Incense

Mindfulness, they said, was the treatment

Thrice a day and he’ll be decent

With a dollop of lithium and a pinch of antidepressant

With fasting and abstinence during that time of Lent

But his mind was too full already

Thoughts flew in random sorties

Hypoglycemia made him trip out

To those marmalade skies far south

Tangerine trees that couldn’t be plucked

Orange Gobstoppers that couldn’t be sucked

A hop, skip and a jump away from the finish line

OD and then everything would be fine

On a knife’s edge of reality and delusion

Unable to fathom shadows from illusion

Kneeling on wooden pews crying for salvation

While the man at the mic spoke of eternal damnation

With accusation in every person’s eyes

No longer knowing Truth from Lies

The scent of death in each new day

Mixed with incense, those clouds of grey

Floating to heaven

Slipstream Swimming (Chaos)

While swimming through the depths

Past dregs, past wrecks, past paper checks

Butterfly stroking the waves of red

He’s half dead, the mermaids said, but well read

I reached the island of salvation

Or so I thought with much salivation

A fake Grace moved me lower

The poison sower called me over

To garland me with pearls of swine shit

And so I found myself in a bit of a mess

I must confess I thought I wore clean purple

Vanity drove me past the speed limit

Indeed timidity had no part in it

Bravado? ‘Bravo, bravo encore’

I heard the constant roars of applause

I felt I could soar, above or below

Hell or paradise, everywhere I could go

Like a badass nomad; but I’d been had

Moved by a deceptive power that was mad

And so I confined myself

Immersed myself in a never ending story

While muscle turned to fat

And dust accumulated on my hat

Stuck deep within an ocean of words

Drowning, falling, mourning