Feast of All Hallows

Industrial frights, smiled-through scares –

as if the night’s not dark enough as it is.

Boo, how scared are you?



Do we suffer so much

that we must 

quench our fear with laughter?

Trick or treat or have you ever wondered

how one day 

all of it will end?



I fear no puppets jumping out of boxes,

but the springs that coil inside us.

I fear no faces clad in plastic masks,

but what skulks that hidden shadow’s ring.

I fear no night that lay in October’s end,

but the terrors our new world brings.

None the Wiser

I wrote down your names on paper scraps

and still felt none the wiser.

Like a child, I wait

for the better day

they promised me.

.

The Future is a fever dream,

a majesty, the Sweet Supreme:

and we’ve endured in silence,

trudging heavenward

to salvage what we may.

.

If longing was water, I’d be the ocean

and each day is one closer

to the melting of the polar caps.

For My Friend

Guns don’t kill people, suicide does;
you sold your eyes so long ago
that you’ve forgotten what Detroit looks like.

Well, it looks like a ruin
and we leave it at that:
we kings and queens
of digital thorns in digital sides
in computer space where limits are lost
and I have lost my remote self-control.

My inspiration comes from here and there
but mostly from here.
Let’s open up like empty coffins,
let’s not fold like a 2-7 offsuit
but play this hand even when we fear the end is bitter.
And no end is as bitter as the one you enter willingly
or who knows?
Maybe you do now.

This Is Gonna Hurt

Ain’t this life just a Trojan horse?
Soon as you let lax, second you give go
it opens hellgates
and thousand-strong they pour out

pouring you out of time, of water and wine,
of reason and rhyme, of matching lifestyles,
of hatching hope, of music too loud to talk over,
of lightless corners to take shelter in,
of purpose, of choices

POINT BEING they pour you out of you.
Who do? They do. We do. I do.
We each guilty as fuck. We all filling in for someone better.
We all just playing the part. We all faking. We all giving, none taking.
And no offence and none taken. We all static noise.

There are no weekend addictions:
you either need something or you don’t.
Gathered in your arms
piece by piece
as I throw myself into a scream.

Life can go one of one ways.

Song Lines That Remind Me Of You

“There might be ones who are smarter than you,
that have the right answers, that wear better shoes”

“Al le my gemoedstoestand so blou
sal ek altyd die berge kan onthou
Die poel water weerkaats
die flitse die riete
die beloftes van liefde
wat die wolke geheim hou”

“It’s an unspoken heartbreak, a heartbroken handshake
I take with me where I go”

“Slow it down, Angie, come back to bed”

“It’s better to feel pain than nothing at all
the opposite of love’s indifference
so pay attention now: I’m on your porch, screaming out
and I ain’t leaving till you come downstairs”

“There’s some things that I should never”

Songs quoted are, in order of appearance:

Bloc Party – Sunday

Fokofpolisiekar – Prioritiseer

Passenger – Patient Love

The Lumineers – Slow it Down

The Lumineers – Stubborn Love

The National – I Need My Girl

All song lyrics have been used under the principle of fair use and with utmost respect to original authors. I do not claim any copyright on individual lines nor suggest original authorship of them in this instance. If you wish to have your original content removed from this work, please contact me at wroteapoemtoday@gmail.com to request for the partial or complete removal of your original content. Thank you to all the original authors for creating art that has inspired me, moved me and mattered so much to me in certain times of my life.