Two Poems

Art by Gary Jerome Jones, pen and colour markers on card stock, 2022.

 

Subconscious Individuality  

A rocking horse soothes the internal rhythm 

There's only so much I can do with the disturbances and the reassurances and the caustic 

A wilderness of ideas pulsating 

The unknown to the known self 

The double-talk, gunshots and activity 

The reasons why there is war and tenderness 

Was it something that I said that took your breath away? 

A simple word or phrase...? 

I have no words to describe you 

No sentence no phrase 

A spirit looking for remedies and solutions 

I am not you and you are not me 

We live in different cocoons 

Above & below 

Left hand right empty 

I became a commodity 

A translator of sorts—hoping for the best....wishing 

I fell asleep trying to remember a dream 

Pulling away from what I used to be, yet a part of me still remains 

Subconscious individuality 

 

Beautiful Stranger 

You always fall in love too quickly with the beautiful stranger. The beautiful-faced stranger...to be exact. 

Don't you know how dangerous that can be?  With all that's been written, read and said, 

You and I both know that the beautiful stranger can be dread, brunette or baldhead. 

Redhead or blond—tall, short or shapely, 

Starry-eyed, dimpled and glowing skin 

Just the way you like them. 

But at times... 

Don't you wonder, before you approach them, is inside beautiful too? 

Are the friend and family ties beautiful? 

The pocket & purse, 

The mood swings and humdrum moments...are they beautiful? 

The bathroom and private personals, 

Their voice... 

Do they tell you beautiful things?  

Are they beautiful when others come around? 

Are they beautiful when you are not around?  And can you ever really know?  

That would be difficult to discover, near-impossible to find out. 

Beautiful strangers make your heart beat fast and blush, 

Shake you to the core and give you a blood rush, 

But in the quiet times, the alone times, 

Do you think that the beautiful stranger feels they are beautiful?  

Or just strange?

Gary Jerome Jones is an award-winning Barbadian writer and artist long striving to make the world a more relatable space .