CD

I have kept this CD player
with our love story
hidden in the tracks
in case
you come to this cafe
again
we will share our love for music
just like the old days
before everything fell apart

Until then
I have no reason to revisit
the path we strolled along
hand in hand
sharing earphones
dancing to the beat
of our love songs

I wonder
will you blush
like you’ve always been
when you hear it plays
will you still
turn up the volume
trying to drown out
our heartbeats

I wonder
will I finally
allow myself
to break down
when realise
how much
I’m still
loving you

Indecent

This is a collaborative piece by Bree and Cassa. Do check out Bree’s blog Secret Thoughts Within for more of her wonder.

My love for you is indecent
it doesn’t fit neatly into the mould
I am an outlier in every book of sin
No amount of purity resists my passion

Offer me your vigour
and I will return it ten-fold
You have never known a love like mine
I’m a wildfire and raging storm

Come! Count me in
Let me be your intoxication and Sunday regret
We’ll be each other’s forbidden fruit
and feast on a love so indecent

Frozen Smiles

It was just yesterday
We bid farewell 
to our glorious youth

In my naiive optimism
I thought of many reunions
coming our way

Last night
I heard of your passing
Life startled me

I hurried to that yesterday 
snapped a photo of your smile
attached it to my prayers
hoping you remember us
once shared that celebrated chapter

– dedicated to Amanda B. (November 1960 – March 2021)

Rome

I only allow myself 
to be half full of Rome 
untill nightfall

The ancient streets 
are filled with mortal sins 
of the modern life

In the shadow of the street lights
I take off my sandals
kneading my heels into the cold cobblestones
pressing my palms on the old walls

Now 
I let the saints and ghosts
fill me with the rest 
A scarlet rose in my hair
A bronze raven at my feet

Dim Romance

This is a prose collaboration between Cassa and SecretWriter.

She writes by the candle light in pitch black nights. The thought of his scents and words flames the wick burning in her lukewarm heart.

He lies down, stiff and exhausted from a day’s hard work, covered by the darkness of night. His mind wanders, and he dreams of her as the wax drips down the candle light. There is always this great distance dividing them, just as the milky way joining their imagination and fantasy. He spreads out the oils that collected her perfumes, reminisces of smoothing it across her shadowed skin. Light and dark that makes tiny lit hairs back when they explored galaxies within.

She writes love affair as she lives through every word and punctuation between their exchange where energy takes off in wings of imagination and fantasy. Their story is safely told as the storyteller becomes more and more tangled in the story she so vividly crafts.

Truth Hurts

I couldn't breathe or fit into a growing red China.
I would never protest or speak my mind for the fear of losing  the little freedom that I had, more so the safety of my love ones.
So I escaped and started restoration and healing in the land of downunder.

Now the suffocating condition returns when I witness my fellow citizens fighting for our freedom, and are under the tyranny of our elected government.

This is the most difficult realisation. I ran from a wolf to a wolf in sheep's clothing.

Earthing

lie down on the warm grass
gazing upward to the canopy
spin my palms from the centre
to the edge of the horizon
dig my toes through the green

Mother Earth
give me strength
give me energy
give me healing
give me courage
to carry on
to be human
to be whole

Our Eyes Meet Again

I search your hollows
For the remnant of me
There's no trace of any fire ever lit
Did your sorrow rain over our love
Or did I take your soul with me