Exile 1
Two plastic palm trees
one dead, lying on the ground
No wonder, these palm trees
gave up their shadows
to electric lights
'Remember what you used to be,
Look at us!
and don’t forget what you are
now’,
they try to whisper, but of course
there is no breeze
This is a party and everyone is here
Bathed in the pale light,
of this foreign summer
This is an island
where bright gowns billow
temporarily
among rows of temporary chairs
And temporary music
laps at people’s feet
Suddenly, a line of dancers
appears from nowhere
a reluctant centipede
shuffles slowly, left leg, right leg
This is a party after all
Then they are gone
There is food somewhere
in the building
Maybe this is where they are.
A day of culture after all
the men in festive black
The women put their hair up
They have escaped their murderous home
but they don’t dare
to escape their grief.
********
Exile 2
They asked you to talk
About the ‘situation’
In an empty room
A seasoned refugee they say
Who knows empty rooms
They hope you will fill it with meaning
This room from which they wish to sell their grief
To the whole wide world
Injustice in colour is expensive
But worth more while you are there
I saw you’ve not yet learnt
The language of forgetting
Ah, there is still hope
When you used to sing your words
Stately shapes of sound, Pythagoras knows
They proceeded with care
And with an eye for truth
Today I saw them fall
Brittle like glass they fell
And shattered on the ground
Your song of grief
could not be heard
In the hollow
resonance
Of this empty room.
********
Exile 2a
And there you were
skimming the surface of big city life
or so you thought
Half man, half dragonfly you flew
unsuspecting of the murky depth's
hidden schemes and untold calculations
Even Pythagoras does not know
the truth of these equations
determined as they often are
by laws obscured to those
who made them
who most times
have no wish to understand
what they are trying to forget
Well love, no wonder a strange chemistry
took hold of you
and left you bruised and dizzy
and aching with uncertainties
Are you learning
the language of forgetting?
*********
Exile 3
All that knowledge
on the tenth floor
of a towerblock tenement
taking refuge in your open mind
All knowledge is good up here
in this small room
that memory stretches into the horizon
As another skyscraper rises up
(a scraper of the sky
puncturing the clouds
with its jagged tip
another thousand songs find their voice
high above the concrete
A gift to the wind
who carries them wherever it pleases
Such generosity is rare these days
You can watch the sunset up here
through each square of a wire mesh
The same sun
that sets above your homeland
How much wire mesh
how many suns
and how many songs
will it take
until .......
Two plastic palm trees
one dead, lying on the ground
No wonder, these palm trees
gave up their shadows
to electric lights
'Remember what you used to be,
Look at us!
and don’t forget what you are
now’,
they try to whisper, but of course
there is no breeze
This is a party and everyone is here
Bathed in the pale light,
of this foreign summer
This is an island
where bright gowns billow
temporarily
among rows of temporary chairs
And temporary music
laps at people’s feet
Suddenly, a line of dancers
appears from nowhere
a reluctant centipede
shuffles slowly, left leg, right leg
This is a party after all
Then they are gone
There is food somewhere
in the building
Maybe this is where they are.
A day of culture after all
the men in festive black
The women put their hair up
They have escaped their murderous home
but they don’t dare
to escape their grief.
********
Exile 2
They asked you to talk
About the ‘situation’
In an empty room
A seasoned refugee they say
Who knows empty rooms
They hope you will fill it with meaning
This room from which they wish to sell their grief
To the whole wide world
Injustice in colour is expensive
But worth more while you are there
I saw you’ve not yet learnt
The language of forgetting
Ah, there is still hope
When you used to sing your words
Stately shapes of sound, Pythagoras knows
They proceeded with care
And with an eye for truth
Today I saw them fall
Brittle like glass they fell
And shattered on the ground
Your song of grief
could not be heard
In the hollow
resonance
Of this empty room.
********
Exile 2a
And there you were
skimming the surface of big city life
or so you thought
Half man, half dragonfly you flew
unsuspecting of the murky depth's
hidden schemes and untold calculations
Even Pythagoras does not know
the truth of these equations
determined as they often are
by laws obscured to those
who made them
who most times
have no wish to understand
what they are trying to forget
Well love, no wonder a strange chemistry
took hold of you
and left you bruised and dizzy
and aching with uncertainties
Are you learning
the language of forgetting?
*********
Exile 3
All that knowledge
on the tenth floor
of a towerblock tenement
taking refuge in your open mind
All knowledge is good up here
in this small room
that memory stretches into the horizon
As another skyscraper rises up
(a scraper of the sky
puncturing the clouds
with its jagged tip
another thousand songs find their voice
high above the concrete
A gift to the wind
who carries them wherever it pleases
Such generosity is rare these days
You can watch the sunset up here
through each square of a wire mesh
The same sun
that sets above your homeland
How much wire mesh
how many suns
and how many songs
will it take
until .......