Es Teh Manis

At this very night
I would like to cherish every single moment
and say to the other me in the mirror,

“You have done a great job today.
You have been mean,
you have done justice.
You are the baddest;
you are the man.”

For not only have I been cruel and fierce today,
but I have also beaten my utmost insecurity
In every single aggravated heartbeat
breathes the monster of hatred.

I am the exact opposite of Nightcrawler.
I am a sinner with a naive face.
A thief with intellectual look,
a cynic with flowery tongue,
a laughing murderer.

I defy the God and the gods
and all the commands in the books
and ridicule those who worship.

In every man’s heart is an angel and a demon.
Tonight is the demon’s victory.

But the time has come for us to end the night
and revive the angel in the next morning.
The demon would now return to its lair
in the deepest part of the heart
and rise again on the next glorious day.
When is exactly that day, nobody knows.
Only the demon knows.
But one thing we can be assured of.
Signs will tell.

***

Just posting a poem I made some time last month.

Musafir Muda

Musafir muda berjalan tak tentu
Mengikut arah angin

Musafir muda teringat
Besar mimpinya
Dari tengah Gurun al-Jafr
Ingin kunjungi semua sudut bumi

Musafir muda tersenyum
Segala puncak peradaban didengarnya
dari Murrakus, Qusṭantiniyah, sampai Shyan
Terbayang janji kemegahan ilmu budaya dunia

Musafir muda termenung
Kosong hatinya
Mendamba teman perjalanan
Tak satu gadis di rumpunnya mau pergi

Musafir muda mendengar
Serigala berlari bersembunyi
Malam mendingin
Badai kan datang

Musafir muda
entah tolol entah malas
sudah tujuh bulan
terjebak, berputar di al-Naqab

Sighting in Yukon

Dear Lady of Mirrors,
Goddess of Ponds,
Angel of Reflections

Why did you reappear here when the candle is already put out,
when the shack is already dark,
and nobody is here anymore

I am already out here hunting bears for dinner

You look redder than you used to be,
but although this time I lent you my axe
white Yukon snow didn’t turn to warm bright spring
like in yesteryear
when I only saw you from BC

Or maybe it will

If so, that remains to be seen

Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frozen_Liard_River_-a.jpg

One-Third Midnight Blues

I may not argue if one says
that my very life is pretty much confined
to a circle with diameter 5 km.

But be that as it may
this modern life has seen
my little mind
flying off like an eagle
wandering rather freely
roaming around the world
to the hottest of Arabia
to the icy plain of Lapland
to the innermost mausoleum of the Holy See
along the winding path to the summit of Mount Kenya
crossing Styx, playing chess with Hades

I have been being a wolf
and I have been being a goat
I have been being a human
and I have been being a pig
I have been being a cow
and I have been being a sloth
I have been being a snake
and I have been being a penguin

…then as this mind returns home
Cold sweat I feel on my back
and chills down my spine
As my key
the key I brought away when I first left
has lost shape

Hardships imply transformations

Trembling, I insert the key to the door lock…

(to be continued)

Bliss

And thus spoke the holy snake,

“It is yet, I have, that I comprehend how tranquility is known within the river of absolute awareness,
so on from this dawn, let this forest be concealed with a shroud
woven with yarn from the land of the east
cursed with the ancient spell of exclusory spirit,
that those from the valley of the black flame shall not see us.

May the white light guide our life.”