She is a well-behaved girl,
I heard someone tell my mother,
Once.
You were like an old soul,
Another confessed to me
As I was becoming of age.
Not once,
Did another ask, or with concern
“Why was she so quiet?”
No one
Paid attention to my silence,
It became normal to them and normalized by me too.
Why was I so mute? At
the moment, I just felt as if
I was frozen in time.
Like no one would
Listen, or
Care, or
Believe me…
Are we the shade of the shadow
or a shadow in the shade.
Are we sashaying toward pinhole dreams?
While trudging above an open grave.
It all seems like a giant garish gothic play
acts and players hand-picked centuries in advance.
Hobbled masses humbly kneel on crumbs to pray.
Realizing opinion nor ballot was ever worth a damn.
These two-legged, greedy, greasy snakes.
Eyes made of slag have no vacancy signs.
Clogging up our gossamer soul veins.
They're here to minimize, intimidate.
Project, disappear, dismiss, assassinate.
Straitjacket the masses with normalized madness.
We, the people, are not the ones playing God.
Poisoning water, field, sky...
Smiling in the light while eating innocents.
In the shadow of ritual and sacrifice.
These devils openly mock and taunt us now.
(byproducts of a boiling swamp).
Yellowing the face of flailing freedom.
A billion greenbacks can galvanize
such audacity and shallow bravery.
Of these deeply soiled oligarchs
and pathetic plastic kings.
I do not understand superior characteristic of a leader.
Leading to toxicity and becoming a trend in a workplace,
Those who are in higher positions are unapologetic
As if they are always right to give their stands and there is no room for others to interfere.
Workers in lower level tends to endure all the negative words and inhumane treatment,
Thinking that earning is more important than pride,
Without knowing that they become so immune
Tormenting themselves to survive.
Practicality holds them tight,
Putting in to their mind that it is really alright.
As if they have no voice to speak it out
Because at the end of the day they are just common employees who leash out.
Meanwhile the superior ones become much more mighty,
Knowing that they can maneuver someone’s supposed to be legacy
Without minding the effect,
That can result someone to give up.
There should have a balance,
Being superior should not be normalized.
Nor shortened, nor curtailed
Has ever been;
Of Time, its limit.
What it does permit.
Yet have we normalized
Its acceptance.
That through haste live more.
To stress is life for.
(“Creation Myth Merit Badge”, 2016, original oil)
Death Cult In Our Midst
There is a death cult in our midst
Some you can tell, many you can’t
Until they open their mouths
And out comes the hate for Life
And cheering on of Death.
Everywhere you look you can see the cult
Online, on TV, in movies and games
Where death and destruction
Is glorified and normalized
And you score points and win
When you kill.
The line between fantasy and reality
Thus blurred and/or erased
Leaves US where we are today
Broken and divided
Fearful and emboldened.
What does tomorrow bring?
More death
The cult dreams, whispers, chants and sings.
More death
Until only the pure remain.
(9/15/25)
Words are seeds that grow and blossom,
Open doors,
Change the course,
The mouthpiece of the mind,
Intertwined with society,
Use case undefined,
Words depart as soon as they come,
Although,
Their meanings linger like a quiet echo,
A weight with every word,
People clueless to the true meaning,
A deeper meaning,
A meaning that can harm,
A pain that sorry can't mend,
A global obstacle,
A hole in our heart,
I didn't mean it,
Stop,
It's not like that,
Stop,
There's no reason for the commotion
Stop,
Thoughtless shouting,
Rambling words,
Wounds disguised as speech,
Mortifying speech,
Stop,
Hurting to feel better,
An endless cycle,
Normalized in our society,
Rooted in our veins,
But what if we paused?
What if we reconciled,
Took time to understand,
What if we planted better seeds,
Growing a garden of kindness?
A world where harm dissolves,
Where we choose light over dark.
It only takes a moment—
A single decision,
A second of thought.
Words can blossom beauty,
Or sow division.
Choose wisely.
They twitch along nerves
still wired to those fever
induced rooms, memories
of faces pressed against
windows, peering in through
curtains with their red eyes,
screams stuck in throats
suffocating to a groan
in gaping mouths.
There were places to hide
when day came around,
a dark cave inside
an iron shed with pale
constellations of old nail holes
feigning starlight overhead.
The world was kept
on the other side
of a peep hole
in the wall of the shed.
And yet there were lovely
flowers blooming
under a bright sun,
the day would carry on
with the ordinary things
that had to be done.
