The Burning Cold

Walk through the Hearth
As you would ice,
And from the cold flames
Your new self will rise.

Behead your past,
Be off with its head.
After the Flames have cleansed you,
You will freeze your dread.

Succumb to the Cold,
Invite the warmth of the Fireplace
For your sins have been frozen,
But your pitiful self remains.

– Maya Desdemona

Day Thirty: Waltzing Masquerade

In this ballroom,
They are bride and groom.
But it truly seems,
That this arrangement attracts doom.

For they are but puppets,
Forced to dance on a never-ending stage,
So they play their parts to perfection,
Praying that someday,
Things will change.

For whom are you putting on this act?
To which great masquerade artist
Are you trying to prove yourself?

Maya Desdemona

Day Twenty Eight: Prison Pastimes

Pessoa once wrote
In his Book of Disquiet,
That "Only the imprisoned,
With the fascination
Of someone watching ants,
Would pay such attention
To one shifting ray of sunlight."


At first I begged to differ,
Stating my reasoning
That great poets were never once caged,
But the more I thought on the matter
The clearer it seemed to me,
That the only cage holding such a poet
Is one of his own decree.

– Maya Desdemona

Day Twenty Seven: Clockwork

Your mechanical typing
Truly resembles clockwork.


Although I am aware
That you are, at present,
Heartlessly and mindlessly at work,
I cannot help but compare you to clockwork.

The many gears of your mind are turning,
Your hands continually typing,
Your soul is now nonexistent,
And your heart seems to have failing power.

Such a lively person so lifeless,
Can even strike something called pity,
Yet I know you well,
And can only cackle at your half-heartedness.

But my, What is this?
It seems my laughter has raised your spirits,
And now you happily chat with me,
While your work lays forgotten.

– Maya Desdemona

Day Twenty Six: Daydreaming

I am here,
Though my mind is anywhere but.

That mind refuses to be caged
In the tight confines of the cranium,
And freely roams the world.

The tragedies of Old
And comedies that are new
Are where you will find mine,
Forever seeking entertainment.

Oftentimes I wonder
Why it leaves me behind.
Take me with you, dear mind,
Don't leave the flesh behind on this planet.

Yet the mind will forever only watch,
Never feel the emotions that
It travels Fact and Fiction to see.

I suppose,
In this sense,
A closed cage is better than
Never feeling what one sees.

– Maya Desdemona

Day Twenty One: Foreshadowing?

I was out on a stroll,
Now usual, I suppose,
Yet today I found,
Another most curious view.

It was high up,
A rather peculiar looking cloud,
And it took looking twice,
For my mind to make a discernable shape.

In all its abstract beauty,
I could see a bird
Flying out of a cloud of smoke
At least, that is what I perceived.

Twenty minutes later,
Is when my curious sight
Comes to the corner of my eye.
I noticed that a bird was struck down.

It was not a natural death,
Far from it, really,
A few stray cats in the locality
Had caught it while hunting.

And upon looking at its dismembered corpse,
Hanging from a kitten's mouth,
I could only feel
That I had seen that bird before.

Maya Desdemona