ManicWorld Magazine

Like a bag of nails from a cannon
Points aplenty
and everywhere
Like a sunrise by a sacred lake
with eyes wide shut
and with bellyache
all of it is there but
all is more than required
Like 360 degrees
when what we really need is
just a neat 90
and none of the speed
or the cornering in a tuktuk
when three wheels become two
out of control and exciting,
but who
really needs a two-wheel tuktuk?
All of us. At some time.

Like unsheathed daggers glinting in the sun
a verbal Bruce Lee
almost always slices for fun.

Kindness from a knife wielding maniac
means more
Feels a degree of distance to the core
Took more to be kind there
and it floods like sunshine
over a night cloaked mountain.

Anarchy cannot have a rule book
by simple definition

but if it did
there would be only one person
to pen such formal legislation

Fire
in a bus and every transport
Fire
even in freezing pools at dawn
up mountains
in lakes
and boats without tickets
and Negroni fuelled dancing
and philosophy gymnastics
and horse back
and head back
and considering themself
blond
and counting to ten
a million times
and never once wrong

Fire
in double elephant
never once on time
a destroyer, generator and operator
wiser than any Naomi Klein

The ferocity of the lotus flower
more macaque than langur
able to spot beasts
formed by unholy union
an expert view of course
Only this visionary spotted
the half deer – half horse.

Hey Buddy, Can I get a…
let’s stop, the accents out
not anyone else’s of course
that’s open season
for better fun we need no reason
but just
the sport

In filing cabinets a metre high
maybe two
in locked out hotel rooms
in swimming costumes
turning blue
in all of this
the same remains
don’t make eye contact
don’t undo the chains

Maybe an Indian filmmaker said one time
that things are never just as you see them
never just
what they are
they are only ever a mixing up
a masala
a blending of near and far
and in and out
and us and them
we need sparks and fire
to forge it all
together
as a oneness
temporary

fragile, yes
but once made this
can be the start
of a beautiful friendship

For Hillary
from Peter

13th January 2024 – Train to Delhi from Ajmer Junction.