The Muruku Murmurations

how did you live you and i how did we change someone's life for the better how deeply did we cut into the fleshy stereotypes that seduce and fester and lop them off piece by piece what seeds of hope did we plant  in the hearts of children whose dreams withered before they were even birthed what justice did we fight for when wrong is twisted like a diseased root to be the new black the new mutated right or did we even fight at all when the battle raged around us and we fell  like scarecrows in a storm  our convictions leaking from us like straw how did we live you and i or have we lived at all - Shuku

In celebration of International Women's Day 2016. "One day I will..." As children this was our mantra The world Was a treasure chest And we explorers of the briny deep The sizzling Sahara The mysterious Congo Travelling to China on dragons Discovering deep space In fanciful rockets And stars we marked with our names Planets like jewels: Purple and gold and pink and blue And nothing – nothing at all Was impossible Not even math. Not science. Not art. As we grew, age and adults Leached the colour from our stars The treasure chest no longer bejewelled Just a tin box with thorny words And broken promises And we were told, You can’t The mysteries of science and math Are not for you. Art history favours men. We were taught that planets were conquered Not by women but by men As if the twist of an extra X chromosome Changed our intelligence or our capabilities The lucidness of our thoughts Or the wideness of our dreams. Impossible, they tell us:...

Our very first quartet collaboration!  Amore, j'adore, I wish you weren't such a bore, If only it was a case of it's not you, it's me, But a future together I do not foresee. Prithee love, my turtledove, Thou doth shame the stars above, With gas and matter their form is set, But thy windbag brain's more gaseous yet. Your jokes be unfunny & aren't even punny, They lack wit so please sit, I mean it when I say I do not want to stay, And I am more than capable of going away my way. Rose bouquets have withered, The scent from your cologne lingered, A stench like death choked me, Reeking rotten flesh the haunts dauntingly. Too much of a good thing can be everything, Or a poison that will leave you with nothing, Methemphetamine, Xanax, Vodka or Tequila, What is left of me after these will be nada. Roses red, lilies white, Can't you find some cyanide? Cynicism, melancholy and tragedy, Put an end to thi...

I love dance. This piece, inspired by a wonderful, energetic night on the dance floor, is a litany of all the things I would love to do or say to the perfect dance partner - someday (or maybe never, depending.)   If there is one thing you would like to do, but haven’t yet done, what is it? —Clarissa Pinkola Estes I would turn the music on Set Ella’s voice drifting through the air Singing of love, of loss, of dreams Singing of blues and life And I would take your hands and ask May I have this dance And lead you to the floor I would consciously forget All the things that seem so important In daylight hours: My looks, this shyness, my fears That somehow I won’t measure up To what you want And let the music speak Through our arms A touch and I follow Rhythm translated Into movement I want to lean into you Inhale these shared minutes Let them sink, like words Into the body Let you read them in my eyes Vocabulary that only dancers share Secrets only part...

Every independent, single woman has an epiphany at some point in her life, I suspect. Mine came just out of university, when I realised that despite being academically in the top five percent of my class,  I'd been letting men I loved tell me (subtly or otherwise) that I was really a very stupid woman who couldn't be trusted with things of intellect. Now, many years down the line, this is the inspiration for 'Chess' - which happens to be the day I learned that the Queen is the most powerful piece in the game. After that, the poem almost wrote itself, really. This is my tribute to every woman who's been informed that she's less important than a man, less intelligent, and worth far less. Because that's bullshit, and deserves to be called for what it is. Once upon a time A man I loved told me: This role-playing game system Is too complicated for you. You wouldn’t know the rules. You don’t know how to plan Warcraft strategy. Here, I’ll play, you can’t ...