How’s a life possibly turned inside out without touching it?
The feel tells us neurons are dying off, sense surfaces growing numb
There’s an exterior of sparrows cared for, plus plaques for fighting for top spot
Lots of them, lots of birds flying away
Dying embers, remember the ignition
The spark that started our living joyfully, dying selflessly
Today, its running really fast, the engine’s powering past the sixth mile mark
Change the stripes on that signpost, make it ‘feet’, fittingly, end-stone-post
truly, the birds are gone now, its just a silent owl howl, a ringing hark back

This morning, I saw my life again, in the mirror with black patched under-eyes
Old, renewed angst, plans slammed to pieces by own hands, lone stands
My failure, I wail, is me, me, yes me in the mirror, no other, infinite bother
Burden
I fall with abandon under its torture, it takes my mind, makes me bear it, do its bidding
Bow, cower, lose my sanity, my grip, even as my phalanges lock ever more tightly
I’m me, I’m fear-formed, fall-prone, done for
Dusk comes, sees me weeping under that neem tree, over meanly meted defeat
I fight to be me, so it means I’m still bound
Burden, oh burden, what burden drags my soul upon, yes, against thorns and thistles
To pierce and tear me apart, to leave me eternally distraught!

Finished, I leave my self for dead
Its the only way to be free from destructive weight
I resign to life, I put down the self centered sack slung across my back
A cross, not my type, but truly radical a cure
The price for freedom mine to take
To be in awe of, enthralled by, taken into, illuminated
Live out
The new burden, the one I now actively fall in love with.

The streets I walk are filled with eyes
There are persons passing me by, people I bypass
There are souls alive I barely ever know, soles that thread snappily, or sluggishly
There are paces to lives, faces to size up, twice as many thumbprints as there are lives lived
But for figures, I could have been more careful
Numbers are a forgetful label, worse than trashing from form to stale stones
Peebles, dull reflection painting grey versions of life into mental existence
So hasty, hectic, flip flap, floppy, rushed,  trivial, near-invisible thread
Worthless, like nothingness, pointless

In thinking, I trace translucence, character traits bouncing off us all
Faith raises the life high, to leave sighs and resigned shrugs behind
Fate raises no consequence, save for no movement, radical apathy
How do we marry these, for it is the gospel of the postmodern, the great desolation
The flowering into desert, vitality so safe, so speculative, so passive, violently inactive
Wed these, weld vigorous franticness into deterministic want of meaning
Out comes plenty talk of love, of inspiration, of human sympathy
Out flows pitiable desperateness of inward cries for more than tortuous sameness
While we still bypass the passer-by
While we address the rest by avoiding their eyes
Their souls
Our souls too

Back we go to what makes us joyful
Not what catches fancy while lights still die out
To rediscover the thing that makes us thick, the who, what and why of living
When I finally stop to say “hi”, to place it a long way before “bye”
When the best I give is more than a glance, a stare, a shallow inquiry
When my eyes fixed on yours is a driving together to bond
My gaze on you is part of a probe into you, to find your concern, to find you
Instead of excusing my neglect of heavenly duty for shyness or tight routine
For we only have a while to love up the imperfect towards perfection
To be disrupter of dark bitter severed state
To help melt stony hearts, giving life in place of wasteful slumber
For none is too difficult a subject to face with Christlike involvement
Whether to relieve, to reform, or to snatch out of the fire.

Love
Its the weirdest thing man never fully knows, very slyly insults
The big wide need of the universe, counterfeited too much to simply see
But I thought we shared in it while we sat under the tree, together
The age blew gusts of ascending feelings, launched us up above gravity
The thing tingling in me with your eyes’ gaze nailed on mine
Our lives so drawn into us, we said we’ll never end, we’ll never age, fade
Heaven must be love infinite, God’s eternity the unimaginable bettering of this thing spectacular
Pictures flew easily in and out, about our circular lock, hands held, to stay
I was so happy

Today, the grasses stand in the sun, slitting its rays to million bits
Taller than me, as I sit and stare into the distance, the riviera of my dreams
I’m longing, just wishing and waiting and wanting, along these lines, blades
Where I am is an afternoon time of jammed lines, gibberish signs, mines
Dead traffic and obstacles, an infinite distance
I’m too far away from you, and its hard to take
I’m so near you, but my sight has failed enough to obscure your figure
I try to fight my way through to you, but with every step, the miles grow longer
With every breath, I sense the end of life is near
Why should I be far away from you, my dearest love?
Pain spasms rip through my heart, my cry roars across the plains, spans
A melancholy wail raises the dust, rides on as winds carry through
You can be found, surely you can, my lost love, my love lost!
My heart is bleeding, dying slowly, scares me to death
come running, I’m fallen, barely breathing now, fast losing hope!

