Its tongue half peeking,
In the pub let's rub our shoulders,
bare and brown—
And make some fire,
And make some fire,
Wooly-flame, sire!
Promise, shan't burn this pink town
down.
The clock parts lips,
The clock parts lips,
12 oh clock, down the block,
And the waiter slips a bill,
A second hangs still
Between our noses,
And damn he stands like a Moses,
Picking and taking our eyes behind a
grill:
A tablet full of rules, we
saw for fools,
Written in pink we think,
Written for the schools!
But, why us, why this gentle fuss,
But, why us, why this gentle fuss,
My boots shine, her heels high,
And this no ordinary but Vuitton's silk tie,
Though loose,
Come feel it-
This fair feather of a grumpy goose!
(Oh here's your clown, darling,
Here I turn to thee,
The woody smell of you darling,
Your firm hands, hockey-legs,
darling,
Oh, woody, wood, you moody!
Let me peck at your neck, ruddy!)
Why that face, boo, sire,
Why that face, boo, sire,
Come join us two,
With a round of Martini or red-wine,
My tongue is tired, my eyes are red?
Here sit beside her (you are sitting on!),
Come, quick, join.
Hush, low your voice, stop this noise,
The fur-ball twitches its left ear see,
Come on sire, don't be a liar,
That’s a cat, not a rat, no a rat it cannot be.
(Sweet darling, sour grape,
season's first tomatoo..)
Where’s she! There she is, there . . .
And that! Oh there she's too!-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hisham M Nazer is a trilingual poet, who writes in English, Bangla and Hindi as well. He is currently working on an M.A. dissertation on T. S. Eliot and Dante, supervised by the department of English, University of Rajshahi. Hisham is a prolific writer, published in several national magazines and international anthologies. Apart from writing fiction and poetry, he is an essayist too, a spiritual speaker and a teacher of philosophy. Himself an occasional painter and sketcher, he loves painting and photography. Wherever art is, he likes to be there. He worked as a sub-editor for two literary magazines- Shasshwatiki (Bengali) and The Browsing Corner (Multi-lingual e-zine). For years now he has been studying and teaching Western and Eastern philosophies.
Bay Laurel / Volume 2, Issue 1 / Spring 2013