Spires That Touch The Sky: Poem

SPIRES THAT TOUCH THE SKY

Spires that touch the sky; the city and I.

Cities that dream near water's shore.
Watching people as they run for more.

The utter solitude of a single mind
As it struggles to grasp and rewind
To make sense of reason and season.
Ah! but in the stone of the spires
Lie more than codes and electric wires.

Once I thought I could see
Glimmers of a kind of insanity.
Meaning and seeming transformed by dreaming.
The spires replied to me:
But that is another kind of identity.

Copyright: Rani Turton

Every Woman Everywhere: Poem

Every Woman Everywhere
If only every woman at the well
Could have her pitcher filled; her needs fulfilled
The right to follow her own dream

If only could every woman who cried
Hot tears of guilt, submission or pain
Could be met with compassion

Fears of work in wild cities,
Fears, fears, tears.
Where do you go when you're alone?

Some do destiny follow
Some do lies swallow;
An idea that abandoning roles can
Change destiny since time began.

But do you want to die alone?
Do you want to survive or plead?
What paths do you want to tread?
Why do you urge other women to follow
All the lies you had to swallow?
Village women, city women
Fears, fears, tears.

Some ideas of education and roots
Like a bamboo and it's shoots;
You hear the same discourse.
It is your own idea where your freedom lies.

Freedom from hunger, freedom from strife
Does the city then have any pity?
For one, hunger because the crops have failed
And for the other, wageless, hunger
For the rents have to be paid

Pretty princess or simple maid
Every woman, everywhere.

Copyright: Rani Turton