There’s nothing like the thundering of the earth, the shaking underneath feet
Not the grand display I fancied would fit your return, my coming home
But its fine, all’s right, you’re finally here again
Love has not died, the cosmos’s still held together, the authentic has won
I cannot now be ecstatically wild, play high emotion for the unveiling of you
But I smile humbly, give up the chase, the run away, obscuring struggle
Landing into you, happy to forget I’m grown
I’m a child, its great, I’ve found truth
We have clashed, I’ve lost, you’ve won me over.

Crosswords that point us homewards, our lives, as stacks of scenes
I’m stuck in the middle, spindles that spawn yarns across here, there, the between the fabric sweeping
I’m the man now, boy was, sage intending, will be, God willing
Or else, disillusioned, despaired, desperate, death-like thirst, request
There’s here, sparks flying from me, strings spring through, multiple crosses, sent forthwith
There’s there, stuck to me, attached yet departing from, friends, foes, part of life
Other worlds, words said tell of them, of other minds
They think, seem similar, yet so varied, vacillating between vicissitudes
Like me, they recount times, temporal, they envision the eternal
At times I smile and muse about mushy themes, things about these realms
Its fine when they help me out, when they make my life like tasty tapestry
Its other times when they lay my longings waste, ruin my rites, rent my robes
The implication is that I lose love for connectivity and social medium
I crumple into a shapeless ball of fury-bathed porcupine
I let go of the big picture, the us-fixture, the bio-psycho-mixture
Discuss turns discourse, then tends to inveigle, to ride on polemic, phillipic
Tear away, well up with tears, raining astray courses upon face
Return to dull single soul bubble

The other parts of “things” apart from “I” and “T” for “these”, I’ll read
The breezy steads, busy streets, snaking strips of city traffic
There’s more, about birds whistling, about dears browsing, about goats bleating
The whole life of nature, the whole spice of meteors driving as though to strike grasslands
The awe I find, of the days that slowly pass, the joys and pains that relit my head’s lightbulb

If life was just for me, it’ll be free of fast heartbeats, in need of every other thing
I’ll walk through nothingness, be lost in blank bland coldness
Weightless, valueless, not linked, without springs, without wintery excitement
But here, what I do is the extension of another’s life story
What I see is the unfolding of days seen
by me and others
If only we can meet to stick together, let the portions of our thoughts and walk merge again
If only we understand one as a piece, and all as part of a puzzle
Fix these perfectly by letting our strengths be gifts to each other
Let our faults be filled in by other’s love, until we all are collectively strong
If only we abandon the frame of mind that revolves around “me”
If Christ’s self is all we could be birthed into
One person at a time
Then all of us for all of eternity
If only.

Before the me-game came to make insane
There was you, two ways made same, laid in lines to collide, drive
Not to divide, make asides, astride in competitive races
You now, the opponent, you set me in mind, the kind of conception that’s about sides
You’re making for the line, to finish before, to draw it between us as permanent
We two, twined, tangled, twisted into unity, fashioned, forged, framed
Trimmed, primed to prose-like praise of the thing marked as Divinely formed
Strings thronged together, with
beads that are seeds of our love
Deeds of eyes that meet, that sit on seats stitched by sacrifice sweet, swiftly inspired
Ignited as fire, aflame, glowing brightly for us to see, to enjoy, to be warmed by
They’re doused, by aroused rains seeded by clouds of discord
They’re gone, done away with, replaced by gaping spaces and frowning faces
And by ambitious, broken hearts

