1. |
Second Year
04:20
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when thoughts on the future
expose narrow corridors
when faced with recognition
that you gave it all, and it was not enough
some days a modicum
can weigh on you a lot
and when basic conversation
escapes you and makes you feel small
some days, no one asks you;
other days you don't want to talk
so just stretch your hands out
we can help you stand tall--
something hidden has come undone:
a bout may feel endless
but all things they move on
childhood friends are disappearing
my brother has a son
i watch swallows through a skylight
as my father chops kindling in the yard
sometimes it's alright to give up
sometimes it's alright to give up
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2. |
Cracked Globe
02:27
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The weight is not easy—
it is a spectre from hell;
it is a trembling bell
that descends suddenly.
One may bear its call,
but it tolls for us all.
The globe’s full of cracks.
It is a thousand forests
of unfairness and fear,
and they swallow us repeatedly.
So we’ll find in our dreams
the spaces in-between
and forge our own positivity.
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3. |
Working People
03:26
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he was too proud
to ask for food; could
not speak up
on allowance;
to nurse his mother
he’d left his job
“working people, we hear you:
the lazy and the feckless
will pay for their wrongdoings”
they cut his power
the insulin in the fridge
was spoiled
his sister found him
near a pile of cvs
with an empty stomach
“working people, we hear you"
while those who are voiceless
make no sound
working people:
are we not
our brothers and sisters’
keepers?
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4. |
Coyoacán
02:23
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revolution is not everything;
it is the means to an end
a vulgar temporary
path to fair society,
it is required and merciless
but prone under permanence
to evade the rule of crowd
in this light, i see that now
in visions swallowed whole
in scuffles for control
there is no compromise,
forget the common goal
(and truer villains then arise
to use the void to tyrannise)
in hopeless, failing health
i see them turn on themselves
she pushed the window in my room
and let a breeze come passing through
i lay in bed, enthralled;
the grass beneath the wall
reflected light in all its tongues
an empty sky gave out like song
in every waking heart
to ask for this: i regret not
with every trembling step
the clammer ceases, i pray yet
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5. |
Os Dias do Hospedeiro
02:35
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6. |
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I FOUND THAT I COULD NOT WALK …
one night in the South my legs became sleepy
while reading a poem,
a million stones settled
& bound me
there was a sandcastle in my chest
my desk reached in and time took to wheezing
(an elaborate arc
of floodlights and bark in
vigil surround me)
i was a corpse in a window display
but then … through the glass … relief came oozing …
i forget decisions
confronted with visions
of worthless shortcomings
*
we met in a shadowed hour
where foliage and moths embroidered the garden
anecdotal retention
the weight of a question
are hidden by laughing
like a vassal to my brain,
i begged you to stop me from dancing
but the smile of a room
and a glass like a tomb
(go figure) distort me
you know i never can understand …
why songs about this are songs about movement
the continuity’s absent
there’s only fistfuls of instance
and visions abounding
*
sometimes in the wings of a giant night
the gloom of half-light and rising vapour
carries me to a grave
where the tight-knit and brave
converge, and astound me
but the glimpse of a second shoreline
sets rain on the dunes obstructing a valve ...
and at the base of my toes
the strength of that coast
dismantles the quarry
i never know when the threshold falls
(eyes down; like a vole, i structured my sentence)
but at the meeting of hands
and the exchange of a glance
all trying was pointless
and on the brink of a whispered epithet
all shortcomings are worthless
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7. |
After the Rain Came In
03:09
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under ice
hysterics entice
all the build up to the end
of life
was sensual
bustling around
i was knocked down a flight
when you caught me out that night
sat motionless in the dinghy
and unless calendars have failed us
our sons await a century
and even symbols
and deflated temples
rot at the
surface; the upwards curve
in mesoamerica
the tears are real
we begin
the upwards curve
and i didn't know
what bishop said
it recedes and then catches
on a fragment of fate
and half a pillar of hate
twenty-four years too late!
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8. |
Eunuch
03:31
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i went to yours in distress
loose leaf and admittance of sickness
with fear in my voice, i divulged: now you know
stories from an era ago
i replay scenes in my sleep
reinterpret words that were said to me
inside there's a confident voice that phrases truths
wordless and mute, it explains everything
fixed on the rug with my eyes
you smiled and tried to sympathise
silence creeps in and scratches at my hands
it's alright, nothing wrong, don't
ask it'll take too long
to explain, in real life, or in song
you might ask why i insist
on keeping my distance and phrasing it like this
obscured and safe in metaphorical repose
honesty's a noble goal until it comes too close
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Kiran Leonard England, UK
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