Alexander Downie

The truth is I loved you, I dare you to remember
The truth is you hurt me, I dare you to share my pain
The truth is I wanted you back, I dare you to say the same
The truth is you never said sorry, l dare you to try
...

Your latest haircut denotes your status and style,
a thick velvet rope lifting makes your false smile.
Tattooed arms state, crazy child like charms,
draped laminate passes, a vacant call to arms.
...

Real Men cry for others, real men love their Mothers.
Real men stand for right, real men walk from a needless fight.
Real men live with respect, real men ponder and reflect.
Real men say what they mean, real men reject the obscene.
...

My head spins like a pirouetting ballet dancer
My wraith laments under a burden of piquant turmoil
My days are faltered and my sable minutes lay shattered and crushed
My masquerade contorts to whisperings of enraptured passions and trepidation
...

When the volume subsides and the last word is silence,
I still believe in love.
When the pressure in my head subsides and my breathing shallows,
what else remains?
...

A pretty black girl in Chicago takes a stray bullet to the back,
another Mother standing beside a dark grave, while white America arms.
A black boy shot in the face getting groceries for his waiting Mom,
a congress so dumb white blind, they can't see this as wrong!
...

Are you ok, you ask the wrong person,
it is not her that sits all alone.
Are you ok, who is the victim,
who destroyed a loving home.
...

He walks over fallen timber to find the high point on the hill,
placing feet on dry bark and avoiding damp moss in the dark.
His breath spits misty splinters of ice in the cold night air,
and his taught chest raises with fierce, effort and expectation.
...

After the first scream she lays the child upon her sweat covered breast,
they breath in time, a journey on a winding new road with no end.
Through ripped knees, ferocious fevers and torn hearts her scent never alters,
soothing spectres on fearful nights, smiling through dark days, an apron for a shield.
...

Put on your best clothes, the news is on today,
a billion smiles on TV, another fleeting moment to pass away.
Roll out red, white and crisp new blue bunting, your best Union Jack,
have a street party, this wonderful day was made specially for you.
...

Take cracked white powder, blend it with cracked rouge,
hide the hard lines of age that map your hard pink skin.
Shave your legs slowly, from long ankle, to long thigh,
ignore the lying veins, skipping around the mirror of truth.
...

Have you ever captured a pretty, sweet, fluttering butterfly,
watched frantic wings battered against sleeket clear walls?
Have you ever pierced holes in a white steel lid, so that beauty can survive?
Can you imagine its desire to be set free and to deflower beautiful plants?
...

My agenda is never to lie
My agenda is never to cheat
My agenda is never to take more than I give
My agenda is is never to hurt
...

Stand freaking still, I can't land that last fatal body blow
you keep out manoeuvring me, as fast as I throw.
you absorb my most powerful punches as if I was an ant,
if I stand still and scream at the wall your stoic to my rant.
...

Paint a new day with bold brash strokes and banish blues.
Scream in brilliant yellows and make your own daily news.
Clash purples and orange and Jasmine is no longer green.
Swatch golds and silver and blend brutal acts that have been.
...

At the heart of the matter lays bitter broken dreams,
soiled memories of a brutal past of what has and has not been.
Head down on gravel streets without thrown rocks, insults or rain,
pastel strokes of lost composure, drowned in the wildest waves of pain.
...

Twenty chances to says stop
To say I will help make you whole again
To remember 32 years of love
To forgive, yourself and me
...

I was not there as you talked around me,
discussing the drugs you want to give and cures.
You talked in circles, whispers and harsh glances,
not understanding those evil circles destroyed my soul.
...

'Come home' something I want with all my heavy heart,
to live a happy life with real friends, make a scar free start.
Though this not a thing at the monument I can lightly do,
a thousand heavy anchors drag me down and my vision skew.
...

Give me that I said, 'it will make you sick',
she snarled and showed me her bloody teeth.
'Please, it is not you that has to clean up s+++',
a canine eye glared and she growled another bit.
...