,
Felt as though it had suddenly passed just then.