Towards the thaw
As the days of spring are here, I should be happy having made it through the winter. The April breeze brings regret, remembering what had been pushed aside, no, I was no mother’s favorite son
Recalling every detail, overthinking every word said, reacting with angry silence as a defense to hurts felt as a betrayal. No, I was not a sweet boy happily playing in a backyard with a toy
The spring breeze also tells me of an ending, my doctor’s remark of scaring bathers with dark blue blotches on my white body, it is like the process of death has begun when still alive
My anger keeps me going. I was dealt a pack of cards and did my best, bought the small blue houses on the monopoly board the affordable ones. I have no regrets and wait in silence
It was a sudden grim tragedy,
That jeopardized lives and safety,
With neither a tremor nor vibration,
An edifice came crumbling from the foundation.
Like Titanic ship it came sinking suddenly,
Like pack of cards it came crashing all at once,
People died and got buried alive unexpectedly,
Under the dust and debris all at once.
This is more than a pandemic!
It grieves my heart and left me saddened
That forces unknown wield such polemic
Against mortals and are divinely unrestrained
Could it be there was no safety inspection,
To detect the frailty of the structure,
To check for a crack in the foundation...?
Oh, may it never happen again in the future.
Dear Lord, to the deceased grant pardon
That their souls may find eternal rest
And to those they left grace to bear
In hope that they are saved from eternal grief
Like a pack of cards,
Olympus fell.
Like the spear of a great warrior,
Senzangekhona has swallowed a stone!
Who will bear the pain,
Left on the heels of the archers.
Whose strength shall our burden rest on?
Ologbojo - your beauty incomparable!
Adorable with ancestral silk - perturbed not by the presence of earthly things,
For the spirits , you Stand!
Fingers crawling,
Breathe like gin,
Perspiration - offensive for the gods.
Our battle; a plea to soften the heart of the gods.
Red milk of grief; glory to Olympus!
Ours to ponder, earth to plunder!
Our sweat has no gain in reign
For rain falls from the loins of elders!
I wonder what it was like to be Alice?
Who fell down the rabbit hole
To fall through space, and find a place
Quite different from home
To have tea with the Hatter
The Doormouse, and their friends
Finding cakes and labelled bottles
Growing and shrinking at both ends
Playing croquet with the Queen
A flamingo for a bat
'Off with their heads' the Queen did scream
What did Alice think of that?
Grinning like the Chesire Cat
Trying to get to tiny yards
When it was over, and that was that
It was just a pack of cards
If life was a game of cards
I would choose the Ace of Spades
And march on like a Crusade
I would move from Hand to Hand
And become like a Jack of all Trades
Then I would pick the Queen of Hearts
And dress her up in Clubs or Flowers
I would build a castle of Hard Rock Diamond
And send the pack of sentries
In six and nine and twenty
All around they would march
Till we all fell down like a pack of cards
A mad woman with shattered
hair, bridled with great fulfilled
ego and pride among all women.
A troubled soul in the midst of
Pestful heterogenous mouths.
Hanging here and there are her
beauties spreading like an Eagle's
wings in a flight to perfection.
Up and down are template of
confused children lost in horror.
The street is strict and stressed
every walls occupied by hustlers
every street, a ghotto of bustlers
Lagos laughs large locomotively
yet, the street is stoning every commoner.
Sweat on the street closes many nose
Hurrying legs and hands write before the sun
Hopes fall like pack of cards
every eyes busy and troubled with its
own problems and circumstances.
Lagos,
a naked woman who needs no clothes
but jumps here and there like a teenager
on a new shoe parading the street to be seen
her breast milk is made for every mouth to suck.
This is Lagos our mother
soiled with floating slums and stalls crammed
full of all races and tribes.
Many have stolen her virginity yet,
She never suffer them to ruin.
©John Chizoba Vincent
From_A_Pen_Refusing_Frustration
The mind bewitched with thoughts of strong desire
for love and passion created due to fame
and lust for dames which set my heart on fire,
To change this notion ,caused me serious shame.
I fall like pack of cards with low esteem,
Which makes my will and strength to fail and wane,
The rays emitting through the eyes extreme,
Which makes me go insane with lovely pain.
Your heart with passion thrills must be treasured,
To make the soul travel to height above,
These traits and grace to man can’t be measured,
This wine must I gulp down to show my love.
Yet ,I release my heart to young trickster
To hold and tread like kid with small toycar .
DATE: 8-7-2016
CONTEST:SONNET#1
I am treated as though am a puppet
Controlled and programmed
To only do the mistresses bidding
My personality sent into obscurity
Like a tattered note devoid of rhythm
Always give sound to your voice
There is a reason you have it
When your dissatisfaction is hidden in silence
It becomes a satisfaction
Things get lorded over me
As though am a confused being
Devoid of my needs and want
At times I get treated like a slave boy
With the command button
On a remote pressed
Go and bring this
Go and drop that
Take these things away from here
Empty these things here
Like a pack of cards
I am distraught
What I am still doing around this space
I do not know
All your efforts under measured
Like a baby one gets spoken to
It’s not your fault
‘Because of my ignorance and negligence
I found myself in this situation
How I wish I did things right when I had the chance
Without having to pay a stiff price as this
At least I know it’s all but for a time
Because a bright light lies at the end of my tunnel
I just have to be tenacious in all I do
Because success does not come without strive.
