Necessary Evil

A necessary evil
To protect my love
A necessary evil
Sleeps on the other side
Of my angel
A necessary evil
I can't let go of
Without losing the reason I live

Home Sick

Standing on this packed train
Blinking awake in sunny
Japanese December
I sometimes wish
This was a diorama
Of my old Japan life
I sat looking at
In my empty house
During the dark Canadian winter

Mind of Babel

Sometimes
My trilingual mind
Becomes unmoored
I babble ay my ma
今日ご飯どっか行こう？
Until she sighs
I start a class
With "Ouvrez vos livres a page 26"
Until the blank stares halt me
I patter on about movies
Till they laugh
"Theo arrete!"

Once
At a big sleepover party
The girl on the futon next to me
Fled in the night
"You were talking in 3 languages
I thought you were possessed"

I sometimes worry
My trilingual mind
Will slip its partitions
As I age and I'll sit
In the old folk's home
Demodulator gone
Diode busted
Resonating between stations
Like an old time radio
My father promised to fix
But never got around to

Dear Woman

Dear woman
Screaming at your 1st child
Cajoling and threatening
Inside Nada Station
I so wanted to help
To offer to
Carry the child
Console him
While you pushed the younger
And we laughed
As the tension dissapated

But I didn't
Don't think my eyes judged you
They saw myself
Yesterday
As I chased down my son
Slapped his head
And said "NEVER run away like that!"
Ensuring that he will someday

This is city Japan
Where we suffer alone
Especially if we are
From different worlds

The Loved Ones

Everytime I see a child
In perfect dress
With perfect gear for their day
A child with Down's
A child with heavy retardation
A child with visible disabilities
Looking cleaner than me
Fitting in better than me
Knowing their path
More than I know mine
I want to hug them
For inspiring me
I want to thank the parents
Who send them out
Loved and beautiful
Into this ugly and unloving world

Memories of Cork

Cut myself
With the sharehouse fruitknife
More surprised than hurt
Just another memory of Cork

Gave 50p
To a brown toothed beggar
"Wish I could give you more"
"Alright brother, no bother, god bless you"
Just another memory of Cork

Cork hipster
Playing accodian in a doorway
Reading sheetmusic off his I-phone
Just another memory of Cork

Meme Dream

Read it in a meme
Left and right wing
Belong to the same bird
Saw it in a dream
Red and blue blood
Run in the same vein

This is the real life
Wrapped in a fantasy
Discourses of power
Shape our reality
How can we see
Dreaming with our eyes open

Life

The vines and roots

Hold the boulders fast

It’s life that keeps

The mountain from falling