Hungry

The calls to prayer continue
No one is allowed into the mosques
Prayers are better prayed
Inside
the hearts of men
seeking heaven on Earth
and heaven hereafter

Heaven is a bit of food
A bit of love
A little prayer
Prayed
because out on the streets
the devil must be roaming
feeding on the moans of the hungry

Self-Portrait

Drawing
from memory
what I look like
drawing -

Meta:
Metabolic
Metameric
Metamorphosis
Me. Table.
Pencil. Paper.

Stubbed.

This is a drag;
the thought -
the whiff of billowing
smoke trails
however minute
is a titan that pulls
at my limbs.
I have never felt
so torn; toasted -
roasting myself for
my own habits.

I can barely see the sky
from my balcony's edge
but every little cloud
I blow, I give to the
patch of cyan framed
above between leaning
concrete and bricks.

I give to the heavens.

I burn in the hell fires.

I am a sinner.

I am an addict.

An addict for the small,
fleeting crackles
that remind me of
conversations.
An addict for being the observer,
observant of my surroundings,
contemplating philosophies
of the every day
man.
The holidays give me none of the above
Only a feeling that these were once there.
It is the perfect time
for redemption
yet, I indulge.
I love
and I regret
This break
leaves me broken.

Stubbed.

Love in the time of Corona

LOVE IN THE TIME OF CORONA
by Tilok Adnan 

Season... Season's end 

A new season begins now

Fear inside of I and you 

Poison... Poison spreads

I have found love over the internet 

I worry for me and for you 

I worry not about our vows

We will see each other when this is done

Soon... Soon uncertain

Season... Season begins 

Hotter for miles on end 

And the sudden rains reach us both

This cannot be social distancing 

It is just distance and our kisses in the wind

Poisoned... Poison blows

Isolation

ISOLATION
by Tilok Adnan

The changing of season
So many poets will dote on it
I needed this, it is selfish
But people are dying

People are separating
Scattering closer to family
Kinder to kin
As lives are spread thin

I am eating spare, I am eating well
I am healthier, nutritious
I don't know how this ends
The beginning is treating me well

Flake

FLAKE 
by Tilok Adnan

You don't know me
All signs lead to Aries
April and June are
Proposed to be in tune

But you don't know me
And the zodiac is bullshit
We aren't kids anymore
Although the sexual compatibility most definitely
    deserves the high score

We are two individuals
Locked behind two closed doors
Under an astral plane
That falsifies its claims about us being
     the same.

A change in character.

A SUDDEN CHANGE IN CHARACTER/ A CONVERSATION
by Tilok Adnan


- This is no joke, this is real
- That must be a joke, that is false

- You take things too far
- I make it clear, and I bring you near

- You are just seeking attention, then
- I am being attended to

- You are so persistent and so wrong to do so
- I am persistent, and rightfully so, too

- You think this is all about you?
- I think you think about me too much

- You are forcing yourself to be someone else
- I am anything but someone else

- Why is it so hard for you to believe me?
- Why is it so hard for you to believe me?

- You are impossible; Enough!
- I am. I am. I am enough.

- Enough of you!
- Enough, in your definition,
  is the person that fits inside your radius
  of who you want me to be. A sudden shift in character
  is not something you expected. You are thinking
  about the repercussions that will be inflicted upon me
  because you are guilty of feeling the need to inflict.
  Can you rid yourself of that guilt? Or should I
  push further to ensure that you do? I am of my own making.
  I am the molder of my mold. I shape my parameters, as you do yours.

- You don't know what you're talking about. It eerily hurts me
   to see you be inflicted upon.
- No, it hurts you to know me. It hurts you to associate.
  The primal need for you to exert a change in your behavior hurts.
  It hurts you to hurt for yourself. It hurts you to hurt me.
  It hurts me. This is no joke.