Triptych

The thing about happy baby pose is
it can be a little too relaxing.
So when you’re in a room
full of strangers
relaxing this way
and it’s too cold 
to open the windows
pretty soon
you’re not relaxed at all
but in desperate need
of fresh air.


*

I dreamt of city lions
on the crumbling rooftops
of derelict housing in the inner city.
Silent and prowling and beautiful they were
the vocabulary of their manes
a perfectly silvery grey.
How could they be phantoms
when they had shadows?
Shining in the sun,
the shadow-casting sun.
One of them locked eyes with me
as I cruised past
on the bus.


*


Eggshells tinkling
as I punch out 
into the new world.  
I outgrew this one,
became other.  
I heard the hiss of life’s parade
all around me
and knew it was time.
Hey, World!  
How come you’re hibernating
when I’m ready to intrude
on your soul?
We can shindig gently
indoors
and it needn’t be loud
nor too wild.

^{_{© N Nazir 2022}}

Written for Shay’s Word Garden where we are given inspiration with Jim Morrison (words used: strangers, windows, lions, vocabulary, phantoms, eggshell, hiss, parade, soul) and Poets and Storytellers United where the theme is the power of 3.