We both lost our bearings
Dancing to songbirds at dawn
Her rumbustious laugh ending in a snort
It was of the contagious sort
And I joined shortly on the floor
With my ribs aching and my eyes wet
‘I feel so young, like a child’
She said, making an angel in the sand
I leaned over and blew a raspberry in her belly
We both laughed some more

‘I feel like a baby, full of potential
Not yet spent by a life lived’
I whispered this into her ears
As though I was confessing a repented thought
Then I stretched out next to her and lay still
I felt the waves lap under my warming skin
Her head found space next to mine
‘Wouldn’t you love to ride into the sun?
Just you and me’
‘Would we survive the trip?’ I asked
‘Would it matter?’ She replied.

– Oluwatimilehin O. Babatunde

The people are talking
Of starry glory and the end of the earth
Nuclear war and Global warming
And subjugating another lump of dirt

What would be my point when I’m all said and done
I ponder aloud to the void within me
Perhaps or not my causes and works survive after I have gone
That they may show the lucky ones how to live and be

How to conduct a foolish search for meaning
Not for the wealth, power and fame
But that in the lights you connect honestly to your being
And not construe this adventure to be just a game

It is alchemical magic
This message i’m passing on the telephone
It’s a desperate tactic
Of a soul walking in this world alone

The karma police is knocking
It’s only kids playing with toys
People just enjoy talking
Sometimes it’s sweet music, other times it’s noise.

– Madeleine C. Claire

I keep breaking into prose
So I must cut before I begin
I ask the sprite to cast a pose
And my mind of what it means

The demons about hold no powers
Capable of altering this course
To be seen from it’s fruits and flowers
Beauty survives the darkness of loss

Raise a light, for I am weary in this sea
Waves slapping and weathering rock
Chipping away at the soul that makes me
And the heart I thought was safe in lock

To sweep away the ashes
And begin anew from detritus
Well, at least it’s not all over, this farce
Between the world before and the next
Unaware of who we ask to save us

– Auguste J. Baudelaire

I tried to write a letter to you
describing my lost faith
in attempt of being a better man

I asked god to forgive these sins
brazenly committed to it’s face
against it, but mostly against you

The birds sing aloud
what the winds already whispered to me
yet they punish my iniquity with love

’Tis my head that weighs heavy
with knowledge from many years
release, for me, would be a relief my dear

Hold me steady
because I don’t know how
I can remain on the straight and narrow

‘I’m struggling to find home in my skin’
may be the only coherent phrase
you will get out of me today

Anoint me
that I may recover my roadmap
fill me with hope for tomorrow

Put your fingers through my hair
like my mother did when I was younger
if you bring the joy, I can unearth love

And we will both shine
both your face and mine
brilliantly in the light and darkness

Perhaps you were the revelation
from a deity I struggle to know
but I don’t want to kill you too

Brilhantina pro cabelo

– Auguste J. Baudelaire

Wake up Prince Charming
Your sleeping beauty awaits

Lady don’t run away from love
I know that what we shared was romantic
But leaving me with just a slipper is a bit dramatic

Will you forgive the skeletons in my dungeon
And that I trapped you all by your lonesome
Will you stay until the heart of this beast blooms
And perhaps show him true loving too

I’m coming back to retake the throne
I abdicated when I ran away from home
Thank you for believing in me

Let out your hair into the wind princess
And call out all the colours that’s you see

– Oluwatimilehin O. Babatunde

If we were able to grab the meaning of it all
what else would we have for a purpose?
If we were privy to the secret of the mystery
would it not tear us apart from within?

Perhaps this question of evil we like to ask
isn’t about how a god can permit this to occur,
but how can man perpetuate it
knowing the pain and reality of suffering
choosing for someone else to die instead of him?

This seems to me to be the crux of the crucifixion myth:
that we must sacrifice for our fellow man
and each bear our cross to atone for all of evil.
this morning I tried to imagine a world
where we did our very best to accomplish this

It lead me to thoughts of Armagideon, but it could be Paradise.

– Madeleine C. Claire

When i look out this chest to see
The yesterday of what i used to be
Searching for little love we could borrow
Watching the ripples of soon tomorrow

I feel sunshine at the rainbows end
Something you gave to me my dear friend
Flying through the sky in a calm breath
Taking in the noisy life before death

I feel your hand still pressed in mine
And i’m glad to hear that you’re doing fine
After we escaped from this house
That we slowly burnt to the ground

Your intense loving was all that I’d need
Even as this soft heart continued to bleed
I miss our pact of guileless felicity
When did you and I begin to lose trust in ‘the we’

Darling i’m lying on the moon
And i’m planning jump down real soon
Because my head is in a total mess
And waiting no longer makes sense

This monkey weighs heavily on my back
And I think i’m about to break because I lack
Mama’s sweet loving: chicken with mashed potatoes
And baby’s warm hugs, kisses and good morning hellos

Buried alongside ‘I love you so much’
And the hurt that ‘I had to leave’ behind
To fertilize this ‘new adventure’ that keeps me terrified
All over me, i’m ‘completely satisfied’

There’s a valley of God between ‘I exist’
and ‘You do too’ clouded by mist
There’s a sea of love between ‘the day we met’
And ‘till the end’, it’s ripples we soon forget

– Madeleine C. Claire & Auguste J. Baudelaire

As the night crept quietly over our little town
We whispered wishes to the moon
Through a gourd we set on the river to wash down
And into the swamps of the evil forest

We heard a weeping child at night silenced by growling wolves
Teaching it early lessons of life and fate
Someone later asked how we could
Permit one so young to be taught by beasts
We replied that, we are all the same and,
Nature merely aided in what we had been late to do

A little girl wishes to set sail to the edge of the world
In search of a purpose, love and the supposed meaning of her life
Her mother wailed like she was weeping the dead
While her father beamed from ear to ear
Watching his child disappear with the sunset and,
Praying to share a sunrise with her another day

When the heretic entered the shrine
To seek wisdom and knowledge on the arts of divining
The Babalawo laughed and took off his chains
They is no more in these palm nuts or in all the world than what you bear in your soul
Through that mystery will you receive the wisdom of all mysteries
Return again tomorrow my son, a man

The town crier didn’t beat his gong this morning
He’s either dead or the king is
Either way best we stay at home today
I’m tired anyways.

– Madeleine C. Claire & Auguste J. Baudelaire

I want to look at you
Maybe even hold your hand
and watch you all the while

Oh, t’was a heavenly view
Sitting on that hilltop playing with sand
You were an angel meditating with a smile

It’s the radiance of gold next to coal
The way your eyes shone into my soul

I was wrapped in lonesome blues
heartbroken with nothing else to do
Then you spoke of love, time and space

The labyrinth between inferno and the promised place
It imprinted on me a glorious bind
I lose unhappiness, when you’re on my mind

It’s a blessing seeing you sway to that song
Our fingers kissing, but never for too long

I know I could set things right
If I pave my way with heavenly starlight
Lift you with these words, way up high
I’ll be your happy loving bluebird, can’t I?

Your mellifluous voice in my ear
Whispering to me ’my dear
embrace me with your arms like a bow
and leap beyond clouds and over rain…ohs’

I know hearing this might be hard
But honey, I want you so bad
Just to make you smile
Even if it’s just for a little while

…
A. fantasy I wrote while thinking of you.

– Oluwatimilehin O. Babatunde