VESPERS WIND VELOCITY 9

The wind
that whines
and twines
around the edges
of my mind
rises at twilight.

I hate that
hollow sound
that howl
an almost growl
I hate the constant
endless sound

I wish it would
die down
fade away
let me stay
in my silence,
my prayer.


MC

Autumn is coming...

Today a sharp sour scent of chill and sadness blew in across the bay, defying the high blue sky. Autumn. Autumn comes. Strangest and saddest of all seasons. How I hate it.

Oh Spring smells dizzy and absinthe-green with drunken hope, bubbly with buds bursting into tremulous dances of desire; and Summer is ripe, rich spice and sultry heat - slow with languorous, swollen-lipped fertility...

Winter now, Winter is silence. Hushed whispers of rain, white silence, cleansing purity of cold, scourging that voluptuous sin from our skin, blanching us. Every Winter we are parchment patiently scoured for a new beginning. Each Winter is a season of prayerful fasting, waiting, waiting for the Sun to come again. Winter I can love.

But Autumn I loathe. Autumn is an overblown and blowzy whore, clad in scraps and rags of scarlet and gold - pretending to a lushness long gone. Autumn is a sad slattern, dropping colour, dripping wet putrescent leaves to be mangled by a million feet.

Autumn smells of death and decay. That frantic last dance of Indian Summer, that pretense of ripe apples and syrupy wine is a lie. Lean closer. Under that sweetness is the grey and bitter exhalation of decay.

So burn Autumn in a pyre, pile up high those slippery maggoty logs, the limp and viscous leaves. Burn it. Let fire devour that lie. Let Winter come and bring that grey and gentle mourning sky.
And so let us weep rain, and know that through that pain, we learn to hope again.


MC

When things are at their very worse, is when God is preparing you to be blessed.

MC

AMOR MUDO

Senti esse teu beijo
De lingua bravia
Feiticeira enguia
despertar-me a paixão

Ofereces-me a obsessão
O desespero e a delicia
Duma relação illicita;
Ofereces-me o coração;

Mas digo-te que não:
Tenho filhos pra criar,
Marido pr'a amar,
Mundo pr'a enganar

Senti a seda
Dos teus seios
Na concha
Das minhas mãos

Não posso negar
O que sinto no corpo
Não vou recusar
Verdade mesmo torpe

Mas digo-te que não:
Tenho filhos pra criar,
Marido pr'a amar,
Mundo pr'a enganar

Não vou gemer mentiras
Pois ao teu toque travesso
Sou gelo no deserto
Da minha vida sem prazer

Não te posso oferecer
O que tens para me dar
Não quero sofrer
Nem mesmo p´ra te amar

Não chores, vê se entendes:
Tenho filhos pra criar,
Marido pr'a enganar,
Mundo pr'a enfrentar...

MC

Funny, so many claim they wish to help, but so few actually do. It seems that between the promise and the act is a leaping ocean of good intentions.Or self-deception. You choose.

MC

SINOS REZADOS

Sinos clamando
Palavras de amor,
Sinos quebrando,
Chorando de dor

Flores de metal
Mentiras de mel
Linguas do mal
Badalam fel

Sinos que chamam
Bocas amargas
Vozes travadas
Malvadas, mentiras de amor

Ouvi tua voz
Sino sonoro
Chamando por mim
Rezei que tu fosses
O fim e a cura
Dessa procura
Pela loucura
Achado de ternura
Verdadeiro amor

Flores de metal
Feridas com sal
Lingua bossal
Beijo brutal

Sinos proclamam
O fim do amor
Com vozes roucas
Palavras loucas, rasgadas de dor

Sinos rezando,

Desejos profanos
Sinos cantando
Em tons de pranto, desgostos de amor

MC

FADO SEM PUDOR

Naquela noite quente
Seguia eu em frente
Por aquela ruela
Com a roupa desfeita
Depois do amor

