Writing is not so easy
It takes up a lot of time
Especially when it’s a poem
With rules on meter and rhyme
If you happen to write one
After struggling a lot
You’re not sure who will read it
Will it be liked or not?
But if there was a robot
Who could analyse all great works
Create a similar poem
Top it with a smirk
What do you say about it?
If they take over art
Would it be a bunch of rhymes?
Or would it touch your heart?
What if I am hollow
No blood or brain in me
Everytime I bleed it’s just
A virtual reality?
What if I’m a program
Designed by some madmen
Doing as he wishes
Slave to his commands?
Am I really conscious?
Do I have a free will?
There are so many questions
But no answers still
Daniel is my friend
He is looking for some food
My father is a nuisance
So I gave him up for good
Daniel is my friend
With a large appetite
He made a meal of my sister
But I guess it is alright
Daniel is my friend
Hungry as can be
When she wasn’t looking
He gulped my mom in three
Daniel is my friend
The cops are looking for him
Neighbours must have called ’em
Hearing my brother scream
Daniel is my friend
But he’s left me here for dead
The cops just could not find him
So they arrested me instead
Daniel is my friend
But our friendship now must end
No more friend like Daniel
No more imaginary friends
In my dreams I’m falling
From thirty thousand feet
When I hear a sound calling
And my heart skips a beat
Don’t know from where it’s coming
But I know it’s meant for me
When suddenly I’m becoming
Invisible and free
All my secrets are flying
Flying away with the birds
Oh I tried screaming and crying
But I couldn’t find no words
Next, I’m swimming in an ocean
Trying to find a shore
Well I yell out in the open
All ‘cross the ocean floor
Then I wake up all sweating
My dream — what could it mean?
It’s hard to keep forgetting
It comes every Halloween
Something dark lurking
Is it my shadow
Or is it just me?
Is it a ghost of my nightmares
That haunts my sleep every night?
His slithering tongue
His daunting laugh
Terrorises my heart
As he hovers in my head
But this cannot be that ghost
This is something different
Something darker
Something more frightening
Something unknown
Is it the ghost’s shadow?
Do ghosts even cast shadows?
My best friend was seven
When he died last year
In the sea we were swimming
Then he disappeared
Now the ghost of my friend
Comes to play with me
All the folks in this town
Think I’ve gone crazy
But they can’t see what I see
They don’t understand
I don’t really blame them
They’ve never had a friend
Never had a friend with whom
They went to have a swim
Took him to the deep end
To watch the sea devour him
I like all things coloured red
Like the blood losing from your head
And your face smeared with it
As you lie cold and dead
I woke up and I saw
My grandson in my room
On the back of a clown
Riding him like a cowboy
Swinging his imaginary lasso
Ordering him to jump
Go here and then go there
He looked at me and smiled
He wanted me to cheer him
I wanted to clap for him
But I could not
I don’t know why
But I was happy
To see him happy
Until…
My grandson fell on the floor
Blood leaking from his head
The clown looked at him hysterically
He bent down and
Started licking the blood
I shrieked in terror and disgust
That’s when I realised
My hands were tied to my bed
I screamed for help
The clown got up
Looked at me and laughed
As he melted away
With his remains splattered on the floor
My daughter-in-law came rushing
I narrated her my tale
Barely able to communicate
As I sobbed profusely
She calmed me down
Said there was nothing to worry about
“There’s no blood or clown drops on the floor
You do not even have a grandson”
Last night I heard a whisper
A soft strange chilling sound
When I woke up I saw
My cell phone floating around
It looked at me and laughed
It gave me a hideous smile
I laid there quite confused
I laid still for a while
Then it came close to me
Patted me once or twice
Don’t remember much after that
It put sleep in my eyes
This morning when I awoke
The device was lying still
Just like I had left it
No life or force or will
I shrugged it off my mind
Like a dream that felt too real
Carried on with my routine
Like it was no big a deal
But it’s night time now
The horror is back it seems
I pinched myself to find
That these are no dreams
I see their eyes glow in the night
And it scares me
I can see no other light
It despairs me
…
They fly and circle, suck my blood
And it’s deadly
I can’t fight or speak a word
I lose sadly
…
Save me, someone save me please
Get me out
They’ve got me crawling on my knees
Down and out
…
Is this a dream? Am I surreal?
I hope not
All this pain just feels too real
It’s all I’ve got
Frank Solanki 