#4

My prose is a factory of fantasies
every time you question me
we hire new staff
Quietly, I would like to be alone

The Dictator and the Dreamer

The dictator and the dreamer
cannot get along
For while she screams that rules were broken
he gently pens a song

When their sleeping patterns battle
lone eyelids jam the brakes
detergent tires of crimson
kiddies hide the sharpened stakes

He marvels at her power
or she envies for his muse
thesauruses go missing
His words imagine him a coup

Dictator fiddles with the taxes
Dreamer sups the chai of laze
the route back to equality
is solely for the brave

The poetry she plants him
is st*rred and ripe, concise
He has a private cave where
gay porn is what he writes

Stained sheeting is not silken
Jellyfish will hunt for legs
Coughs and yawns compile a language
Black hole of middle bed

he scrubs his heart on pages
she stores hers in the fridge
To comprehend one poem
she'd suffer all his fibs

The dictator and the dreamer
cannot get along
by June, he’d found her strung from
noose of lovers songs

Bjórr litr

I found a Viking in my beard
bright Norse irises, a spear
hair of Highland, age-old reindeer
sacrifice in peat with human tears
first farmers chance druidic sneers
peculiar tongues try licking ears
the channel splits thus freezing fear
some holy henge, a lunar year
such pantheist pale that paints me queer
Tan of beech and Albion beer

Mmm...

in the crux of her bosom I whimpered that I would only die if she said it was okay,
my bevvy.
Her words were always brief and breathy
That grin left me tinny and thin

her eyes were the bluest of blue
her skin was the creamiest of creme
her lips were the rosiest of rose
and her teeth were the yellowest of yellow

Nobody's perfect
except me, sometimes

Haiku 3 (it wasn’t us)

You sold your brother
We financed the deal and then...
gave them red passports

Empty Pews

Enough with that gaunt gaze ‘cos we know I’m late
Dump your diatribe for I see empty pews
Grieving gracelessly for Grandad’s sake

Convinced that weeping is to wash awake
Forgive me father for this slight miscue
Linger in some pity ‘cos we know I’m late

Tangerines and tipple lighten licks of hate
Like I never ventured in explicit views
Mourning minus me for Grandad’s sake

Met him in a hospital where angels wait
Kissing through his silk hair and noone knew
That was hours earlier now I roll in late

My eyes, they burn so please vacate
Let me don him in his claret an’ blues
Stay away, this is for my sweet sake

I still fear to fix a gaze on Nana’s face
She can’t lie to me; I am empty pews
Time to make a move now, it is getting late
Grieving gracelessly for Grandad’s sake

ZK.

Turkish gameshow attempts to convert atheists

A new gameshow on Turkish television will pit rabbis, imams, monks and priests against each other in an attempt to convert sworn aetheists to their respective religions.

In Penitents Compete (Tovbekarlar Yarisiyor in Turkish), religious leaders will seek to convert at least one of the 10 atheists in each episode to their faith. Those that crack will win a pilgrimage to the spiritual home of their newly chosen faith, Muslims will go to Mecca, Jews and Christians will go to Jerusalem and Buddhists will go to Tibet, the Guardian reports.

According to the show's slogans, contestants will also win "serenity" and "the biggest prize ever... the belief in God". The producers behind the programme hope it will promote religious beliefs and educate the country's majority Muslim population about other faiths.
"The project aims to turn disbelievers on to God," Ahmet Ozdemir, the station's deputy director, told the Hürriyet Daily News and Economic Review.

The competition is strictly limited to non-believers and contestants will be vetted by an eight-strong commission of theologians before they are allowed to take part.
Converts will then be monitored to ensure their religious transformation is genuine and not simply contrived to gain a free holiday. "They can't see this trip as a getaway, but as a religious experience," Mr Ozdemir said.

However, the programme, which is scheduled to air in September, has been criticised by commentators and religious figures for trivialising God and faith.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/5729452/Turkish-gameshow-attempts-to-convert-atheists.html