Ode to Laze
Lazy, far too lazy, far too idle,
Don’t ask me.
Far too needful of relaxing,
Far too dodgeful of all taxing
Action that disrupts my lethargy.
I don’t run when I can sidle,
I make sloths look suicidal,
Vegetate with pride –
So don’t ask me.
REM-Blind
Ev’ry night I close my eyes
And enter in your world of lies –
It’s not your scary ones I fear,
But all your fantasies and memes –
It’s not the nightmares, but the dreams !
I swear, this time, as sleep comes near,
I’ll keep my wits and vision clear,
However logicless the plot –
But how can I, when ev’ry time I doze,
My eyes must close ?
And suddenly I’m unconcerned,
With senses overturned and shot –
As wish- and fear-fulfillments trot.
And thus, I find myself a slave
To ev’ry passing alpha wave.
So all those lovers, all those highs,
Those treasure troves and dragonflies –
And all for what ?
It’s not to make me sadly wise,
For lessons learned are soon forgot.
You took my hope, you took my trust,
And strung me on without a fight,
Before you vanished into sleepy dust –
My innocence once more was sold
For mem’ry holes and fairy gold !
And willing dope was I, alright,
My self-awareness all a-snore –
The fool you fooled the night before,
And who you’ll surely fool again,
To lead astray down lackwit lane.
Was this your prize ?
Was this the reason for your lies,
To bring this naive mortal down to size ?
But then, when stranded in the dark,
I must have made an easy mark.
But worse than that, deep down, must be
That knowing all along
The one who plays the piper’s song,
Who does me wrong with such a glee –
It’s all myself and only me !
Silent Night
Dreams, come not and bother me tonight,
Tonight I have no time for dreams.
I am exhausted to the seams,
And need the dark to snuff the light.
So do not follow in my deep,
To make me cry or hope or leap.
Tonight, I only wish to lie –
So let me lie, and only dream of sleep.
Nosedrip Headtrip
This virus has me in her grip,
But hey ho, I’ll survive.
I tell myself she’s just a blip,
A cocky pirate boarding ship –
I’m wrapped-up tight against her nip,
But very much alive.
She’s in control and letting rip,
And I must join her on her trip.
And whoa, here comes the whooziness –
Don’t panic, take it steady.
This floozy ain’t so doozy
And her poison ain’t so heady.
My thoughts might be a little hoarse,
My sleep a little sore,
But best to let her run her course –
She’s nothing I ain’t seen before.
She comes at me in jumbled dreams
And thoughts that slip and glitch.
Her technicoloured jump-cut scenes
Are selling-out my mental screens,
With fevered swirls and acid sheens
That quickly skip and switch.
She won’t sustain a metaphor,
But throws them off and coins some more.
Her visit’s sure to last all week,
And while she’s home, she leaves her streak
With red of nose and pale of cheek,
And watery of eye –
But I can shrug and I can wait,
And slowly, slowly, decimate,
And slam the door and bar the gate,
And bid the bitch bye-bye.
The neons and fluorescents
Are more swimming than they’re dancing,
The hubbub throb is muzzier,
The tinnitus is buzzier –
But sweats are less incessant now,
And dreams are less entrancing.
The fever breaks on which I surf,
My bones are bumping back to earth.
To Ev’ry Dream I Ever Dreamt
Oh, what a night we spent together,
That night I spent in your arms !
That night I fell headlong for your charms,
That night we met in the dark.
Though my eyes were closed, I saw it all,
And yet, so little I recall…
And yet…I kind-of sense you’ve left your mark.
Oh, what a night we spent together,
It felt like the night would last forever –
Yet ev’ry night ends with the lark,
The radio’s bark across the hall,
The clanging bells that wrench me from the ball.
Oh, what a night when I slept with you !
For just one night, and never again –
Now ev’ry night I wait in vain,
Until another REM-ling takes your place.
We had a time, though, you and I,
Just wish I could have said goodbye –
But I was snatched from your embrace,
Or when I looked away, you fled –
Our words unsaid with the dawning sky,
One more lost thread, one more forgotten face.
We were, alas, a one-night lie,
And now I wake to an empty bed.
Sluggabed
She did not wake this morning, nor this afternoon, nor eve,
And all this week she’s spawning ev’ry dream she can conceive,
And the daylight still she’s scorning for the visions she shall weave,
Till her health begins its pawning for the means to stall her leave.
The poem is not about a statue, but I do like this sculpture.
A Little Way Off
“Watching you daydream is like watching flowers bloom in real time.”
– Russell McLondon
When your eyes unhook their gaze,
Slipping back in time by seconds,
When your thoughts roam out to graze,
Something not-remembered beckons.
You are taken through by where-knows what ?
It’s all so ev’ryday except for when it’s not;
Just like random numbers, only with less plot.
And your smile is only-just;
Never meant for those who see it.
And your breath is held in trust;
Softly, slowly, then you free it.
Waiting for your day to recommence,
You’re floating off beyond the realm of making sense;
Just like in the movies, only less intense.
Lullaby
Sleep,
Nemo, sleep,
Long and deep,
Soft and tall.
Sleep,
Slow and steep,
Nemo, sleep –
Shadows call…
Dream,
Of clowns and kings,
And lurking things
Behind the wall.
Dreams –
What brings them here ?
It’s you, my dear –
You dream them all !
Fake !
You make them up !
Let’s shake them up
And have a ball !
Quake,
And dreams will break up.
Time to wake up –
Let them fall…
Wake,
Nemo Dreamo,
Now they seem so
Strange and small.
I wish Winsor McCay had used more positive space in his speech balloons – the text runs too close to the walls.
Like rain…
Now, where was I again ?
Thinking, I think, about my thoughts,
And how many do I have each day ?-
How many zeros-worth, would I say ?
And should I call them ohs or noughts ?
And why is seven longer than eight ?
And eight o’clock, is that too late ?
So when does evening turn into night ?
And goodnight – must it mean goodbye ?
Can we say bad-bye ? Worth a try ?
But is it really worth the fight ?
Boxing ? I’ve never seen the draw,
Unless the glove is hiding a claw,
A mutant from a mad professor !
And don’t forget a screaming blond,
Unless it’s bleached and we’ve been conned !
Poor mum was scammed just last month, bless her.
Just last month ? Or the month before ?
They go so quick, I’m never sure…
But why no ‘h’ in ‘sure’, I wonder ?
Seven wonders – pyramids…
I used to love them…them, and squids…
They’ve got some giant ones, Down Under.
Down…below the upper feathers…
Have they feathers round their nethers ?
Where do birds go in the rain ?
Still pouring, by the sound,
My thoughts just spinning round and round.
Now, where was I again…?
A Poet to His Surgeon
You know me much closer and touch me much deeper
Than any could ever before –
You bring to your table this soundest of sleepers,
And open me up to explore.
You rend me asunder with gentle‘est plunder,
To survey my hintermost-lands –
You ease my distress with your tender caress,
With my life firmly held in your hands.
Rhyming Couplets 