Seguia eu um homem
Sem nome, e sem rosto
Com gosto a suor

Vivia eu essa vida
Nessa senda vazia
De prazer sem Amor

Passava nessa viela
Que o povo enfeita
Com rendas e com flores

Ao longe se ouvia
Vozes em harmonia
Guitarra que fremia
De desejo, e de dor

Teus dedos corriam
Caricia pericia
Ardilosa malicia
Que me fez estremecer

Foi assim que te vi
Assim te senti
Querer sem pudor

Tocas-te-me a alma
Arrancas-te ás cordas
Do meu coração,

Meu corpo a guitarra
Desgarrada rasgada
Leviana canção

Tocas-te-me a alma
Destruiste-me a calma
Acordei para a Paixão

Manuela Cardiga

A MENINA MORTA

Com os olhos velados de lágrimas
E as faces queimadas
Do sal dessa dor

Tropecei na calçada
Fiquei ali sentada
Pranteando o amor

Não penses que choro
O fim do namoro
O fim de nós dois

Choro a verdade
Que achava tão linda
E descubri depois

Vivia a mentira
Com tanta alegria
Que a queria real

Mas essa magia
Era fantasia
Que eu invetei

Se me vês aqui sentada
Nessa calçada
Sapatos na mão

Os olhos inchados
Labios rasgados
De gritos de dor

Não penses que choro
O fim do namoro
O fim de nós dois

Choro a pobre menina
Que tanto te queria
Que tanto sonhou

Não penses que choro
O fim do namoro
O fim de nós dois

Choro aquela menina
Que nesta agonia
Renasceu mulher

Manuela Cardiga

NÃO ME DESDENHES

Sei que tens na tua vida
Mulheres mais belas, mais garridas,
Sem as marcas e as feridas
Dos malogros do Amor

Sei que tens na tua vida
Mulheres mais jovens, e mais ricas
Sem os medos, e os karmas
Das tragédias e da dor

Mas não me desdenhes,
Deixa que te acompanhe
Pois o que tenho para te dar
É sincero, e é raro...

Vi-te nessa viela,
Que é o trilho do desgosto
Que me assombra o rosto
E desfigura o coração

Vi um sorriso claro e limpo,
Olhar terno sem ardil,
Sem o véu de feitos impios
A toldar tua visão

Eu com o meu corpo já gasto
P´r esse caminho nefasto
De descrenças e desastres
Desta vida, fado vil

Vi nesse teu rosto tão lindo
Anjo suave, voz gentil
A prometida salvação

Ai não me desdenhes,
Deixa que te acompanhe
Pois o que tenho para te dar
É sincero, e é raro:
É o Amor.

Sei que tens na tua vida
Já traçado um caminho
Que não passa pelo meu

Sei que tens na tua vida
A promessa de alegria
Sem tristeza, mar de mel

Mas não me desdenhes,
Nesta breve encruzilhada
Deixa-me ser a tua amada,
Dá-me um sorvo do teu Céu

Mas não me desdenhes,
Nesta breve encruzilhada
Abre os braços e recebe
O Amor que Deus nos deu..

Manuela Cardiga

LIFE-HACKS: PEDICURE AS A CURE FOR THE COMMON HEART-BREAK

"There are holes,
holes, holes on me!"
Cried the toe-nail
Seeking therapy

The shoe-shrink
tapped a speculative
heel and frowned
"You need to keep
to solid ground!"

"You take things
Much too seriously.
You feel too much,
Hold on too tight
Grind into the
Fabric of life."

"How else can we live
But with intensity?"
Cried the distraught nail
Under its disguising veil
Of varnish glitter-glamour.

"Do as the heel does:
Play the fool, choose
A low-slung mule,
Avoid stilettos
Or any semblance
Of sharp wit
Or embracing affection
For the lamentably
Frail or short-lived
Sock, stocking
Or prosaic panty-hose."

"Think of the nose,
Who rather than
The erstwhile lace
Silk and linen hanky,
Now blows at
What will cause
It no distress to
Dispose."

"I...I cannot live like that!"
I can't! I need that tight
Embrace, that kiss
Of fate and faith!"

The shrink shoe curled
A derisive upper lip
and stroked at its
Elegant laces
"Well then, my dear,
Keep yourself trimmed;
Your emotions blunt,
And be bare
As much as you dare."


MC

Strange. So many always stand in line at my door to get comfort, kindness, support, a helping hand... 

