A night in Shanghai

One night in Shanghai, we (journalist friends from India, US, Taiwan and the Philippines) stumbled upon a place called Xintiandi. There was a bar called Luna, where a rock band from Manila was playing. I scribbled these lines after that visit. That was probably five years ago?

In Shanghai’s nights
They found Xintiandi
Lurking in the shadows—
A walker in a dark alley?
Is she a Babylon
In the belly of the dragon
Or an oasis, in a desert
Worshipping mammon?
From the monsoon winds
We came through Luna’s lair
Where a priestess asserts her will
Through melodies from hell.
To the whining strings
She writhes and screams,
While the drunken throng cries
Like damned souls in flames.
To the thunder of the drums
They curse and dance;
Through the songs’ violence
Their purge their shame.

At the coffee shop

Just another crazy poem, hehe... Sometimes you can't help but see scenes like this.


Her lush ebony strands of hair,
Stream down like lingering lust
Over a tight frame caressed by summer.
Her piercing eyes burn like ember,
Her rippling flesh struggles
Against tank tops and barbarians’ trousers—
White silken, flowing garments,
As thin as heathens' prayers.
She’s a bewitching happy face;
Like a mermaid’s midnight song.
An angel from the heavens,
In a sinner's thong.

The Lilith

We all write crazy poems and I do wrote mine. In fact, I do it all the time just for the heck of it. Creative expression? Angst? Whatever. You may read it if you have time to waste. Ha ha!

The lilith crept up my nightmares
Through a narrow bridge unlit.
She came in drifting
Like a ghost from Innana's lair,
A beguiling striptease in the wind
Sweeping across the rugged hills,
An earthly lover in ghostly realm.

But like the morning mist,
She slips through my claws
As the roosters break the dawn.
With a temptress' smile she fades away
From the last strands of darkness
To escape the warmth of day.

Because she is a lilith
From the twilight of history,
A tormentor of ruthless hunters,
Who comes dressed as Ishtar's daugther,
She slips stealthily into the night
To posses men's hopes and dreams,
Across a heartless bridge unlit.