FEAR

This has been a tragic week with a lot of significance around human suffering and the long road we have come and still have to go. I have battled to make sense of the events so I have written a poem about what I feel is at the core of all these events: FEAR

 

Dark Man’s Feast

 

Come, take shelter and rest at my table,

Lay down the weight of your weariness,

Let this Supper feed and cradle,

A head and heart steeped in ceaseless worry

 

Come, a seat remains open on my left,

The right sits the Master of this house,

He never leaves

He remains bereft

of all the wonders of the world

 

You see friend he has been with us for centuries

He has taught us to

Unspeak

Undance

Unbe

He promised a reprieve, a safety from earthly disease

 

COME fair traveller and feast on His bounty

He brings with him

Unlived lives

Uncoloured dreams

Stunted feeling

Its an acquired taste I admit but it fills the emptiness

 

COME now, all He asks in return is but the small price of your heart,

He will lock it securely in HIS chest

You will remain but with a small hole in your breast

A hole that can whistle at night

When winds of promise blow

BUT

The Dark Man reminds you of your exchange during this sad tune

 

He has formed from past and present hurt

He was there in the trenches of wars of prejudice and hate

He was there when nuclear clouds settled in the air and souls in wake

He was there in the structures of racial oppression

He was there in bullets, fire and destruction

He was there in the massacre of our Brothers and Sisters in Orlando

He was there in the rape and pillage, our human struggles

 

He holds me, me,

He holds you,

He holds us

on strings in his hands

He smiles ruefully at his Pantomime

In this web we remain, trapped and numbed

 

COME now, why the hesitation?

It’s a quiet seduction after all

No?

He whispers

“ I will wait…. I will wait for your…

Hunger for vengeance over Peace…

Hunger for safety over Living….

Hunger for comfort over Loving….

I will wait”

 

I dedicate this post to all the lives lost because of unjustified FEAR.

 

Love to All

Yahya