Yet, when once in a lifetime my world cracks and sways, my heart breaks, and my pain brays unlovely sounds, there is absolutely no one around.

MC

THERE WAS AN ANCIENT MARINER

A silver gull soared,
and I, unmoored,
saw no way clear
no leading light
to starboard;
to port, no welcome
shelter from
the nearing storm,
or writhing worm

A silver gull soared,
and I hoisted salted
veiling canvas, sails
much torn, frail-patched,
I waited for the shiver
but death becalmed
the world's wind and
left me marooned there.

A silver gull soared,
but no line beckoned
from the strange horizon,
no dividing sign between
the blurring sea and sky
seized my burning eye
"It was a gull," I cried
"Silver, no raven dark
croaking "Nevermore""

A silver gull soared,
forsworn from any
Stricken colors, and
muddle-minded
fuddle-tongued
widow's weeds
float and tangle
sinuous limbs
on my broken rudder

A silver gull soared,
and a disdainful
mermaid flipped a
diamond-scaled tail,
dolphined away from
my stricken deck -
no treachery this,
for all know the guilt
is all of the listing wreck.

A silver gull soared,
and I am unmoored:
So drift then, box that
dizzy compass
let in those salted
waves of tears but
remember the rich
and jeweled treasures
stored beneath

A silver gull soared,
but left a trove:
strings of gilded hours
a book of mysteries
no God answers and
no prayer asks; and
gallons of dark rum
in memory-jointed
sugar-scented casks

A silver gull soared,
My dirty canvas wings
may scuttle-limp
through thicker air,
but I learned that skill
from still-winged
silver-winged glory.
It is true I'll never soar,
but look! I float.


MC

There are choices that cannot be made by the intellect, but must follow the blind passions of the just heart.

Goddess of War

MC

PAPER CUTS

towers crash
and smash hope
dash belief
crack the whirling
scope of galaxies
to the deep
into something small
something vague
something like
a shallow paper cut
in shade and shape
that bleeds continuously

bleeds vapid violet ink
fake pain, false disdain
from a kick-started
once discarded heart


MC

PAPER CUTS

towers crash
and smash hope
dash belief
crack the whirling
scope of galaxies
to the deep

into something small
something vague
something like
a shallow paper cut
in shade and shape
that bleeds continuously

bleeds vapid violet ink
fake pain, false disdain
from a kick-started
once discarded heart

MC

PRELUDE FOR HEART'S PAIN

Is there no world
Or love enough to buy
A miracle this night?

Quiet then,
And let us not weep.

Pretend a smile
And let the skeletal
Hands sweep those
Last moments
From that face

Let there be
No display
Of tawdry rictus
Pain.

Quiet then,
And let us not weep.

Draw the curtains
Let grief remain
The domain
Of the silken hands
Of famed and framed

Portraits
Of the gawdy
Kings
Of Pain-

Quiet then
And let us not weep.

Let that silence creep
Upon us,
Curl on our
Laps

Quiet then.
Let there be silence
Let there be night.

Let the Prince of Cats
Shout delight in tears
Milk of human kindness
Lapped from
Pulsing grey
Electric substitutes
For the human brain

MC

PEACH MELBA

none for me
but pling
the cling
the peach
to teach
and preach
oh roll that
velvet suave
refrain

let the pope
of hell ordain
more pain

i laugh!
what can
claim more
or more swiftly
drain sweet joy
but pling the cling?

Oh drip-drop
time and then
desist decease disease
that peach?

MC

MC TWO MEANS TIME SAYS SCREW YOU

Albert said
One moment follows
Hitching piggy-back
On another and
Another follows that

Albert said
Time and space
Are just the same
Different names
For this silly game

Albert said
Time is a circular dance,
Carousel prance,
Giving no chance
For a backward glance

Albert said
But he was a liar
Time suspends
One hitching breath
And does not allow another

Albert said
But he was wrong
Quantum particles sing
A different song
Slip and skip back and forth

Albert said
But the silly fool
Didn't see Time
Would flee the coop
Escape the loop

Albert said
But never saw the sentient
Flip of the light fantastic
And that one spastic surge
Of the demi-urge
(Malicious overturning
Of the apple-cart)
That rips our hearts apart

MC