Sky.

Is this a vision of things to come?
Waves of fire
Raging in the sky?

Is this the climate change
Everyone fears
Yet know not what to do
But whine?

Or is this just my mind
Warning me
To wake up early
Touch the sky
Smell the roses
Say 'I love you'
Eat, dance, breathe...

Before the earth catches fire.

* Image is a photo of Bangkok City at dawn.

Invoking May 13.

40 trips around the sun
Is the earth ready to forgive thy sins?

Must we invoke thy deadly name
over and over and over again?
like a spinning wheel
will it ever stop?
generations come, they leave
yet thy cruelty remains intact

Must we invoke thy bloody name
when all that comes to mind are these:
massacre. blood. tears.
anger. rage. death.
keris. umno. tun razak. nep?

Is it time yet to bury thee
within the dungeons of our minds
Shall we throw away the keys
to the door that opens a thousand wounds

Or should we always keep them open?
its sight to remind us all
there’s a limit to human patience
that amidst a borderless world
are boundaries to tolerance

Thy face is but a blur and yet
40 years and still thy name
taste like bitter portion on our tongues.

May 13, 2009, Bangkok.

Revolutions never die

(image)


(in memory of all the women and men who fought for our Independence)

Souls may rest in peace
but revolutions go on
they trickle into our blood streams
invade every organ
creep into our minds
sowing seeds of doubts
its roots growing inwards
to reach a generation...


Just as the forests grow quietly
calling its dead,
calling its living
a thousand questions
continue to haunt
A million souls cry
never forsake!
never abandon!
this quest for freedom!

You can hear them sing:

"I laid down my life for you
I let my blood trickle
I let it soak the earth
So your rivers may never go dry

"Guns exploded in my heart
Riffles shattered my dreams
To give you Independence
To give you reality".

"You may wipe out history
You may burn its memories
You may bury us
At the altars
Of your Twin Towers"

"Yet
My bones
remain fresh
Your children
Remember my name".

Indeed
souls may rest in peace
revolutions may sleep
but they never die.

Narathiwat, Thailand
29 oct 2006

Where do you come from?

(image)

Must they always ask me where I come from?
I do not give answers
For my tongue like wounded snakes
Is tangled
inside these wiry barbs

What use is it, I ask, this is a camp of thieves
They have stolen my life
my freedom
But want to know the origin of man?

I come from Ethiopia, China, Greece, I want to say
Show me a map, and I will show you my home
But oh, they will cut my veins
And suck them, like wolves, under the moon

[It doesnt pay to be an Einstein here]

You read history books, eh, they smirk?
Poking me with the phallus ends of their riffles
What is the point of arguing?
that my language is far more superior than theirs?
that the color of my skin is by far the fairest of all?

Didn't you come from blood, too, I want to ask?
Like me, you too were flushed from your mother's womb
Streaks of red blanket you as you wail
For red is the color of blood, of genes, and DNAs
Does it matter if you are white, yellow or blue?

Ask not where I come from, you swine
There is only one way to enter this earth
Have you forgotten what it was like to crawl
out of your mother's thighs?

A knock on my head and the floor is my ocean
Must you always ask where do I plan to go?
Inside these walls, can I even breathe?
Which direction, you shout
Oh, I am always at the cross roads, I cry
left or right, what if I make a wrong turn?

Wherever you turn, my little friend
He finds you
He waits with bullets in his eyes
You see your name flash at the signpost
He's waited a lifetime for you
You can't even run nor hide
You can try to cheat him
But he finds out
He forgives and takes you back
No lover is more faithful.

26 April 2009, Bkk, wireless road, 7.31pm.

Poem about an absent lover

The moment you walk out that door
I run to collect my things

And you would think, I'd be tagging along
But, no...no sir

I've booked a single ticket to nowhere

Destination: To explore the depths of my ocean
To cross the length of my space
in a life time

In this emptiness you leave me, it's time I discover
The very essence of who I am

If I had always tagged along with you
I would have found my journey hampered

These thighs would grow fat and heavy
You will lead me by the hands, blind folded

I’d be following signposts
You'd be steering the wheel

All my heart's desires
Would be stucked in traffic jams

I would have ended up a complete fool,
lazy, unimaginative, uninspired.
complacent. perhaps satisfied.

I would have ended up loving you to death,
but hating myself.

Now I've come to like this distance
These absences you leave me
Are precious gems

For there is life beyond you
Love beyond me
Dreams that give me wings,
Thoughts that make my heart take flight

Does it really matter
If I fly with you or without you?

We are after all, one soul in two bodies
One spirit, caught between worlds...

What if
You never come home,you ask?

I say:
But I am home.

23 April 2009, wireless road, bangkok, 2.37am.

The ultimate love poem

I embraced you
Like I would a new religion
My faith in you grew like an unperturbed mountain
There were times when I tossed around
like a ship in a turbulent storm
yet I clung to the sails of your arms
Believing, like God, you would save me

Who would have thought despite our closeness
I could lose you
Until I cannot see you or smell you or even talk to you.
Your image appears to me like a monument
It is there but it is not alive.
Unwilling to be deceived, I look for your shadow
To see if I am blocking you from the sun
But all I can see is a pattern of myself
And you are not there

I tried to find excuses for your disappearance
I lied to myself that perhaps,
Being soulmates
You had slipped under my skin;
became my sweat along with my blood
So I rubbed my hands to see if you would appear.
I thought I had been cruel,
perhaps greedy and selfish
That while breathing unconsciously
I inhaled you from the air
I tried to spit you out from my mouth
I wanted to feel you and taste you again
but I could not
Not ever could I regain consciousness of your presence
All my attempts to resurrect you,
re-enact you in my life failed miserably

I forgot that you are merely human,
not an angel
You are not God
neither are you a spirit.

That being human, you could have died.
That you could have left, without saying goodbye.