The stone of deeds

He has searched for love out of desperation

but instead finds the bitter-sweet sluggishness

of curling flesh

in bed

it gives him hope

for that which is not there

but in the morning he rises

in this foreign country

in a hotel that’s got no front door

with an entrance

half concealed between cardboard boxes

wet concrete

dripping air conditioners

chickens being slaughtered

strange languages rising above their final calls

the warm putrid smell of an overflowing sewerage line

and life becomes unknown

a displeasing adventure of insignificance

a distant pleasure that once was like a dream

and the dark room he has been holed up in

for the last few days

hoping for love

his only reality

for some reason

it always feels like the end of the line

the end of his search

but it always turns hollow

and he knows

three days from now

he would be somewhere else

in the same kind of room

hoping for love

he walks over to the small window

tries to hide his shame from the sun

peers from behind the filthy curtain

watches the pedestrians in the narrow street below

his brain not moving with the mass of flowing humanity

he knows the sunlight sees him

and judges him on the darkness

and shape

of his shadow that falls to the floor

he lets the cigarette burn the skin off his fingers

penitence for lustful sin

behind him the unknown woman snake curls

and stirs in the bed

beneath humid sheets

she is deadlier than the highs and lows

of the meaninglessness and madness

of his licentious deeds

nightmaring through his brain

in this part of the world

there is a rumour

that a great stone is circling the Earth

orbiting lower than the moon

and all the evil deeds of men rise into the sky

latching onto that stone

that’s why it’s always growing bigger

soon it will be too heavy to stay aloft

and will come crashing down on humanity

good and bad will die

the Earth will breath

and out there somewhere

will be a new mountain range

and a new beginning

and they say

if one steps onto the clouds

and gaze out into the distance

one only needs count the mountain ranges

to comprehend the true extent of humanity’s deeds

and the true number

of new beginnings

she moans and stirs behind him again

Cantonese women are like that

stirring

he knows she will leave soon

and he will not see her again

for he had hoped for love

but instead traded it

for depravity

and he turns his eyes away from her

only to gaze upwards

upon that stone

in the sky

Conrad Kruger van den Bergh (Copyright, 2016)