Just a Moment

Just a moment.

Take a break right here to break it.

Shatter it, in fact. Sweep it up,

grind it to dust underfoot and blow it

into the path of an oncoming car.

Watch it swirl up, twist past my face

then disappear without even a wince.

It’s not real like glass or crystal, right?

Not something you need to replace.

Just break it and make another.

Like we’ve done to so much else.

No one will look back at this and pause

wasting more precious time.

Walk on or wait up for me.

Look back or don’t. Ain’t much to see.

I’m just standing, not caught up in anything.

Staring down the reflections.

A moment. That is all I need.

 

Goldbot

The Fixer

Electric kettle was on all night

now the tea tastes like metal.

Add some extra sugar.

Computer won’t charge

so now I’m on my phone

staring through a tiny window to the world.

Back’s sore from yesterday-

it’ll need a stretch.

Lost my key, but a new one’s just a dollar.

Looking around I realise

there’s a solution to all my problems.

Keep searching.

One day I’ll find something

that I just can’t fix.

*

AJG – 13/04/15

A Part Of It All

Blue skies from sci-fi epics.

Clouds stationary battleships

no attacks in sight.

The sun a bathing god

reclining in all its power.

Absorb its light and ride along

neck bent to witness it all.

The story has just begun.

Bubbles rise up inside

bursting and popping excitedly

as I realise

I am a part of this all.

*

AJG

Last Night in Manila

Bus trip, shower and shave.

The night is paved with possibilities.

Jeepneys march on and taxis prowl.

Rum and wine are poured.

A breeze brushes hair

the humidity is moved along unwillingly.

It’ll be back but tonight we have reprieve.

With only hours left and the only relief

for our expectations is to leave everything here

money, courtesy, friends, foes, ladyboys,

nightcrawlers, dignity and memories,

Manila, they’re yours.

*

AJG

Guardians

The history is told translated in brochures.

Castle walls reconstructed. Insides redesigned.

The old foreman Murasawa retained.

He looks across, a face of anger or agony

scabbard lofted defiantly impotent

frozen in brass.

The war in Osaka is a thousand years done.

So too is the urgency. Sandbags heaped

waiting for workers who heed no whip.

Whose motivation holds only

by spiderweb threads of duty

they can neither see or explain but

are helpless not to be pulled along by.

They take pride in the deeds of the dead.

Of those in graves that might have been their own

if there were any noble wars or ever were.

The only fight left is to keep the memory alive

that their ancestors had greatness.

Cup this candle with their hands

so that somewhere down the line of their kin

this spark may ignite once more.

*

AJG

Three People.

Three People.

Two doors no choices

just a stoop to sit waiting.

Grainy grimy gritty

are we any of these?

Act as much to passersby

just in case they are.

Bus coming? Train coming? Friends?

Look expectant or gaze away.

A day’s another day.

Sit waiting for closed doors

to just fling on in.

Like the stone around us

one day we’ll eventually move.

 

AJG

This is a quick poem I wrote inspired by the photograph ‘Three People’ by the photgrapher Josephine from her blog Lemanshots – Fine Pictures and Digital Art. You can check out the said photograph by clicking the title of the poem (also a sneaky hyperlink). You can also check out more of her inspiring art following the link below! Paz!

http://lemanshots.wordpress.com/

Waking

Moth flutter softer than Chopin notes.

Nocturne rain patter, crickets and frogs

a million year symphony.

Sleep stutters waking scenes

pushing into fantasies.

Cross chatter disturbing sleep.

Worlds collide with faintest yawns.

Night mutters, ‘no matter’

as dawn settles all in waking gray.

The Cycle (revise)

 

Snow vomits down,

purging itself from the sky.

Frozen parcels bond and form

in perfect unity. Symmetry.

How do they choose who to grasp?

Much like us I suppose

by the random grace of proximity.

Freeze in form and tear away

leaving gases and liquids

for something more tangible.

Seizing one another until the weight combined

is too much for the sky to bear.

Plummet down

individuality forgotten

for a common need to survive.

Finding shared purpose

in the roil of frozen storms.

Clasping one another through the cloud break

how must they feel?

As the ground moves closer

is there panic, fear, resignation

or nothing?

Soon nothing.

Soon as much as there ever was.

As much as they ever were.

From the sky to the sea to the earth

and all again they return.

A brief cohesion and confusion

settling once once more

into the cycle of rebirth.

 

 

AJG

The cycle

 

Snow vomits down,

purging itself from the sky.

How do these frozen parcels

choose how to form and

who to bond to in perfect unity?

Much like us I suppose

by the random grace of proximity.

Freeze in form and tear away

leaving gases and liquids

for something more tangible.

Seizing one another until the weight combined

is too much for the sky to bear.

Plummet down

individuality forgotten

for a common need to survive.

Finding shared purpose

in the roil of frozen storms.

Clasping one another through the cloud break

how must they feel?

As the ground moves closer

is there panic, fear, resignation

or nothing?

Soon nothing.

Soon as much as there ever was.

From the sky to the sea to the earth

and all again they return.

A brief cohesion and confusion

settling once once more

into the cycle of rebirth.

 

Perceptions – Poem

What are eyes

but organs adjusted for light?

They see me

in one dimensions.

I see myself

with myriad thoughts and senses.

Together and against each other

we reflect

falling and floating in flux.

I feel like my toes

are inches from a ground

that ever recedes.

The world pushes in and out

all around me.

Invisible pressures press upon me.

Their great inhales and exhales

never touch

but warp none the less

sucking in this vacuum.

Life around me stretches and contracts

I can do naught but go along.

From the outside

how now must I look?

From the inside

how now have I changed?

I land on wobbly feet

vision hazy

ears ringing

all senses and thoughts

tingling

from the lengthen and shorten

until they relax, recede and settle.

Your eyes still see me

never the same as before.

I find myself

from this mere moment

ever different once more.

 

 

 

AJG