Labi Siffre - Into The Light

The Price Of Brief Lifespans

Our present is the past recycled

Our disasters are second hand

Our fashions though louder are merely awesome

Only our adjectives change

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In a World of Heroes Martyrs & Decency

To improvise relevance
When you’ve lost interest in, or faith in,
Or hope for your species

Self-named with no sense of irony
“Wise man”, Homo Sapiens is problematic
Except, today the news

News of the death of a precious fluorescence
In a dull spread opacity of near stagnant water
The death of Vaclav Havel, playwright,

Political prisoner constantly caused with kindness
To lead, of necessity not profession, no place-man,
In deed the right man in place

On the body politic there’s less
Than a hand space for such, and seconds only
Room for any to make a scratch; what good

To scratch water? Still, the memory of a hot bath
Mid hypothermic death is mockery and comfort
Besting mockery alone; screw that

Push hope aside; resolve to die standing
A living fluorescence
If only for the sense of it
The loss of it
The will of it

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You say you don't judge

I judge you liars

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Vincent Willem van Gogh

Was a failure

Remember that

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Dawn broke

It took most of the day

To fix

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Ever hopeful is not the same as optimistic

Overhead he writes "seel in"
Underfoot he writes "flaw"
Between each four walls he writes "rheum"
His house becomes a tome

Admonished by the zeitgeist to lighten up
He purchases a pack of candles
A conceptual man he cannot manage
The violence needed to unwrap them

Food is once a day beans emptied
From a freshly opened can. The cans
Are delivered Wednesdays at three
by Olafemi Mayakovsky

The black Armenian delivery man
Carries them along the passageway
Enters the sparse kitchen; places
The box of seven on the table

"May God preserve you" he says
On his third delivery
"He already has" comes the reply
They will never again exchange pleasantries

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Four in the morning

Let's have less “common sense”
Cos like “the best we can” it ain't working; let's

Have more pursuit of evidence
Sorry, I forgot that hinders prejudice; let's

Have more criticism of our selves
"Why? Most of us have done nothing wrong"

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