PARALLEL UNIVERSE

FOUR OF SPADES

Lost in a labyrinth
How I got here I don't know
An enormous palatial garden
Bordered by high walls of mossy weathered brick
Dense hedges of dark foliage interrupt the views
Impenetrable
Gravel paths crunch through this maze
Meandering this way and that
Turning abrupt corners
At first glance the paths appear regular and grid-like
But they deceive
They lead to dead-ends
Cul-de-sacs
Their herrings are red
And their goose chases are wild
Just when I seem to be getting somewhere
I arrive back where I started many years ago
The hedges open out into a clearing
In its centre an octagonal fountain
Water spouting from a large Greek urn
Two heavy stone benches face each other across the clearing
Leaves have fallen on the seats
Leaving a design
At each corner of the clearing stands an identical rounded fir
Pointing at the sky
Four points on the compass
But which is north, south, east or west?
The sky is sullen, leaden, useless
There are no stars at night
Condemned I am to wander alone through this web
Trapped like a buzzing wasp
Behind a pane of glass

QUEEN OF CLUBS

Proudly she stands in all her glory
Framed by palm fronds
A golden crown upon her head
She is the queen of the night
Transposed to the harsh light of day
Her long dark mane sits heavy on her shoulders
She wears only a necklace of red and sky blue beads
Dangling casually across her chest
Amused
She throws back her head and laughs
A deep throaty laugh
A roar that lasts a thousand years
Beside her the sacrificial sheep
Calm and oblivious to its fate

TWO OF DIAMONDS

The postman knocks
A parcel labelled fragile
Dirty brown paper tied up with white string
Postmark Papua New Guinea
Date smudged
Bird of paradise stamps in an unknown currency
Twin seals of red wax
Addressed in flowery black handwriting
This way up
Inside
A container
Small brown seeds like rice grains
No instructions
I plant the seeds in pots on the windowsill
Sunshine and water go to work
The strangest flowers bloom
Long stems
Delicate petals of fiery orange
Blood-red stamens
Their scent is dark earthy intoxicating
Humid forest and ripening fruit tree
Purplish red berries form
Eat me they whisper
The taste is at once sour and sweet
The room rushes away
A thousand years ago
Ten thousand miles away
I stand alone in an impenetrable forest
Chattering monkeys leap high above in the dense canopy
Jaguars prowl
Water drips from the mouths of broad leaves
Sap oozes from the bark of colossal trunks
The insects play a symphony
Led by an invisible conductor

NINE OF SPADES

We little fish swim in turbulent waters
Our black bodies pulverised and hammered
By brown and turquoise fists
We are eager to make history
Even as it passes us by
But the circumstances are not of our choosing
The armed prophets have unleashed their ideological storms
The schizophrenic madmen in authority
Pluck their voices out of the ether
Rivers of dogma course the channels
A litter of corpses navigates the rapids
Freshly felled timber speeding downstream
Rings countless and uncountable

KING OF HEARTS

Recalling the old times
Lost in memory
I rise up from all fours to my full height
Reaching up
Reaching out to touch a single red rose
Almost lost among the dense foliage
Among the overgrown leaves of this jungle hinterland
I am safe here inside my cool elliptical forcefield
For a moment I can forget
That out there the fires burn
That the red sky mourns
For the sad tree stumps that dot the ground
As far as the eye can see
Forget that my people are forsaken
Diminished and suffering
Remember that I am noble
And not born to hang my head