Swan Songs

1.

So many
tiled floors
as foot touches
hard, gravelly
corners

Heavy metal
cutting through
shafts of skin
Ah...

Objects to inspire

In this city
of steel and concrete
While here
Just by my bed
lies this poem

Andromache! - The Swan
An ode
to Victor Hugo
My song


2.
While words
slip
In and Out
Crisp and cutting
white lines.

White!

Like a swan
on concrete tiles
dragging webbed feet
along
paved streets.

Asphalt!

Ashes to ashes
This dust
burning my eyes
Victor Hugo
This be your song.


3.
Over fed
Overate
I stare at this
Swan song

In a pond
He said
Webbed feet
on Asphalt

While the
azure
waters
of another time
glimmer
just past
gone.

This ode
This song
This stone
Concrete
Steel

cut red-white
lines
into
one
long
moment

While I stare
on and on.


4.
Caught within
Expanded metal
Boxes of steel
Orange and blue
lines
Straight from my heart

This quiet swan
- white patch of afternoon madness
Stops me a moment
- a song

Of concrete
and steel
and blood
and dust

Settle.

- As Victor Hugo did.

His swan
My calm.


5.
Moonriver
Surprise! Surprise!
Intricate
ice maiden

White window
Heavy
White cement
The perfect white
blends light
left and opposite

The Gulmohar,
clad in blue-green-gold
tiles and white
...Below




1st September, 2009
Poetry Workshop at Samuha