but you are fighting back
in the streets there
are wild children
and dogs
whose attacks
you ward off
the world
is now
a horror show
a scary movie
you don’t want
to see
but you
are the hero
you are brave
so you give it back
and you feel
like a superhero
running down
the streets
where entire
cities and towns
and countries
have become evil
and you knock
things down
and you leap
across the oceans
saving all that is good
and dive into
the burning sun
bringing back light
to a new world.
and their screeching
and there are people
too screaming and
it is wild and crazy
to be in this state
full of madness
tying you up
in knots
and your voices
are not yours
they are of
the demented
moon’s anger
and the sun’s
confusion
and the world
shakes like a leaf
and is blown
away in a breeze.
and you do things
that you did not
intend to do
or intended to do
and did not
your acts are lost
to yourself
and you become
sad and alienated
and now you begin
to appreciate the sun
the moon
and you kiss
all the stars
before you sleep
and in your dreams
you weep
and in the morning
you ask yourself why
and realise you cry
because you are
sorry to die.
my words
in the breeze
in the singing
of the bulbuls
is my poem
in the waves
of the oceans
and seas
I scribble
and my letters
are instantly
washed away
but I keep at it
scrawling
and now there
are so many
languages
I hear
on my street
and my mind
is open
like the air
whose talk
is so beautiful
life turns
so colourful
I laugh in
its embrace
and it roars
in rhyme.
and the children
have been chastised
by the adults
and the rowdies
have threatened
people again
they will beat us
they said
they will cut off
our tongues
if we speak
but I will speak
because there is
no other way to live
and I have no fear
they will hit me
with iron rods
they will stab me
with knives
and swords
and burn me
with kerosene
and kill me
but I will speak
against all the evil
they do
all the cheating
all the bullying
all the harrassment
against all
the wickedness
they perpetrate
I will speak.
it wakes you
in the middle
of the night
and you are
angry with
so many people
dead and alive
those who have
hurt you
and you
are burning
with rage
your fury
making your
open eyes
flutter
for revenge
and you realise
how shitty
things are
that your destiny
has left you
torn and incensed
it makes you think
that we are at war
with so many
wounding and being
wounded
like killing machines.
like a wild horse galloping
through the fields
sometimes I feel the weight
of the Earth on my back
it is too much to bear
it leaves me flat out and
hopeless
and my bored arm
reaches to the sky
plucking meaningless stars
till that too is tiring
and I just drink the oceans
in thirst
and now I cannot move
and in the darkness
the moon comes
and closes my eyes
and whispers die
and trees rush by
one of them hitting
me so hard
the light goes out of me
and the evil air laughs
hee hee hee.
and children are innocent
and funny
they lighten life
which squeezes your throat
from time to time
leaving you out of breath
and shuddering
and other times
the world is friendly
like the air
you breathe
like these kids
come to collect
their shuttlecock
it is as simple as that
though it leaves
so many of us
broken and
alienated ghosts
who simply can’t
come back alive.
whom demons stole
and kept as slaves
they whipped us
like animals
till we killed
each other
for them
and they spat
at us
and called us
dogs
and made us
lick their spit
we worked
for them
we toiled
beyond
endurance
and finally
died for them
those bastards.
put everything
in its place
in order
and then set it
on its path again
I want a better world
with happier people
this is our only paradise
so if we don’t do
anything about it
we will despair
and spread misery.
Dominic Alapat 