Crashing

i have been in a train wreck
slow motion
with grinding wheels
my body is shuddering
frozen
i shake in every limb
in the midst
of debris
i sit
in classic symptoms of shock
trying to think
and feel

the thing i most need
is calmness
to see the future clear

i saw you
and then you vanished

i thought it a very bad omen indeed
it clenched my heart
in fear

i told myself
this wont happen again
but it did
over and over
crashing
you kept on crashing
but you made it back
in the end

Leaving (poem for Safi)

great things are done
where mountains meet
it’s an uphill steady climb
the road is long and strange

i met a guy
who seemed to float
above the clouds
– a beat above it all

i had a sister
clear and strong
wherever i turned
and switched
and roamed
she always came along

i had a lot of laughter too
and fine and funny friends
strangers were often kind
there was love
given and felt
but everything ends
in the end

in the end
it’s the way it goes

it’s all quite simple really
but I am still surprised
the world is very different now
through newly opened eyes
the things i saw
won’t be seen again
because they changed my life
so i cut my hair
and turned my back
on the darkness
of before

now farewell illusions
and farewell chains
hello freedom
hello truth

i won’t be round this way again
things have a natural end