The Tale of Revati

Revati, goddess of love and war, this be her tale

There was sunset in her navel there was ginger in her ale. 

far away, where sunlight meets moonlight and sunlight and moonlight meet twilight and sunlight and moonlight and twilight swim across this river made of monograms and epitaphs of coldly dead ghosts of the city, 

drenched in blood of love and hate 

waters rose like waters rise

i was to keep the keys hidden

i was to speak to the guts of silence 

when the nights were naked and the days were silver 

and she stood at the shores, and she hummed a tune or two

and we offered little flowers to the mist 

and there were kisses for mercy to befall. 

this was long long ago

ask the relics, they might know. 

and then the plague came

footsteps drowned

angry ants marched out from hell

i saw ballerina as she swam across

i saw dogs dodging the booms 

it was a lot and it wasn't much

for nothing to be and for everything to not-be

Mr Sorrow, he wore his hat in style

and smoked his last cigar

as balloons flew all night by the sea

and tears dripped down the cherry tree

and the shadow rang its bells of doom

and the lovers hated and the haters loved 

and the last kisses were kissed and the last daggers were drawn

the phone rang at 5

the phone rang at 6

the earth was a cake

the sky was a sky

and thus it all happened

before the houses marched out

and there was music in the leper colonies

and there was music in the heart of guts 

and there was music in the guts of heart

and there was music. 

and then there was more music

and everything was music 

and everywhere was music

and everyone was music

Revati, she raises her glass of blue wine

and she sheds her clothes one by one

and she walks up to me

and she is a princess from picture-books on Egyptian history 

and my head is tied to the canvasses

my feet are stuck on the windchimes

my teeth beget stoic laments 

for the ghosts sing songs of places were sunlight and moonlight and twilight become one

and there isn't anything else 

but for strange places to go

and deep inside there's this bright bordello 

where the women don smiles of sorrow

and the world drowns in their fond folds

that's where lonely people go

when the ants march back 

and find rice of love 

in places with faces 

that they have never looked at before

and Revati, she closes her door

and i lug my shadow down

and you lug your shadow down

and we lug our shadows down

to the edges of this ghost-town

where the stars lose their trumpets tonight. 

Stalingrad, 1943

letters aren't written anymore but i opened this make believe envelope and read this make-believe letter of words and blood and roses that wilt in November because they don't have much to do 

despite the chimneys 

and the rundown plastic diorama 

our songs of love

shall become one

and creatures of the night

shall perish by the light

and everything is dusk and everywhere there's this mad daze that aims for the star and dies in cold defeat

home, the last time as i saw it, 

was a place of much dust and sunset

and now i hear of Stalingrad

they have named it something else

i don't remember

i'm bad with names

i don't remember your name

so, they fought and won

and they fought and lost

and the sun rises in pain

and the moon drowns in pain

and monkeys chatter on tenement roofs

and people invent radios and plaster of Paris 

and soldiers stare at sweaty mermaids with boobs of gold

and sailors sway with sunflowers and daffodils in dandy delirium

and cannonballs bring news of hunger to blue and yellow sonnets of doom

for tonight we shall speak of love, dogs, James Dean and antibiotics

tonight we shall not unleash Stalingrad  

speak, if you can

tides rise, like mercy, they worship your name

like mercy, they adore ghostcandles and timeworn jazz

sisters of love and brothers of love locked in one endless kiss

and a little Ferris Wheel whirls past the ears 

on naked hours of night when there's no sound or fury

and a big eye moves our shadows across 

the town of the dead

where rats from gutters send light of life to clouds of death 

beware the monsters who ate your roses

beware my eyebrows fixed on you

beware Orion when he chases the seven sisters

and they won in Stalingrad when all was lost

and they lost in Stalingrad when all was won

empty, like life and death,

i stand at the center and await your wisdom

you stand at the center and await my sword

a ruby shines in its smokey hilt

a princess smiles through the windows

as flies buzz in from unknown shores

and sit on these frames of flesh and stone

like sunlight, in eternal agony

glory be thine, burn this letter

for Stalingrad shall ever be

like Stalingrad that never was.