Stardust

Born of the fleeting whim of stardust to take our shape 

we slowly dissolve back in time - that Universal solvent that solves everything

And return to stardust like pigeons that home without Sat Nav

For the wasted breath we exhale to give life to others in our wake

Just as we have shared what Newton gasped as that apple fell

And what Darwin sobbed as his daughter died

Our breaths have swapped stories with wisps from shy Ramanujan

And the obscure lungs of Madhavan as he lived the life of Pi

But also mingled without judgement with the roar of Stalin and Hitler and the futile prayers of all their faceless victims

We are at once stuck to the skin of this cooling ball of fire

And yet belong out there in the endless empty void

Perhaps this is the duality we cannot reconcile

This pull of our home and the promise of our paths  

And in our silent indecision 

We find thoughts of god 

Hiding in plain sight  between electron paths

Father’s Day

He woke up bleary eyed,

wiping dreams off

stunted eyelashes

Craving volatile alkaloids

in Ascension, leaving the

less worthy behind 

in dark tarry pools,

much like

Dreams of dinosaurs 

trapped in mud

Work calls early, and amidst 

flashes of blue comes 

Another father on this

Special day, set aside 

for spikes in sales 

of greeting cards and 

shaving foam

That horse oft flogged 

was flagging, but we tried 

our best available magic,

donned in Royal Blue,

Concocting potions, powders,

poultices, and balm for the brain

But this horse had bolted

And despite mechanised

arms pounding a pound 

of mindless flesh 

with unrestrained brutality,

we failed, 

Our Collective Fatherhood watched

one of its own

drift up - perhaps

a better alkaloid 

in Ascension, leaving

dark muddy ones behind

A lonely cloud wandered home

battered, but not like 

that horse we flogged

endlessly, now lying

panting and broken 

in a ditch between two bellows

meant for air and laughter,

filled to the brim with blood

The door opened to a promise

of giggles and impish grins

Monsters strictly banished to

the outside, where they 

wait for another day 

while an unworthy father 

is swamped in hugs

and painstakingly poorly drawn

glittered cards brimming with

Promises of Love to keep me

sane in my loneliness as

I fight unresolved guilt

and justify my existence

for yet another day,

when Fathers matter less 

whether Dead 

or Alive