Its the turn into yourself, inwards, inroads into the soul carved out
Marked out, shutting me out, cutting me off, making me mad, marring my dreams
Making memories nightmares, when they stick their barbs, sharp stiffened stilts jutting out
Sticking through from pierced soul, up pointing, wanting nothing
Wanting, not for the times when our names meant mimes from clans, perhaps claps for great wishes, riches
No, speaking, yes, for wounds, brooding, breeding lethal brands of thought, bad blood
Because you found a name you’d rather keep, than keep me close to you

Forget the thing that stings our skins, that hangs on our sleeves, as irritant
Forget the self that serves to stop surrender to the loving other
Forget the aim to raise shoulders for pomp, plump up for vain aplomb
Forget death, the void within you find with the mist that’s self actualization
Let the myth die, live life with us, your beloved,
Let life be fly, soaring sacrifice of each one for everyone of us
Let us be true, let love rule, let our name be “all one for Him”.

Flames
The office block’s swarming with us, we’re into session, we’re working on figures
Things
They’re the bosses, they tell us to break courses, those we’ve ridden thus far
Dreams
I’m in the dock on this one, living large, but bugged by looming detour, recourse to blurs
Wigs
We must cover up, be clowns, be circus dons, dunces to diabolical deeds, collective thieves
Ashes
Let them burn, the lies they try to style, strategize about saying, making mean mines
Even if it means my dreams and things burn to ashes

Real
They drew me in, circled about my way, cut me out
Tight spot
They put me on the podium, played the prank, told me to choose between being chaste, and its loss in a haste
Worst cost
They set their eyes on me, watched for the roses to rot, lest they detest and unfriend me
I stuck to it, shooed him off, fixed my eyes on Him
Loss
They labelled me fool, fanatic, fashionless, left me friendless
I’ll stay firm, even if the real cost is the loss of all my company

Pride
Where there’s much, shoulders may rise high, heads may blow wide
Hyped
The busts of me are cut, praise of me is sang, I struggle to keep my show hung
Low
The noise gains momentum, calls for me to come off that race, to cause my wheels to come off
Remain
I’ll just remember my bones and a broad street beggar’s aren’t dissimilar
Unchanged
They’ll call, kick, curse for more of me, but less of me and more of Him I’ll be, give
Show

You will never run from the battlefield
The soldier will stand his ground, advance with trumpet’s sound
Surfing as held, firm and free through battering sea waves, never wavering
Fear may rise to sink us, sap us clean of resolve, make us revolve around silly temporal precepts
We’ll stay the course, we’ll win the war, we’ll sing the victory song
For to us has been given this great grace
This grace we have, to cycle over fire.

Red flames fanned by black youth swooped upon by cops
Swarm of stinging bees, frenzied fleet footed folks fleeing yellow striped devils
Brown bellicose locusts lashing land fertile, riding it of greenery, lush and lustre
Thieves break in, steal, bully, beat black and blue
Royalty purpled, plundering grey glum peasants, paupered people
White supremacists strangle flowing human sympathy, stifle togetherness
Molten magma reddens and blackens to soot and shreds and ash
Multicoloured world torn to pieces by earthquakes of no rhyme, unrhythmic bells, disputes
Disagreement, nonalignment, misconstrued symbols, dim colours, yes, pale light
Eyes misty, barely seeing, poorly conceiving
Deceived

Like patterns unraveling, the web of existence has come upon tanglement
The intricate, the delicate, delightful dance in unison, now  nonsensical cacophony
Once creation, now graffiti, confetti declaiming splattered paint, wreck
Failed state
Until the Artist decided to redo the work

Today, its still stripes of unmatched hues, woeful shades
But the sun strides stately through the sky
Leaping into place, diving at pace, dividing days
There’s the uniting beyond races, as racing for the eternity beyond takes center stage
Raised stakes have raised hopes of life, of a portrait full of boom and bloom
Redrawing, reuniting, redefining, making harmonic
No longer macho men, blue boys, dominating pinkish girly frail and fragile
Sinking these caricatures, sucking them down the drain
No longer race riots, logo disputes, whitewashed walls and public slates for rebel artists
Its the masterstroke from sweeping swab and dabble, dimples and dots, reconnected points
Laid down guns and grumpy gloominess
Lively bright colours, life inspired, remade, done again, gone no more
The night will again sparkle with a million stars across space above
We will see it all and remember our togetherness
We will see this and remember the world our God made
The coming age, creation restored, made beautiful in His eyes.