The Running Vagabond

The sirens go off

i push through the emergency exit

and run up the alley.

I never know what am looking for

so this time, it's no different.

I must have ran as quick as lightning

because no one ran past me,

or was i too slow

that everyone disappeared 

before i even started thinking?

Now that i've escaped from the danger,

do i scream for help or hide from it..?

The sirens are getting louder, getting closer...

I can feel the cold sweat starting to drip

from my throbing temples,

i breathe so heavily, it tires me.

Should i run? Should i stay?

Where are they?!

i run, i ran, i am running

away from the sirens, away from help

away from the now dieing cries...

past the the menacing buildings, 

past the busy sidewalks,

past the over-friendly grocer and bakery,

past my old school and childhood home,

i run, i ran, i am running

Then i stop.

Just as suddenly as i began.

I never know what i'm looking for

so this time, it's no different.

The sun is blazing, yet i feel cold...

As i turn around and begin to head back,

i feel the shade of the cloud overhead,

protecting me from the sun's angry stare.

As always i take it to be a sign,

as always i trudge back to square one.

Photograph : exit_by_toko

Spoken Word : The Peacock Lady

S

Every morning as the sun rises
she wakes up and gives her praises,
oh no, not to the many faces
but to the things that survived through the ages.
She gives thanks to the earth divine
by watering the plants that grow in the cracks of her mind,
people might think she's far from fine
but she was reborn when she crossed that line.

This peacock lady has a story to tell
of how she conquered the world by breaking the spell,
of how she was once trapped in her very own cell
till she heard the ringings of a faraway bell.
It all started in a dream, where she met the three
who unravelled the truth and made her be,
they whispered hushed secrets that held the key
to everlasting... ever fulfilling... serenity...

In this dream she woke up in an oasis
she spent days in the dream writing verses,
surrounded by beauty she built her new basis
letting the words flow she escaped from her crisis.
In reality she was troubled so frequently
the world was hers, yet she always sighed so deeply,
maybe for questioning suffering, religion or equality
till she answered them all... when she met poetry.

After rhyming to her hearts content
she was happy to see there was no need for repent,
so she walked to wherever the road bent
and stopped, at something that the heaven's sent.
Lo and behold there was a man in her dream,
a tall, dark and handsome one was he,
they talked about her poetry and being free,
this was how, she met love... oh so suddenly...

Hand in hand they walked through time...
enjoying the pellets of rain and the rays of sunshine...
she taught how lovely reality would be without crime
and wished she could go back and save her kind.
A world so treacherous, filled with hate, greed and lies
when will the pain stop? When everyone dies?
So to answer all the world's cries
she met peace, when she let herself go and learnt to fly.

She flew with with ease on life's gentle breeze
across the valleys, and trees and the seven seas,
to return home and answer her people's pleas
by sharing her story and at last, putting them at ease.
When she returned she was greeted by an unexpected turn
there was a peacock waiting beside her garden's fern,
he was proud and handsome and but looked concerned
worried that she might forget what she had learnt.

So as the days went by, this lady spread her message
she wrote about freedom, respect and lineage,
she shared the secret to survive life's passage
of how were all travellers without any baggage.
With the proud peacock watching over her so caringly
she lived her life in satisfying simplicity...
she didn't even mind when people called her the peacock lady,
for she had found herself through meeting... peace,love and poetry.

Artwork : Peacock_Lady_by_atumbleweed

~ This poem was written for the theme of 'Peace, Love & Poetry',

 and recited at the September session of Poet's Passport ~

You can also check out Poets Passport on their blog!