Words Much Like Poetry

This was my response to a story challenge put forth by Milton Davis . Find his group, Sword and Soul , on Black Science Fiction Society . Today, there is time enough for stillness. Time enough to rest the calloused soles of my conflict laden feet upon the bare tile. Time enough to look west, out over the nshya , to the distant marshes. They give rise to a mist this day that reaches humid tendrils across the sprawling farmlands which divide the palace from the swamps. Mist which brings with it echoes, remnants of the fallen warriors of my tribe, who beat with one hand the shields which rest against their hips, as if those plates of finely engraved bronze were ingoma , and brandish their spears in the other. As they move toward the palace, they each in turn call out their names, and the names of their fathers, and the names of their sons, and the count of their kills. And as each finishes his recitation, he then takes up the battle cry which we sing as we march out to face our w...

inception of untimed exactitudes borne of almost infinite unproximity brought soft lined shackling to me. the rhymed dance of bliss with similarities bore me to ignorant unrealities. the incompleteness of the matched severed the bond save an unravelling strand of patience. on the flagstone of my essence is etched the unsurity of destined interlocking of unlike keys. departure spanning moons shatters gathered bravado, false wholeness to a thousand shards. they cut deep into my inner substance driving me to the despair of a bereaved dove. I float in a never-ending story, bound to the suspense of unpredictability as I feed from the hand of fate. bound to the tether of sentiment, I circumscribe my limited world. my sustenance is limited to what is handed me and I cannot take more. in this keep I must tarry, till my keeper grants me the grace of favoured company.

I haven't the words to express the grief that I feel in my heart for the suffering that is resounding across this nation. Forgive me my lack of words, instead allow me to offer this... Video: Jagwire Lexis

silence silence in the heart of a thousand cries all alone among those whose hearts cry out in agony the silent pitch gains volume and she has to press her hands to her ears she wakes up and stumbles along through the rubble her dress is tattered, she is covered in white dirt she is numb and feels no pain in the wound on her left leg the picture of her mother laying motionless... she blanks it out and now limps among wailing souls she feels a hand upon her shoulder but walks on half unconscious, her arms hanging loose at her sides she can hear her heartbeat now in this virtual silence someone dressed in white steps in front of her and stops her holding her by the shoulders she stops walking, she stops thinking she longs to stop breathing; mother... and she is in front of her, her mommy her smile comforting as she looks into her eyes she involuntarily hiccups a stifled sob; oh mother.. it will be all right, her mother says mom, she calls out and the lady in white embraces the little sou...

Staring at the darkening sky My mind was wondering why This had to happen to us .. happen to us ... happen to us ... Without a sign you let out your fury Many are dead now, thousands in injury We beg you please forgive us .. forgive us ... forgive us ... We cry now for the many that are gone buried beneath the earth and stone In sadness and mourning the tears fall .. and fall ... and fall ... So harsh has been your punishment anger your many a lash meant maybe a lesson, maybe another chance .. another chance ... another chance ... Mercy mother earth ... mercy please. Image: UN Photo/Logan Abassi, Haiti earthquake damage, http://www.flickr.com/photos/37913760@N03/ / CC BY 2.0 In memory of those lost in Haiti

in the golden bath of the plunging sun the one who is stranger no more holds her close to still her trembling and seeks to illuminate her darkened soul she turns to him, her face a brazen perfection but her eyes of raw umber a reflection of sorrow his own eyes a deep sapphire sparkle, infect her with the calmness of still waters they bubble up from her eyes, streaming down unblemished skin—the dew of relief and the kiss, a plunge into a celestial fountain and in the softness a burst into wondrous paradise he pauses—her tears do not stop, she entreats the salt turns sweet and her body yields to passion he shelters her from the icy breeze whispering to her in harmony with long grass whistles the stars illuminate her face ever so softly and she relinquishes her heart to his warm embrace

by Daniel Njoroge Mines moonlight tonight, demur not our hearts to unite, While I sleep, mildly creep and abut me in my dreams, Agleam my room with your cool softening illumes, And gently so as not to awaken me, whisper my pet poetry, String along summer breeze; let her repress my arising body heat, My bunk by the window, I beckon thee to come and wed me, Willy-nilly you awaken me, allure me, and besiege me to thy outdoor dwellings, I raise my blinders to peruse the skies, and as a wildfire you blazed the night, Your siblings shimmer with a loud but ever flowing glamour, The beauty that you behold stimulates my mind afloat and wonder, Brava!!!!! Brava!!!!!! Brava!!!!! beloved night Brava!!!

dialectic discourse a frantic race to fine grained writs without a cause for recourse a tingle of longing infected my wrists a disconnect from the fathomable into paths of alphabetic tunnels are my discernments veritable? they overwhelm me, these mysteries I must funnel this unvented volcanic gen boils in the bowels of mental chasms they singe my reality again denied, they threaten to rend my mind with violent spasms a stroke, then the train of dominoes they pour out in semantic floods seeking blanks to render inky throes these words much like poetry