Dear Daniel

Fiction
Dear Daniel,

How did you do it? You were the King's favorite, it was obvious you were going to be governor. How did you take the risk to throw it all away?

Maybe you didn't quite understand what was stake. Maybe you didn't understand the importance of what you were throwing away. Maybe you didn't know the rest of us looked up to you. The slave boy, who was called before the King; whose seat survived the Persian invasion. The slave boy who would become Governor of Babylon. Why would you?

The instruction was simple Daniel. Only worship the King. Don't worship God. Even if you were going to worship God and pray,you didn't have to do it with the windows open, where you could be seen. You could have prayed in your room. In the closet, anywhere! But you chose to pray, so you could be seen.

What was your end game? Did you grow proud? Did you want to prove a point? Did you believe the God that couldn't save us from Nebuchadnezzar would save you from dirty politics? If He didn't save his beloved Israel, what made you think he'd save you?
I believe this is out of peer pressure. You want to outshine Shedrach, Meshack and Abednego. You want to outdo their miracle. You've grown proud Daniel, tempting the Lord God of Israel. Let's see you get out of this one.

I'd pray for the forgiveness of your soul and the liberation of Israel. Good luck with the lions.

Yours faithfully,

A former fan,
Jedidiah.

Charm In

Poetry

Come and find me
Search through the jungle
With the machete on the vines
Listen to our hearts intertwined
I would be waiting for you

Find me behind the shadows
Locked away with rejection
Hiding even when I reemerge
Silent in the mundane conversations

Make me break off the shell
Kiss me, so my heart would yell
Under the moonlight we would slow dance
The crickets would sing the love song of our brokenness

Hug away the demons that troll
Let your warmth melt away the pain
From the pounding of searing memories
Hatred, death, sorrow and fears.

Come and find me
My long lost hunter
Let my heart screams be your compass
As you gallop further
My knight in shining armour
I would be waiting for you



Writer's Lust

Poetry


The one that got away
Out of my grasp, caused by delay
Now her smile seems brighter than midday
By conflicting emotions I'm haplessly swayed

One said,"She should be happy"
She deserves attention
Not your half hearted love that's crappy
If you give her away, maybe you'd be lucky
And she'd come back,
make your life less sucky

Then the other voice says "You're making a mistake".
Don't sabotage yourself for Pete's sake.
Remain in her focus, blur out her gaze
Feed on the attention
Like sinners on grace
Like cattle that graze

So I made a decision and listened to the former
Set up a damsel with a Knight open to chatter
Now I'm haunted by the quiet and thoughts of their laughter
Wondering if I'd be best man in their happily ever after.

So in this tragedy I find consolation
To Cupid's arrows and sparks I made a donation
Hoping he'd return the favor with affection
Fix up my heart and save me
from my torturous indecision

The Note

Fiction

My love.

By the time you read this letter, I'd probably be dead. Dead and buried.

 Don't be shocked. I've known this day would come since...well, since forever. It has been on my mind for way too long. As I walk away from this note, so you don't get all teary eyed on me, I need you to understand why I am doing this; you need to know why I'm giving myself up.

Know that I think of you, everyday. All the time, every day of my life for the past hundred billion years. Know that, I have always wanted to do this. Smile for me, in the midst of the confusion. I do really hope you understand that, when that spear is pierced through my sides, it would be because it feels empty without you. When they prong at my bones, know that you are the real bone of my bones. As the blood spills, know that the heart that pumps it through my vein beats only for you. My heart does not beat fine without you, so it's better off not beating, if that's what it takes.

I am scared, I would not deny that I am scared of going through with this. I've planned this day my whole life and yet my chest is heavy. They say no one should come between you and family, but, Daddy's boy is gonna be away, because of you. I and my Father, apart , for God knows how long. How do I survive it? How do I stay alone in this cold world through that torture while they mock, scorn, flog, spit, pierce...argh. I know I am able, but still...still...

I am scared of this death, but calmed by a greater one, the fear of not going through with this. If I do not do this right now, you'd die. Forever. There would be no hope. Cancer would win. Confusion would plague at your soul forever. You'd be forever chased by the guilt of your filth, a filth that would cease to be from today.

You see, I am not just your love. Tonight, I'd be much more than that.

I'd be the sacrifice. I'd be the scapegoat. I'd be the criminal. I'd be the scum of the earth. I'd be the broken, the filthy, the sick, the worthless, the ugly, the tattered. And I'd enjoy every second of it.

Why?

Because, today, I'd be you.

Deep, right?

Unlove

Poetry

Take a lesson in reversing
How to shift gears from D to R
Right to left, leaving behind what's wrong
Turn back the hour hand to before
The thought of our hands touching went outta hand

I want to go back to before the obsession
Before I knew there wouldn't be more beautiful
That I would never see eyes more magical
Or a smile so defeating and brazen
To win and reject me in between sentences

Teach me to rewind this poem
Till when it was a fleeting thought
and when you were only just
A mindless crush my mind crushed
Before you throw your no; so effortless
Teach me to unlove you first

Fences

Poetry

She looks pretty in red
So pretty that she makes me scared
Her cold stare leaves me dead
and to my lungs, her soft voice returns breath

I wish she was wicked
I'd have a reason for hatred
And not this longing instead
now I am left with a broken heart and a twisted head

Faith says try again
Ego says, there's no gain
Hope says maybe there's a way
The voices whirl over my head and jam my brain

and like a ship at sea
and like the sheep I see
She's the fodder for me
Green pastures barricaded with the fences of unavailability

