For Tutu

Who are you,

tell me,

two years is long enough

incognito is not forever,

are you a lizard

of the colour-changing kind

or a monitor,

a tick perhaps,

or grasshopper,

are you clown, politician or hobo,

or is this long obstinacy of not-telling

a marker of knowing,

arrogance of a kind

or compassion?

Are you a constitution

a corporation or cooperative,

a flea-farm or field of dreams?

Are you story book or lovability,

gatekeeper or head-of-household,

and do you say to yourself

in the national language of your choice

as you offer blanks tagged with wag

to my daily questionnaire,

‘I have no idea what the fuck you are talking about, man!’? 

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Love masks

And love

is about masks

the make-up that makes-up

the lavish blush

of divine colour

the immemorial woo-dance

and the inevitable sweats

of maintaining the unsustainable

and then the undressing

and dress-down of knowing

caress of believed perfection

sharp pull back of hand

at wart and scar

the congenital dry skin of fallibility

abrasioned by the masking years

and the slow and difficult learning:

beauty doesn’t have to come smooth

or in pleasing geometries.

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Fire works, really!

And what goes up
must come down,
that which burns bright
explodes, delights and is gone,
like is a sparkler
an ahas koora
along whose trajectory
eye will run
and whose upward curve
is made of squeal and laughter
and when it ends
the night is no less bright
no more dark
the universe is cleared
however
collapses into true dimensions,
but that's for certain eyes
and in days of celebration
and thanksgiving
it's good to soar
good to delight
good to be a child. 

[published in 'The Nation', April 15, 2015]

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Shelf life: Indeterminate

(for oldness)

These are the libraries

of our land,
made of novels and epic poetry
rarely perused
seldom cited:
and yet there are letters
words and metaphors
tapestries woven
with labour
and the threads of being,
the bartering without permission
wheels that turn
despite impediment and age-limit,
the fruits of our today
the catch that fell through
the butterfingers of political economy,
the story of a child
and her tomorrow
and the transcripts
of a timeless,
careless
civilization.

[From the collection 'Some texts are made of leaves,' shortlisted for the Gratiaen Award 2011]

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The ebb and flow of life and death

One man’s liberator

is another’s terrorist;

but life is often black and white

and frequently coloured,

necessitates killing and death

it’s a tug-o-war

with elemental configuration

battle of hook and knife,

hearth and coin

this way and that we pull

and in the play of clutch and release

probabilities and despair

the drowning on the sand

and burial at sea

the kleshas come

as wave-weave

and wind-twist

sweet nothings and bitter love

pieties and paramitaas

gathered, chopped and sold,

there is short-change in purchase

in small talk and silence.

We come from water

And like water we go

Each to a receptacle

of love and forbidding

some as fish,

some not.

[From the collection 'Some texts are made of leaves', shortlisted for the Gratiaen Award 2011] 

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Un-freezing

Spectre of frozen-moment

carried in heart

incognito,

yes, unknown to mind

to the rolling years,

secret to all encounter

witness to path and pain,

smile to joy;

it took decades

for you to un-freeze.

Or so I thought.

[from the collection 'Some texts are made of leaves', shortlisted for the Gratiaen Award 2011]

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Some texts are made of leaves*

They are flipped with the fingers of the eye

unwet and wet

read with care by those conversant

with the language

of colour, texture and passing

and passed over too

for there are preferred texts

and ones tossed aside

for later and never;

but leaves

come from dust and to dust they go

without complaint

through gaze and ignoring;

they conspire with sun, shade and wind

wear the garments of the day’s seasonality

without shout, let us repeat

but whisper

the eternal verities: ‘birth, decay, death’

all laid out in leaf-texts

that need no words,

not even these.

[*This is the title poem of the collection that was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Award 2011.  I have posted this earlier, but starting today I will post the entire collection of 56 poems, one per day]

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