Western Voices: Don Beukes

Bio:

Don Beukes is a South African and British writer. He is the author of  'The Salamander Chronicles' (CTU) and 'Icarus Rising-Volume 1’ (ABP), an ekphrastic collection. He taught English and Geography in both South Africa and the UK. His poetry has been anthologized in numerous collections and translated into Persian, French and Albanian. He was nominated by Roxana Nastase, editor of Scarlet Leaf Review for the 'Best of the Net' in 2017 as well as the Pushcart Poetry Prize in 2016. He was published in his first SA Anthology ‘In Pursuit of Poetic Perfection’ in 2018 (Libbo Publishers).

Chrome Dreams

My nightly journey into buried memories

missed opportunities forgotten stories even

existential muted soliloquies test my very brittle

essence every liquid drowning night trying my

best not to remain frantically swimming in

unforgiven regrets, whilst searching for those who

have gone before me –

I never got the chance to say goodbye or seeking

a last earthly blessing before parting ways from

this life not knowing the day the second the moment

which could be our last, so I wake up drenched in my

regrets unable to find answers knowing that each

new day I will have to serve my earthly masters –

My chrome dream sequence becomes my self-made

hindrance to find inner lasting peace, whilst being

swept away by bottomless rivers meandering, languishing,

punishing –

I try my best to reach those who I have lost

but I just float further away from my own being

and just find myself washed up to this existence –

My inner screams are faded now as I allow

myself to accept my fate with no regrets

in cream chrome dreams...

Voices from the Shadows

You see an invisible fellow human being

hovering within the fringes of your urban

dynasty hastening your increasing daily

accusatory melancholy –

I see a lonely human being ghost walking

through a decaying failing faltering city

filled with over ambitious chosen fat

soldiers flashing gleaming dagger smiles

surviving the daily financial grind –

Unable to sustain a paper facade whilst

offering false promises turning into

inedible corporate bitter molasses –

You say your sort deserves to exist within

the upper cohort of your honey crust

man-made opportunistic exclusive resort –

I say this to you, oh what a sad fool of

your own crumbling destiny you are

for believing your own desperate toxic

rhetoric, thinking we are unable to recognise

your well-oiled smooth talking publicity

tricks, painting us as the subjects of your

latest social project freaks in need of

upliftment and social mobility, whilst

we mourn for your damaged moral compass

unable to guide you along the expected

moral highway but you welcome your

soul drowning in your hunted earthly goals

whilst our voices ring ever louder to

lift the choking muffled veil you

hoped would eternally cover us ...

Departure

Leaving – A chance opportunity can open

a door to foreign shores to explore other

worlds, different cultures, unknown

adventures and meandering opportunistic

paths – Whatever the reasons for leaving

loved ones behind and chasing an

existence of another kind, many of us

feel compelled to shut a door and open

another in a perceived forced utopia

although our actual day of departure

becomes a strange living hell disaster –

A last traditional home cooked meal

gobbled down with excitable zeal,

knowing foreign cuisine would not yield

the same satisfactory appeal – The drive

to the airport silent, contemplative and

hesitant with each step another distance

closer to a new chosen future – The

hurried sip of coffee, an extended hug,

a last tender touch, the emotion crippling

then waving goodbye through a veil of

hot salted tears past that dreadful security

wall , suddenly catapulted into a transfer

ghostly corridor forcing each step in a

dream state regret...

Arriving – A different time zone to welcome you

into the past or future as you are faced with border

control staring at you suspiciously, lifting a questioning

eyebrow due to your nationality even your foreign accent –

You instantly feel like an alien but there’s no turning back

as you open the doors to a new land in which each

face, voice, stare, sound, even the air becomes an

existential welcome nightmare...

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Western Voices :: Setu, February 2019