Like a disappearing act
I stumbled in this space
Hovering like a bird
Seeking that settlement
All attempts employed
Have proved herculean
The happiness I seek
Has proved illusory
It evades me
Cause I fall like pack of cards
The absurdity overshadows me
Lost like sand breathing fish
The way out I seek
Out of this nightmare
The power lies with the maker
Of all that dwells in the universe
One plea lies in my tongue
The zest to overcome all fears
Cause you are the master
Who wields all authority
>>>>Looking Back To Move Forward
When you are cowardly alive
After conceding an ignominious defeat
Your understanding of the craft of life mercilessly has been exposed
It is ripe time for you to learn the tricks played upon
No hell on earth to ignore the quality of the victorious
Adopt fast their art as you have to pay them with same coin
Aloofness will harm you more in the longer run.
Your judgment went awfully wrong
Though you are too stubborn to claim that you are learned
But as time trickles by and water flows away
Your pillar of arguments crumbles down like a pack of cards
Till date you have never understood
Half of it has been done by women what mankind so far has achieved
Miracles are there
As long as exist the laws of nature
But the excruciating appeal of your faith is not in them
As in the power of unparalleled spirit
And in the importance of sociopolitical dimensions of your creed.
Everything is for man and man is above all
In defense of him if your belief comes as hindrance
Then surely God faces a threat of existence.
Deal us a pack of cards, and we'll build a house
Leave us a legacy and we'll make ruins.
I stand upon the soul of my body
To stamp out even the dying spark ,
Retailing my love of beauty,
And buying more passion for pain...
Like the sparrow caught in a crevice-
The claw that holds it from falling
Is the one that's tearing away at its life.
Searching new pictures to define a new abrasion-
The love that refuses to loathe,
Festers to contain a mindless universe
In a burning, scalding, oozing wound-
The epicenter of sensation
And the boundary of existence.
“19You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. 20You foolish man, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?” James 2:19,20 NIV
Even demons believe and shudder;
They have no lack of belief.
But their belief won’t save them
For they’ve refused God’s truth.
Faith without deeds
Is no faith at all.
Demons are a testimony—
Like a pack of cards will fall.
Faith requires deeds
To show that faith exists.
Faith with appropriate action
Is of what true faith consists.
Just to believe;
No better than a demon.
Faith without deeds
Is merely faith abandoned.
Action was mixed with faith
When Caleb and Joshua went into Canan
By faith and faith alone
Didn’t agree with God’s abandon.
They saw the giants dwelling there
But believed that with God’s power,
Canaan could be conquered,
Through their mighty deliverer.
By faith we must stand
With God and God alone
Trust in His mighty power
To take us to His throne.
Demons believe and shudder
Because faith they do not fathom.
We must combine actions with faith
To see God’s miracles so awesome.
© Copyright 2008-2012 Maureen LeFanue
I bore it all with a smile
Not a flex of muscle
Betrayed my expression
Not a word said
Displayed my inner feelings
How insensitive you seemed
To me.
I bore it all with a straight face
Not letting you know a thing
Maintaining my composure
As always
But inside me i crumbled
Crumbled like a pack of cards.
I bore it all as if nothing was wrong
But only i knew that
Nothing was going on
As i wanted.
A smile was struck on my face
But my heart was bleeding.
I said only what you wanted to hear
Only what would suit my occasion
And my false expression
But oh! How badly i wished
You would only once hold my hand
And ask, “Are you okay?”
Oh, queens, aces beside them and kings,
An' all the minions serve them and jacks.
I do not get excited, I don't play w/the things.
A voice – “I'll take all, if you don't object”.
Diamonds, clubs, spades and beautiful hearts –
symbols of sway, eternal suits,
forced to being shuffled by infidel hands –
those fiery came from infernal loots.
And they are choosing the following trumps,
laying above the stifling suffering world
of the rest covered, beaten and slumped,
swinging round an' round in a devilish whirl.
An' the pack is being shuffled by the hands on an' on
'cause of friction they get vile gambling spark.
Devil's laughing at me in his own Babylon,
I'm not in his hands as one petty card.
They were there together
In bliss and harmony
Enjoying life to the fullest
And consumed in one another
Perfection was in place
And orderliness was real
No stress, no work
No rain for the Lord watered the earth from under
All kinds of trees grew
A garden was planted
And in the middle stood the tree of life
With the knowledge of good and evil
Adam with his wife eve tended the garden
Walking in the serenity of the day
And the calmness of the evening
Sitting often by the banks of the Rivers that watered the garden
And listening to the Rivers as they flowed
When they were told to eat everything
But the tree of life
The adversary came,
With his lies and deceit he lured them to sin
The heeded to his pleas and suggestions
And fell like a pack of cards
No remedy
No help
No comfort
Chaos returned
And distress rained
Fear and shame ruled supreme
Who shall redeem man?
Who shall restore dignity to man
And take him back to where he belong
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