The Night Howlers

 before, long nights such as these, 

times when you feel like banging 

your head against the wall, 

we'd try to escape our misery 

and seek refuge in loud places 

among unfamiliar faces 

peering through the hazy cigar smoke 

sip our drinks and engage in solitary thoughts 

or strike a conversation with strangers 

strangers who will solicit drinks from us 

those nights are gone 

the nights are filled with thugs in blue 

and curfew 

we are stuck dark things 

like grumpy wives 

and thoughts 

and walls 

and several unlived dreams 

the night howlers scream

but no one hears their screams 

because coronavirus rules the air 

the seas, and the scenes 

Another Sad Poem

 yawn, 

nurse your fatigue 

it is not unique 

you are just chasing the same old dawn 

drown, 

or dive in to save your sorrows 

the sun rise with its blows 

until shadows stop being drawn 

yawn, 

and write another sad poem 

it wasn't you verse them 

you just were afraid of dawn 

You Lay Cold In A Freezing Heart

 you lay cold on the floor of his heart 

teeth clattering amid pleas

of love 

Yet every morning, he poured cold water 

all over you

knowing how much the water made everything 

worse  

You pleaded him, promised him cute and intelligent 

kids 

But he heard none- he was deaf 

But, then, you survived 

And when you remember how you 

thought you couldn't 

nothing seems impossible 

because there is always a light 

even in the deepest recesses of sorrow 

Stories Beneath Silence

 the stone throws a hard stare, 

like how it has known for staring 

staring at vagaries of weather 

weathering

a slow disintegration into another 

form 

or formlessness 

or something to gives promise to other lives 

yet, for now, the hard stone cold stare 

revealing nothing, not even blinking 

only a laughter that hides 

stories beneath its silence 

a stone cold silence 

Prisoner

 

The confining prison grills 

are a welcome refuge to prisoners 

for they are freer than he 

than he whose mind has enslaved him 

he is guilty of a cruel fate 

a fate that's yet to come 

and the ticking seconds 

crawl closer to an indefinite execution date 

the fall walls of his room 

seems like a solitary confinement 

no soul to talk to, no walks in the sun 

and he is his own cruel prison guard 

his life is one long prison stretch 

except that the routes of escape are open  

yet he makes no attempt at it 

because he will shoot himself - or take poison 

The Lies That Became The Only Truth

 He said he would

But he was up to no good 

He'd become adept at lying 

And you'd become adept at believing 

You sat by the corner and cried 

Tears were a thing you couldn't hide 

He was once that perfect soul 

A soul that  made you whole 

And the lies broke you to pieces 

The promises came yet he never ceases 

He become distant and aloof 

And unreliable like a leaking roof 

The lies became him, 

They become his constant theme 

The lies became his only truth 

He is silent like a derelict phone booth 

Do Not Give Me Teenagers

 He steps into the local

A little inebriated, therefore a little animated 

He sees his 'friends' 

Friends by the virtue that they commune together 

to have fun destroying their livers with cheap liquor 

'It's peaceful here,' he says 

His wife sells groceries across the road 

And there are three teenagers in the house 

running wilder than the wildebeests in the Mara 

He gulps his vodka, wipes his mouth and scans the area 

and declares that he has three teenagers 

He says he cannot buy a single bread 

because they think it is the biggest joke 

after democracy in the African continent 

He whines about his job, 

his wife, the government, the cosmos, aliens 

then leaves for his house - 

a place he can't stand a second of sobriety 

Because of the marauding teens 

By God, it made me think 

please do not give me teenagers 

I want to drink for other reasons 

than teenagers - insatiable teenagers 

who have since ceased finding anything humorous 

in the old bones that made them who they are