Friend
your love
and now I am looking for friends
constantly
with bouts of solitude
I think about you often
to feel I’m human
a feeling I like
something between you and me
the late ’80s hotels were so nice
we shared a pot of tea
to know it lasts as long
as the quiet energy flowing
between us as we sip
and speak in between
when you are sitting with a friend
or just walking side by side in
high English corridors
held close in my chest
I hear about you from others too
I’m proud of you
we are born with each other
each moment, each day
live for me
I feel great with you
in a mountain called home
it’s roomful of friends
What Nikky Finney taught me today
that light is never the dark
the day couldn’t be the night
but you are like me
as much as I like to be
now that’s a distance
when I can’t hold your hand
did we ever meet
when I felt the need
or you did too
is the sky your vehicle
or the ocean your floor
when do we understand
we are far from each other
where’s the humanity
where loneliness gets space
I kiss my life
does it reach you
do you search too
how do we meet
as we go about our lives
we don’t live less than
all of an 13,000 kilometres of a distance
tell me once again
which constellations do you watch sometimes
what’s the direction to you
am I loud enough
can you hear me
Touching the roofs
Nikky Finney’s dreadlocks
remind me of the Naga
whose matted hair was longer than Finney’s
and used to almost drag on the ground
as he walked down from his shack
to the small smoky kitchen below
where we sat covering all space
on the earth washed floor
I never knew where the food stocks came from
rotis baked on a flaming
homemade earthen stove
the cook an energetic
talkative young man
who became friends and used to dole out
an appetising helping on my plate
some rotis were kept for the bunch of crows
that used to come flapping and cawing
in the late afternoon when the cook
made crow calls to them
wouldn’t expect them at that height
where did they fly in from
in the expanse of meadows and mountains
same as I a city bred would walk in
to that roofy top
expecting to meet up with something
but knew not what
as I hiked alone on the steep mountain trail
the roaring river moving down
towards humanity in the depth below
and I moving towards lands it originates from
meeting up with man and nature
each coming like the crow for their food
and flying back to where they came from
soon enough, well fed
or years on years later
on the same track
the English guy with tattoos
all over his body
showed me some crows
that were flying around
picturised on his calve
told me he gets frightened sometimes
looking at himself in large mirrors
in those mountains
I always forget myself
and find myself too
renewed again
your kindness dear mountain
its me did you notice here again
