stranger – ned tobin || poetrix

The New Normal (day 3143)

January 6, 2020April 12, 2020 ned Leave a comment

This is the new normal
No handshake, no smile.
This is the new normal
Lineups with seperation
And stickers on the ground
Telling me which way to walk
Where to stand.
This is the new normal
Where by law
We are no longer able
To gather in groups
More than fingers on my hand.
This is the new normal
Where social distancing
And isolation
Are words of our common vocabulary.
This is the new normal
Where walking down the street
Closer than two meters
To a passing stranger
We get anxiety
That this stranger just might
Transmit to us
An unseen death card.
This is the new normal
Where government declares
A business can no longer stay open.
This is the new normal
Where humans no longer have
Medicine men and women
Available to help
Because their knowledge
Relies on the antidote.
This is the new normal
Where I pay a bank monthly
To hold onto my money
I have saved from spending
And told that method is safer
Than guarding it with my own life,
And that money
Is better in digital plastic
Infused and inflated
By central banks at will.
This is the new normal
Where the government
Of my home country
Feels the safety and security
Of its citizens
Comes after the solvency
Of its biggest industries.
This is the new normal
And we must resist.

Beside Me (day 3009)

August 23, 2019December 18, 2019 ned Leave a comment

I took the worms
That had begun to gather around;
Flesh eating
Blood suckers,
Lost in red velvet feelings.
I took them to mass
Where we prayed for health
Like sordid strangers
Walking along
Black and white city streets.
I took them with me
For I had begun
To understand them
As they wriggled
Turned over in ecstasy
Amidst and amongst themselves
And beside me.

Aroma in a Window (day 2533)

May 6, 2018July 22, 2018 ned Leave a comment

My window looks out
Lost deep into thought.
Two strings I had to pull
Let go their fray
Unwind I went along the walk
River and then back
Which brought me to a stranger who
Said I had two letters of mail
Being symbolic of my thoughts,
Left me on the precipice
Until my coffee had arrived
And aroma filled the air.

Street Stranger (day 2475)

March 8, 2018March 19, 2018 ned Leave a comment

How long have you suffered
Waiting there so burdened
Run your eyes a little longer
Down the road whence you came
No stranger stopping to say goodbye
No mail left in the box
Chopping as if petrified
At the meat about your ankles
Sitting quietly to the side
Two dogs with no former home

Moonball (day 2393)

December 17, 2017December 23, 2017 ned Leave a comment

I am a moonball chasing light beams
My lingering set me free
Orbit exposing my pathway
In a land so foreign and new
This is how I travel lightly
My mind’s story set my feather
Spotlight into pure nightness
Hear a stranger rustling
Seeing writing on the wall.

Midnight Rubies (day 2277)

August 24, 2017September 5, 2017 ned Leave a comment

She had rubies that dangled down
To the hips that stole each heart
Cigarette was midnight in each look
She cast into the night.
She called to a lover down on the street
Who looked up and knew her name
He said: “My dear how are you there?
It has been a long long time.”
Then off into the night the taxi rolled away
And two strangers emerged
Locked arm in arm as they strolled.
She had rubies that dangled down
To the hips that stole each heart
And as she walked around her room
A record playing a good song
She pretended she was dancing at a ball
In a lost time, enchanted
She thought about writing a letter to
A friend she’d never met.
She had rubies that dangled down
To the hips that stole each heart
And every time she she shared her name
It changed into a vision
That soon wafted into the night
And all around was cobblestones
An empty café unattended though open
Where, listening, the open windows
Learned her every midnight name.

Rain – part V (day 2265)

August 12, 2017September 5, 2017 ned 1 Comment

(part IV)

I felt good beating away my irrational fear
That this hungry stranger was wild man
He did have some unkempt parts about him
But nothing more than your average man.
He said he’d been working on a pig farm
Just inside the Ontario border
For the last four years
A smell I had keenly detected
When I first met him.
He warmed over as he drank the tea
And soon he was calmer
As the dog stopped growling at the stranger
The fire I kept going I’m sure
Also brought up his spirits.
I fed him toasted bread, jam, and eggs
And sent him off to the barn
Before darkness set in.

Rain – part II (day 2262)

August 9, 2017August 12, 2017 ned 2 Comments

(part I)

I hadn’t brought my axe with me
But the dog started to growl
At the stranger huddling there
Back turned to me,
I stood there a while
So he wouldn’t get startled
Which didn’t work too well,
He jumped a foot in the air
When the dog barked at his back
Turning around quickly
With an evil look in his snarl
But I still feel I may have mistook evil
For hunger the man had.

part III

Stay the Same (day 2237)

July 15, 2017July 23, 2017 ned Leave a comment

(him)
As I step into forgiveness
Where do your soft touches go?
Sun drops touching our ground tomorrow
Oyster magic on our table goes round
Sounds of a midnight loon.