Paul Tristram- Two Poems

Set Me Free

Scratch islands into my eyes

some paramount pretty view.

Wipe deceit from my ears

let honesty come on through.

Take the garbage from my head

superglue together my heart.

Teach to me forgiveness

unvolume anger for a start.

Take sarcasm from my smile

and paranoia from my walk.

Unplant the seeds of insanity

harvest up every deluded stalk.

Let me sleep with angels

let sex be what it should be.

Kiss the frog of my soul

set the man inside free.

© Paul Tristram 2003

Published in Panda Quarterly Poetry, Issue 19, July 2004

Hermitized

I want to be alone

I want to be only free.

Free from all of you people

free from your cloned stupidity.

Communities are nothing but cancer

neighbourhoods nothing but a disease.

They suck souls like vampires

destroying individuality with ease.

Populated by blind minded fools

with morals standing at attention.

With my back to the masses

I seek only solitary redemption.

My sins they number many

feeble attempts at fighting back.

Against the teeth of the Establishment

I am merely a puppy in a sack.

Drowning in another man’s laws

created before my cruel birth.

As I hold them up to the light

I see not a single gram of worth.

But still a puppet on a string

refusing to join the dance.

As false masters bind my spirits

at every single given chance.

I simply cannot play the game

I can neither win or lose.

I will not bow down to convention

nor lick the government’s shoes.

Insecure with the system’s security

unsettled by normality’s apathy.

I discard the rat race

and all it stands for happily.

Why struggle on in torment

why sacrifice my precious time.

Reshaping my own integrity

so I can cowardly stand in line.

I cannot censor my emotions

I will not wrong my rights.

I shall not live another man’s dream

while my own is in my sight.

I wear a talisman of logic

I carry a weapon of commonsense.

I disagree wholeheartedly

I will sit upon no fence.

I’ve been crucified by nosey kindness

I’ve been numbed by mortal misery.

A heart with load so heavy

unrequited love bigger than the sea.

I stood before you open

but you made me slam the door.

Dissecting my innocent desires

you made me sorrow’s whore.

I hate until exhaustion

I curse, I spit, I fight.

Every time that I am cornered

every time that reality bites.

Slave to me is a feeling

not just a five-letter word.

I feel it almost constantly

each time the truth is unheard.

Always thrown into the deep end

since the hour of my birth.

Pushed back in every time

that I try to find my worth.

The pillars of the communities

are built upon the foundation of lies.

Gardeners of instinct’s blossoms

cutting creativity down to size.

Alienation and ostracism

now replace the cracking whip.

I can feel the fingers pointing

as I leave this sinking ship.

World you should have been wonderful

humanity should sing but she cries.

I could have given you all so much

instead of becoming so hermitized.

© Paul Tristram 2009

Published in Monomyth, Volume 9.1, Issue 45, Winter 2009



Paul Tristram is a Welsh writer who has poems, short stories and sketches published in many publications around the world, he yearns to tattoo porcelain bridesmaids instead of digging empty graves for innocence at midnight, this too may pass, yet.