Category Archives: Uncategorized

Where no birds breathe, bird-magic breathesBird-beauty, bird-spirit, bird-splendour,And brings where no bird wings,Wing-beats that woo me to wonder. What do I want when a woman can warmBird-magic from her bosom, her womanly arms?Her lips that are petals, her thighs that … Continue reading →

Beneath the apple boughsAutumn had stripped bare,The scent of honey in the airLingered with the bees.My love and I stood there,Sun streaming through the trees;I smoothed her copper hairAnd kissed a velvet cheek. Beneath the apple boughsTime stood still a … Continue reading →

It was in RuwenzorI found the Bashan bull,The purple-headed mountWas bathed in misty blue.A monitor lizardWas feeding on an egg,When suddenly there swoopedAn eagle like a stone,Crushing in the mudA portly guinea-fowl. I saw the phoenix rise,Its ashes swirling dust;Pouring … Continue reading →

A hand reached out from heaven,It strove to touch my head;Then I was just elevenAnd I ducked and turned and fled. When I grew up to seventeenI lost the light of day,The sky of blue, the earth of green,And strayed … Continue reading →

In every drop.of blood I seeA fang, a tooth, a claw;And all the future is to meA cataclysmic war. From hidden mines of jealousy,Revenge, suspicion, hate,Inflamed by ignorance will burstThe flames of bloody fate. And they will annihilate allIn every … Continue reading →

The scattered leavesshook with lifeand flung the airwith swirls of dust; swept the treesand swayed their heads,brushed the skieswith thick grey clouds; layer on layermenacing black,moving in wavesand waves to attack; an army rushing,horde upon horde,whirling and swirlingthe dust on … Continue reading →

Between you and meIs a long stretch of seaPreventing usFrom communicating with each otherProperly. My words fly through the airAnd settle here and there,Scattered like pigeons on the sand;And boats which swiftly sailWith messages, in hailAnd storm are wrecked before … Continue reading →

The small black ant (one of those who alwaysSeem to be in a hurry and are wonderfully awareOf your finger inches away; not worth killing, butNevertheless are killed in their thousandsWhen housewives empty sugar into the burning sunOr when stuck … Continue reading →

Tall and thinand chicken-limbed,her beady eyes bespectacled,reflected primordial timeswhen she, a prehistoric bird,stood out among the glazed rocksand screeched her praise toGod. Her balding head,her scraggy hairthat fell about her sunken face,was faded like her satin dress;and hungry, as her … Continue reading →

Anguishis a mental pain,a bereaved mother’s sorrow;and anguishis a numbing pain;it isn’t such a horroras thornscrushed round a helpless head,barbed wire flung into the face;griefmay be the living deadbut not a contorted grimace. TAN PRATONIX