Sunday, September 14, 2014

Ruthless


Time is the friend time is the foe

Time is the one that watches you go
Like a building on waterlogged land

Just a bit in the beginning, barely it shows
Like a shadow in a crevice or a corner, it grows
Water then creeps, water then crawls
Water then slithers onto the walls
Slinking to the ceiling, leaving its mark
In wrinkles and creases and blisters and scars
The beams will sag and the rafters will groan
And slowly the warping building will moan
Entrapped in a watery bane

Time is a friend, time is a foe
Time is the one that watches you go
In the droop of your shoulders, in the furrows of your brow
In the sighs of your bones as they bend into boughs

And on it flows, through lives dissolved
Like a whisper departing unnoticed, unheard
buildings then crumble, bodies then drop
Somewhere in the silent resonance of a thud.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Why Must the Rain Gods troll? (not your usual children's poem).


 By Saif Khan

Jackery Swickelson of four Montgomery Lane
Was quite hoping that morning for some unpredicted rain
He had dressed up for school but felt quite unprepared   
With an unfinished project due to the partner with whom he was paired
Apparently his partner Frederick Von Trapp
Had gone off and taken a six week nap
It was because of ol’ Frederick’s slumber
And of course, Jackery not having his number
That the project had errors which were easily spotted
and could not be finished in the time allotted
So Jackery wished upon every candle and every star
That the great rain gods of Banzhabar
Would grant him this favor and make the world wet
And Jackery would forever be in their debt
And just as he wished Jackery heard a loud clap
Followed by a bang, a woosh and a snap
He looked out his window into the morning sky
And what he saw amazed him, he couldn't believe his eyes
Darkest of clouds came creeping over the sun
‘Oh’! He thought, ‘so it has begun’!
Down came the rain pouring with force
He knew that the rain gods had to be the source
Smiling to himself, he sat down on his bed
“Seems impossible to walk to school now” he said
“I shall wait for it to stop, or slow down to a drizzle,
And then I can take an umbrella in the mizzle.” 

But the rain didn't stop, it kept on falling
He wondered now if the rain gods had been trolling
He watched the downpour spill over the gutters
And spray itself in, through the open shutters
Jackery then panicked Jackery then worried
Out of the door he hurried and scurried
Cars were sinking in the newly formed bay
People were paddling trying to get away
“Stop” he whispered, “the water’s flooding the street!
Children will be thrown out of class still in their seats”
The Gods didn't listen so he looked up to the sky
“Why won't you stop? I need to know why”?
  
The wind at that moment pushed in a big wave
Jackery whimpered, not knowing how else to behave
When one person came floating right up to his door
It was Frederick! Still sleeping, he let out a snore.