The Toad

The water's innocent,

A song tells me,

The song asks me to jump in.

But I'm a toad,

Not a frog who can turn into a prince with a kiss

I'm a toad so you won't kiss me.

Not that you're much of a beauty

You old British hag.

But I'm a toad

That can't swim

And I've almost drowned before.

I'm a toad

That can't swim,

And I know you won't save me.

So don't tempt me with your innocence

Because I think I'd rather stick to dry land.

-- R.S. Finkle

Dance Through Space

I lay down; pull the blanket over my head.
I'm ready to close my eyes; I'm ready to be with you.

I shut out the night,
Travel through space
And there's a flicker...
A picture forms - It's you!
And you're my lover.

I was lost in space and you've found me.

You lead me through the field of stars -
Your hand gently pressing down into mine -
As we dance our way through Saturn's rings,
Past Io, Callisto, Ganymede and raging Jupiter,
Until we reach Earth
And I see that sad look of farewell in your eyes.

I know its time.
You let go...
Drift away.

Gravity takes hold,
I fall faster and faster,
Until I'm a flaming meteorite of sadness and misery
Streaking across the sky to my doom.

The picture flickers... then dies.

I wake up to the sun high in the sky
But I don't wake up to you.

It was just a dream.

That's why I'm a dreamer,
But not your lover.

-- T.S. Oliver

Summer Afternoon

I step out into the pre-dawn cold,

In an ill fitting jacket that tries in vain to keep the cold at bay,

As I set out in search of

An end to the longest winter I have ever known.

Outside the streets are empty,

The orange street lights in perpetual battle

With the fog that clings to the early hours,

As I walk past warmly-lit houses

In search of a summer afternoon.

For long have I tarried in the winter dark,

That nor blanket nor fire can unfreeze my tears,

Nought can free them and let the emotion out

But my summer afternoon.

And through the cold I make my way

From an empty street to a thronging platform,

And there I wait for the train that carries her --

My summer afternoon.

The train pulls in and out she steps,

All clad in summery blue ,

And I'm free again as I bask in the green-gold light

Of my summer afternoon.

But now summer is at an end again,

As into another bitter winter I prepare to fly.

And ever shall I tarry there,

Until I rest my head again

In the golden lap of my summer afternoon.

-- Abhishek Takle

The Nocturnal Song

I step out in the dark,

The sky is black

No stars to be seen tonight.

I take the path

We used to walk,

But no flowers crown me tonight.

The air is still,

No soft breeze carries to me

The fragrance of the night.

All is quiet,

The trees don't sing

Their wooden songs tonight.

The night is dead,

The lights are off

Dried flowers litter the ground and bare, hollow trees,

Tower grotesquely over me.

Until I hear the crunch of your feet,

See you walking on a carpet of dead leaves.

Until you come and walk with me

And restore the twinkle to the night,

Until you come and walk with me

And restore that nocturnal song to my eternal night, tonight.

-- Abhishek Takle

Under The Stars

It's night, I step out

To gaze at the pinpricks

Blazing in the dark sky.

It's night, I step out,

Out of my isolation

To seek you out

Among the multitude of stars

In strife with the dark.

But I'm lost! There are so many!

Which one is you, I wonder?

I'm lost! so I wait

In the hope that you will come to me instead;

Fall out of the sky like a shooting star,

Drop down next to me,

Incinerate my loneliness.

And so I wait until the light of day grows,

Until one-by-one it smothers the twinkling fairies,

Until its time to step back into isolation.

And when the day grows old and turns into night,

I'll step out again,

Under the pinpricks blazing in the dark sky,

To wait for you, won't you come?

So alone...

Empty Spaces

It's dawn, the sun rises.

Lights up the world,

Your solitude,

Your sleeping face.

It's dawn the sun rises.

Lights up my room,

With the clothes strewn all around,

The deepest corners of my womb,

Lights up the lonely spaces around me, where you aren't.

And ever brighter the sun will grow, chase away the shadows,

As it mocks my lonlinesss, flooding the empty spaces with light,

The spaces where you aren't.

Until at last the twilight comes

And pulls the mocking sun back below the edge of the world.

It's night, the sun has gone away;

Shadows spring from the corners again

To veil the empty spaces around me,

The lonely spaces where you aren't.

It's night, the sun has gone away;

But the shadows are beaten back again

As the festive lights flash in the sky

In festive burts they illuminate the wondrous joy on your face.

But in my room they drive back the shadows,

The veil thrown over my longing for your company.

In festive bursts they illuminate the empty lonliness around me,

The lonliness where you aren't.

The Blue Bus

On a warm summer evening

I set out to find you,

In a blue bus that carries me into sadness;

But sadness is hard to find.

On and on the bus takes me

Through twilight past empty fields,

Through tunnels that burrow under the feet of brown hills,

Through passes in lofty mountain ranges,

Past anonymous towns and hamlets.

The milestones whizz by 

As the stars peep out and light the way to you,

They remind me how much further I must go

Until I get to you.

But then a big city looms up 

And its lights and its haze

Snuff out the guiding stars.

And here the bus must stop 

Until a new sun rises,

With the promise of finding you at last.

- Abhishek Takle