[pathopoetry] a gloom made agreeable

I have the urge to re-hash old poems
that speak of such quiet moroseness
as has returned to me

with due reason
in all seriousness
and absurdity

this calm thoughtful melancholy
tempered by sense; my covered gloom.

wise to the uselessness of indulgence
of such a humour, I dampen the response

I would have wallowed
if logic didn't sneer

there's something comforting though
in the allowance of some benevolent commiseration
towards myself
for such serene despondence

to search for a hyperbolic verse
that will amuse
and console.


--

[pathopoetry] When a good friend stays over

when good friends stay over
I don't mind them seeing
the clothes in the bedroom
the dishes in the sink
but I try to be neater
and make sure
the bathroom is cleaner

and I throw on a well-loved worn-out T
but I'll make a real meal
and a good cup of tea
and remember the coasters
while we sprawl on the sofas

and when the alarm rings in the morning
I get up right then and am quicker in the shower
we'll make breakfast and have enough time to eat it
if I make sandwiches I'm generous with the Nutella

because when I have a good friend stay over
I can just be myself
and maybe even better


---

[pathopoetry] growing ourselves

you and I
we will be superfluous together
we will link hands, gaze solemnly at our wilting
nod heads, hold tight, lower our eyes

and where we feel empty
we will overfill each other
where the hollowness lies we will pile the russet earth
we will make warm mounds
over recesses we've carved
from our self-effacing blame

dry roots gently pulled

plant me
I'll plant you
with something to lean to
we'll grow



--

Whoa, jumping characin - Copella is revisited!

Those who've followed this blog since it's conception might remember my philosophical-phylogenetic musings on Copella arnoldi, the jumping spawners (complete with hand-drawn illustrations!) If you've missed that article, you might want to read it - frankly because I marvel at how much time I must have spent on it! ;)

In any case, finally you can see the actual footage that inspired me to write that treatise! So I guess interested readers of the original post can now just skip the explanation part altogether and move on to the musings.

The snippet is from a documentary entitled Equator: Rivers of The Sun. Do watch, it's amazing.

[µstory] The ants, I admire from afar

"....I get a rash on my hand that feels like fire. I blame the henna and am angry, but then get rashes all over my body and am in too much pain and burning itchy discomfort to be properly angry. I tell my then-med-student (now doctor) sister, who says, "Hives." What are those? I become acquainted with them well. I then remember being bitten by Something on that very same hand recently when picking up a cousin from a tropical farm house. I file this away mentally, sleuthing through the facts to pinpoint what on earth could have made me so miserable."

View/Download "The ants, I admire from afar"

[pathopoetry] The hungry mania of a single person after a draining workday

I am hungry, but too tired
to exert myself in the search for sustenance
I can starve myself to be symbolic, I think, while secretly
thinking, food

would be really good to have, yet sleep
would be fabulous, then my stomach protests
you are never good to me, oh no
oh no, you are far too spoilt

what with chocolate in the evening, recall?
and some random fruit for health
still you have grabbed at my abdomen
quite inconsiderately, I felt

the wrench of your complaining, did you
need to groan so low? don't you know my aching back is creaking
don't you see my eyes are glazed and burning


my spine is a sine curve, still reeling
from all those years of calculus carrying
so that I am still spited by those schooltexts
doomed to bend double long after working

and my dark circles are smarting

but you swear you are internally collapsing
(and I feel it too, my ribs meet my navel)

so I will fight my soporific fantasy
tear myself slowly from my comforting stasis
to put something, anything substantial, in you

so you can shut (up)
and I can go sleep.




-----
View/download "The hungry mania" poem