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The Exoneration of Heidi Schäfer

In the shadows of a dead city she stood And waited for the sun to go down. Heidi had been a daughter, a wife, a mother, But never Heidi. She watched the remnants of a long forgotten song Lancing towards her from the medallion above And her heart looked for the listener; The one who had listened to all her prayers. "Now that my road has come to its end, Show me where I can wash these stains Off my broken skin," Heidi whispered When she found the listener, Playing his flute under an ageless tree. "You've come a long way, Heidi," he said, "You were too cautious not to fall, Which made you forget that you could fly." Heidi watched the hills falling in love with The abstrusity in the melodies he wove And said, "The hills look like a dream." "Yes, but a dream you chose to bury, Under the weight of your sins," he said. "You have been all, Heidi - You have been a seed, a plant and a tree But you never danced wit
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The Portrait

The prosaic strokes of her brush made her see The truth she had been trying to bury. "I can paint anything, Jim, but you," she whispered. "I have spent too much time trying to paint your eyes, While the real ones watched me from a distance. And like the end of an evanescing dream you faded And became the white of this canvas I cannot fill. Death, like you said, is just another colour from my box. Tell me, why can't my brush find your face? Have I buried the scent of your love too deep Under the stench of my paints? Will this empty canvas never show me your face And calm the storms in my sundry selves? Give me the strength, Jim, to face you again; To look you in the eye and ask if the sun Shines bright on the other side. Help me find The colour of death in my box, so that You can see me, once again, as I paint you."

Allegory

There lies a 'no' beneath every 'yes'; There lies a mask on every face; Every truth brings about a hundred lies, Like fissures above in the cloudy skies. The disarray of impressions always stays, And very noiselessly your morale sways; Like the boats careen without fear, And the boatman's child learns to steer. Veils make every answer obscure. Hope fights a disease without a cure. While the whole world burns in agony, Rules are bent by power and money. As the artist picks up his brush; As the young boy cries for his crush; As the astronauts count the stars; As the heroes fight their wars; The shackles ask you to be free, And a pen starts singing poetry; But there comes a question with every story - 'Isn't life the most beautiful allegory?'

Eyes

The blind old woman whispered to me Shaking her debility off with a smile, ''You have eyes, my child, and light around you; You can draw a line between white and black. Use those eyes wisely, child, for you'll Slowly learn to see without their help; The darker it gets around you, The harder shall you search for a flame. One day, in life you shall find your light, And in that light you shall find your life again."

The Man Who Could Not Die

In the unnamed valley that reeked of death I met a man who couldn't die. A hundred decades he had seen, they said, And still death wasn't kind to him. I found him weeping as the sun set, Under a tree younger than him And when he heard me, he said, "Another man with a treasure." The pain in his voice hit me Harder than the lifeless wind And I asked, "What treasure Do you think I carry?" "Oh no, nothing that sparkles," he said Trying, and failing, to laugh, "But your ability to die." I sat by his side and said "People fear death On the other side of this valley, And eternal life is a fantasy." He held my hand and said, "Such a twisted dream perpetuity is; Can fool even the wisest of the wise. Things that are deathless Are the farthest from peace." I picked a dry leaf and asked, "Do you feel lonely? Every thing around you dies. You see death every day, Wishing somebody could see yours.

The Time Machine

As I face the small time machine And the wires cuddling each other Like sinners in love, I find my answer. 'Go back and save yourself', they say; 'Go back and this time get your girl' 'You can undo your bicycle accident' 'Why don't you edit your career now?' 'You can correct every error you've ever made' 'You now know what you shouldn't have done' 'Why don't you stop yourself from going To that coffee shop on the 18th of May?' 'Go back and post that letter a little earlier' 'Don't forget to slap that sick professor' 'Go back and tell your friend the truth About her husband, without any fear' They all want me to erase All the wrong footprints on The sands of time, and they want To have a better life, A corrected, proofread life, Using my little machine; But will I be the same person Once my mistakes get undone? I press the key, turn the dial And find myself befo

Oasis

With every step I shorten This sempiternal walk. I'm the only one living This desiccate romance with This desert and its aridity. For a drop of life I beg to God Who's busy granting A million desires elsewhere; And the dry winds whisper In my ears the song Of my despair; but I keep on Because hope can keep Ẏour feet moving. I hear vultures sing The song they love to sing, And it satisfies me to know That even I can be someone's joy. Just when I am about to kneel I hear a whisper 'Look!' 'She has found you before You could find her'. And I watch before me An oasis full of elixir And the assuaging smile of hope Beckoning to me.