Terror would wear off
and morph into something
else instead, normalized
by the trick
of becoming numb,
or be little more than
a slight disturbance
fizzing in the wiring
of the head.
Besides,
who would understand
when what was there
has now moved
way beyond the vocabulary
of a word weary tongue.
Souls are assigned an agenda of purposeful worth
People meander meaning as a purpose of birth
Souls are here to experience emotional exchange
Our confluence with drama deceives us estrange
Souls are magically magnetized by a soul mate
We are nostalgically normalized by a sense of fate
Souls originate the love of unconditional designs
We preference the path of traditional blood lines
Souls are altruistically giving without reciprocity
We are unforgivingly taking without virtuosity
Souls live eternally in crossroads of evolving time
People live once in the genes of diminishing prime
In the Future, there will be no rose meadows, a desolate barren hellscape of ecocide normalized. The bleakness of reality
made possible by the dominion of the Earth.
Corporations contaminate the atmosphere we once breathed. They poisoned the air so they could sell gas masks to our children.
Oxygen, water have become luxuries.
Preparing for a death long waiting for us.
A prophecy where the eighth fire
will never be lit. Skin feels feverish before
the sun scorches us all into ashes.
Across the ocean
The abnormal is normalized
There, where perverts lose shame,
Coming out of the closet,
putrid degeneracy seeks renown,
unashamedly, sensuality is stuffed on your throat.
begging for acceptance by law,
innocent kids no longer safe,
a subtle compelling propaganda
men supposedly intelligent,
advocating immoral identity
urging us all to give up our sanity
from toleration to acceptance,
as gradually society degenerates
I stick to my African values.
And stand aloof in awe and amazement
Thou wretched spot, thou churlish little knave,
canst thou in truth believe thine own deceit?
Engendered by thy lusts, thou art a slave,
ensconced by thy morality’s retreat.
Ye target those placed trusting in your care,
such innocent, inquisitive young minds,
yet lurking in thy cerebellar lair,
a single thought, corrupting all it finds.
Thou seekest normalized attraction thus,
outraged when thy detractors say ye groom,
yet utilizing TikToc to discuss,
there plastered on the walls, thy queerish blooms.
Thou maledict, thy curse flies off my lips:
now pass through blades and lie among the chips.
—————
for the Shakespeare in 2023 Poetry Contest
sponsored by Anoucheka Gangabissoon
written on 01/08/23
Could I, should I, and may I?
You are my poetry. I am in love with his present, that my future longs for.
My poetry is you, pale love.
Your giddy eyes mesmerize me, your plump lips catch my attention, and your charm and sweetness entice me to approach you, but your disposition begs me to stay with you. Your hugs and smiles make me happy. My heart feels like a nuclear bomb might detonate when I touch you.
Could I, should I, or may I?
Even though it is nighttime, light displays remain motionless against the rain.
However, as we play around, Your lips begin to flow within mine, and mine begin to flow within yours.
But the rain continues to fall
However, you've forced me to see love as painful even though it's also fascinating. You've made me crush my love like an elephant tramples an ant, you've normalized pain while making love seem strange to me. Even though it shocks me when I see it, and you've forced me to question my identity even whilst forcing me to discover it.
What is intended for you is the will to act.
What is wished for you is a passion for care.
What I wanted for you was to understand my love.
Political verses
They came and looked.
Assaulted the dwellers
We preferred blindness
The winner robs all
Apartheid normalized
Slowly we see horror
They murder the holly.
That insists on surviving.
The pure outpace evil.
It is absurd and sad.
From the village stores to the shores.
An eruption of corruption.
Where is the corrupt? Who is corrupt?
When have normalized the anomalies.
For you to get one must also get.
The lesser you give the lesser you get.
I won't concur until we conquer.
?@Tha Formidable Cheru.
#themonk.
Father, you say there will be good times and bad times
But why does this all seem unfair?
How many more sleepless nights?
How many more hungry nights?
How many more cold nights?
Do I have to endure before the leaf finally turns.
Father I have laughed at the impossible.
I have normalized the abnormal
Thinking that soon it will all come back
But still there is nothing coming my way
I have looked up
I have looked down
I have looked sideways
But there is not even the tinniest sign
Father decades have gone by and I think I have endured enough.
You say patience pays,
But have I not been patient enough?
Have you forgotten me?
PLEASE HAVE MERCY!
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