June 3, 2016

Three Poems by Don Beukes: "Derelict," "Erutan Mai," and "Broken"

I was born, raised and educated in Cape Town, South Africa in the last two decades of Apartheid and also have British and EU citizenship. Now a retired teacher of English, I am following my passion to write poetry and hoping to share my literal mentality with our global village, hoping to make global citizens check their moral compass now and then in an ever changing world. As a person of mixed race heritage, I want to share my experiences whilst growing up, living  and working in a totalitarian racist regime. https://about.me/donbeukes









Derelict


Scores of starving children roaming
silently moaning as we watch in horror
behind the safety of our television screens
the saturated screams of neglect lest we
forget charitable targets not met -


Our brittle faith in humanity crushed
witnessing political fallout dust
it covers troubled areas in forced conflict
armageddon nightmares


tick...tick…


plunging nations in disintegrating derelict.


Power hungry gravy train engineers
polishing their latest designer veneers
leaving qualified job seekers in diamond
tears – Fuelling fiendish foretold fears
of marauding fed-up factions desperately
tearing down enriched utopian mansions
only to be severely severely stopped
by a political fatal hell-hound menacing mob


with tensions rising society dividing decision
makers floundering – Shady deals forged in
Ché Guevara cigar filled backrooms whilst
being served honey covered poison mushrooms


the air pregnant with false rumors
serenaded by corrupt parliamentary
crooners – A world in tumultuous
turmoil desperately trying to keep in tact


a burning human inferno
in a place doomed to remain


derelict...





Erutan Mai 


I am cosmic ripples of time


creator unknown


some say divine,


Driven by intergalactic forces


tactile metamorphoses


extreme energy my


fiery fuel


my own nemesis,


A faint rumbling signals it


airflow speeds over


infiltrating weeds


wildlife stirs murmuring


chaos anew,


Light fades as darkness craves,


Ignited by an unknown entity


my rage resulting in


an earthly deity,


Sculpting


creating


ripping


adjusting,


Tectonic shivers


my playground expanding -


Subtle resistance prevails


as approaching


mayhem sails


towards order and peace


promising no


relentless release.


I am the gargle of


raging waters


instinctively searching


a spiral destination


briefly gushing


providing fresh sustenance,


Invisible force catapulting


me into a salty fortress


it tucks at your intake of air


as it sucks out life all around,


Your senses explode


sensory overload


primitive instincts surface


into the lair.


I am legions of identities


mankind keen to


baptise me ‘Mother’,


My offspring diverse


their power my


eternal curse,


Each molecule under my instruction


an egregious growl turns


into a menacing scowl


of eclectic electric


cobalt light


burning bright,


Imploding clouds


deliver a ghastly sight


air splits


as I vomit foul,


Schizophrenic reactions


reveal another dimension,


My life-giving force resulting


in growing generations,


Microscopic activity


biological longevity


colors exploding


fossils exfoliating,


I am omnipresent


and potent


yet holding charge


of life abound.


I remain


and always


will be -


Erutan Mai.




Broken



Deathrow –


Its echo haunts my


crumbling halo


cutting through


my hopeless interior –


Falsely shunned by


society's man-made laws


caged within these eternal


damned doomed doors – My


essence flickering fleeting


disappearing – mamon knocking


its minions mocking, taunting


neighbourly tirade desperately


engineered attempting


to make me fade –


Daily raw rhetoric


filtering through beastly


boasting brick of apparent


initial violence breaking


the silence –


Persistent poisonous


mocking desperate


to cripple me


alas, two decades could


not wither me -


By all means rewrite


your sour soliloquy


faith almost broken – Me


an uptown lawyer's token, a


perilous unlawful process still


unspoken – My youthful former self


mistakenly confessed under drugged


duress – To a murky murder


drunken mayhem, freedom


broken - Society's tarnished


teenage token stripped humanity –


Sentenced to institutional insanity


devoid from chosen human contact –


Beelzebub signing my final deathly


contract - Isolation draining me


dehumanising me -


Do you see me


hovering in limbo ?


A small audience to


witness my demise -


The ultimate freak show


fading the glow – You look


at me straining to see


hoping to stop a blurred


perceived growing anarchy


a brittle spirit


finally broken – You


wretch at my sudden


seizure your chosen


amnesia adoring this


pitiful pathetic procedure -


My existence eerily vivid


you -


The executioner


silent raucous reverie -


My last referee


a soul finally broken


splinters of doubt -


My body an empty shell


successful callous cull -


Fallen


fading


translucent -


Broken

~  Don Beukes

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