Youth

I am holding on to you

Like a child holds on

So tight and firm,

Yet futilely

To his dying mother.

 I stare at you in the eye

Only to see the deep wounds in your soul

Etched by shattered dreams and regrets

I guess I haven’t treated you well.

Understand me,

I didn’t mean to discard you

Or forsake you,

It’s just me,

Thinking you’d stick around for a lifetime.

But time was dripping in

And  slowly you drowned in it

I’m sorry i didn’t notice.

I was too caught up with chasing tomorrow.

But as these skin folds

And as these shoulders get heavier

I understand that the tomorrow of my yesterday

Isn’t worth as much as you.

Teach me to live

Blind me from tomorrow

And i’ll swear i’d be better with you

In the next lifetime

N

A careless glimpse

It was just a wild glance

A lack of self-restraint really

One moment of untimely self-defiance

And you’ve lost it

Before you can spell your name

You’ve forget it

The distant desire

Is the only one that matters

We’ve been thought 

To stand tall

And stare Goliath

In his eyes

But why  not

Teach us how 

To resist the flicking of hair

And the touch of the fairer skin

We may slay the beasts in our minds

And conquer the Barbarians in our hearts

But for every strand of hair 

Tucked behind

We will forever be seized 

By the folly of our eyes

Sinking Ship

We were young

When we agreed to board  that sinking ship

We convinced ourselves

That we could be make it home

By the last trip

But the ship sailed

And we didn’t alight

We didn’t care to

Blindly we clinged on

Waiting for the mornings light

Hoping it’d never come

We’d gone too far

From our lifeline

The ship was sinking

And you jumped out

When i wast fast asleep

By your side

Foolish me!

I stuck around

Thinking you weren’t too far

Hoping you’d come back 

To leave together

But you swam

Far away

The salt and sun

Changed your skin

And you weren’t coming back

How was I to know

I thought I knew you

I thought we were true

When we laid our souls bare that night

On the sinking ship

Oh that one moment!

That blinded my vision

And connived me to trust

That you’ll return to this wanting arms.

To swim away

As the alarm bells ring

And as the ship is sinking

I stare at the sun in agony

Too wounded to swim

But too afraid to sink.

N