Notre Dame

Poetry

I like the power you wield
All of Cupid's arrows fall before your mighty shield
The scented venm of romance loses its sting
and you prance around with arrogance indeed

I heard that you were perfect
So I locked a seventh of me in a golden locket
Passed it to you hoping you wear it
You flung it to the floor, it broke before I neared it

Retreating to my cave, I put the pieces together
Moping in isolation as the walls echoed your laughter
Teased and haunted I remembered my dreams
In place of blissful memories, come haunting screams

But when I arrive the odds would turn
The stars would realign and your lingering eyes would return
Biting your index, you would rethink
Every flimsy excuse, and your heart will sink

For I have returned all graced and powerful
My undeniable charm has made you available
Now I pick my princess, with poise and calm
I have emerged, the Prince of Notre Dame

Bethel

Poetry

There is a place between comfort and confusion
A feeling of peace muddled up with the storm
Patience being in holy matrimony with haste
Spices of life spiked with a stale putrid taste

There is Haran and there will be Canaan
There is the father's mansion and a vague concrete plan
To leave it all and walk in the wilderness
Bethel is sought after with hunger and thirst

But I have seen the stars and they are uncountable
The constellations make the mountains submountable
Leaving it all behind, we never had a choice
We are but wanderers following a still small voice

So with the wife and the nephew and bags packed
We would believe our sanity remains intact
We cross our hearts and know we died
Sojourn in search of our soul's delight.

Wrinkles

Poetry
You met me years afar off
When the wrinkles had set in
My heart pounded by challenges
My smile worn out by pain

A lil while back we would have bonded
Laughed hysterically and psych battled
I would have teased and taunted you to pieces
My poetry was secondary to my speeches

But now the glimmer is found only in my eyes
The chains on my youth clang with my sighs
In you, I see the freedom I was, at its highs
But then I'm shackled back when you say bye

So faintly I reach out and hope we'd meet
Somewhere in the scribbles of the remains of me
and with the shovel of your company you'd gently dig
Through the debris of my quietness, and set me free

The Rebound

Fiction
At a second glance she looks the same. Smells like grape juice and oranges with the acidity of lime. She, standing so close to him brings her  scent to his nostrils avidly. Her smile is forceful, demanding a response.

She's beautiful no doubt, but I was expecting to pen something different. About his girlfriend and how her face lights up the room. How the deadness of her stare gives him life, or some of those euphemistic writer cow dung. This should be a love piece to make the ladies pray for a dream relationship like theirs. This should be about conjugal bliss.

But this is about something else. This is about a girl, caught up in a crush, in love with a boy that longs for another. This is about the lovelessness of relationships conditioned by unavailability and frustrated desires.

Of how she gave him green light after green light, her eyes pleading for his affection. A story of how he turned her down, time after time, taunting and teasing her for wanting him. While his heart stopped beating when his crush walked in; how he went back to her when said crush destroyed his ego. A story of selfishness, stubbornness and involuntary heart shoving.

Call it a tragedy, or a practical romantic tale. But standing next to her, a million feelings erupt. Regret, pain, apathy, responsibility and disapproval. As they walk hand in hand, love consumes her heart. Ironically, love burns in his heart all the more.

Love. For another.

Tongues

Poetry

I was gonna say
That I like Marvel and DC
How they prove you can tell a good story
Without the sex scenes
and how I think their movies soothe me
Was gonna tell you but you wouldn't understand me

Just like the other day
When I saw you and my heart leaped for joy
Before I would run and we would hug for seconds more
But then I smiled and watched you run along
Wonder where the energy went and I became a bore

Deep down I'm glancing
At the pretty little things that made us  laugh out loudly
Deep lyrics, puns and Reach Record beats
But now I barely get a chance to
Tell you how my spirit weakens when Bethel Music sing
How can you love music but not say you do?

Even when I pray to God
Before I spoke of the pain and how it burnt me
Then I danced in the joy and for the blessings
and thanked Him that He made me so happy
Now I kneel in silence and speak in tongues beyond me
Finding peace in the dialect of angels and heavens

I bit my lip and twisted my tongue
In the pursuit of dreams, I lost my voice
Unable to express that in my heart there is love
Gentleness in my speech but warmth in my hug
With a little patience I pray you decipher the quietness
and be the translator to my cryptic speech

Jonah Journeys

Poetry


The big fish is...
A desire to take over territories
but the weaponry seized from you
The ability to bag another degree
and the emptiness that comes with it
The brains of a billionaire
without the drive of a Lamborghini
The dream of a Prince Charming
that never really comes true

Tarshish is...
a place of seeming comfort
Where all your dreams come true
Where you are set above your peers
Like the prosperity preacher said you would

Nineveh is...
The place God takes control
and the unbelievable comes alive
Where change begins and men are touched
and you become the tool and not the Carpenter

So before life storms begin to rock
and the boats to your destinations dock
You are faced with a choice
Take control or let the Spirit lead
An inexplicable journey, or the belly of the big fish

Birth of the Demon

Poetry


I think I want to play the games
Tell you about how I care but not that much
Speak in half sentences and quarter thoughts
Leave you guessing if I am interested or just bored

I want to learn the sequences
Call. Text. Don't call. Don't call. Don't call. Call.
I want to master the reality of pretences
How to be there but emotionless in the extremities.

I want to be dark and lonely, masking my love
Keeping it tied till you scream for me
I want your heart to be the dove
While mine, the eagle, stays perched on the tree

Because I have been gentle, I have been true
I have been sweet, I have been good
I have been the quintessential gentleman
and it has kept me far away from you

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