Green and Pleasant Land

By Randy Ai

I sit at the hills of Jerusalem –

A city united by its rooftops but divided by its people

A place where the walls wail,

The domes are made of gold,

And the sepulchres house the resurrected

It is a city of too many fantasies

But not enough real estate.

A city of treasure and blood

That has changed hands

Like the plaything of a skilled moneychanger

As I drink my evening tea

And eat my olives

I can hear in the distance

The lullaby of bombs bursting in air

A new volley of missiles

Excite the air raid sirens

While men and women in uniform

Scramble to take cover

The night sky above the Old City

Becomes a lightshow of firecrackers

Yet I continue to dine undeterred

As the soil beneath my feet is fertile

And blessed by God

Jews, Christians, and Muslims:

All the children of Abraham

Have planted flowers here.

And in the ignorance of night

All have raided the gardens of their neighbours

The Haunting

By Randy Ai

PART I

He is haunted by her image

His supermodel ex-girlfriend

Born at a time when

Goddesses still walked the earth

She is now more beautiful than ever

Her photos seem so new and fresh

They taunt him

And quietly enter his dreams

Once again she has become his fantasy girl –

The girl to admire from afar

The one in all the magazines

And beyond the reach of mortal men

He watches as she grows older

Embarking on adventures without him

And dating other men

As her life replays again in his mind

PART II

His memories of her

Are manipulated to fit his needs

He has melted away her cold demeanour

And in his imagination

He has given her a personality

That she never possessed

They play together, travel, and

Walk side by side, holding hands

They are free to make love

As they should have done

Finally he can truly enjoy her body

(For the very first time)

Having spent the better half of two years

Dating a manikin

He thinks himself satisfied

To have replaced her neurotic bedroom antics

And sexual apathy

With something more palatable

In truth, she often annoyed him

She would complain like a little girl

Be demanding and callous

Pout and be impenetrable

He loved her nonetheless

Little girl and all

She was still his girlfriend

Despite being made of ice

PART III

The colony is lost –

The jewel in the empire’s crown

Ignited in the flames of independence

And drifted away

Without her, the centre cannot hold

And the empire is collapsed

The greatest conquest of our time

Becomes but faded history

The ruins of this great nation

Are now scattered in all directions

With no champion to hold

These peoples together

We cobble together the pieces

Whatever that is left

Holding them tightly in our hands

Looking aimlessly westward

Book of Revelation

By Randy Ai

Every night I see visions of Dow Jones
The fire in my eyes burn like
Little red and white candlesticks
That move up and down
Scorching the sky with morning stars and evening stars
Supporting my hopes like a shooting star
Blazing passed all resistance

Soon the entire sky is set ablaze
Clouds turn blood-red with flames
The angels claw for breath
Their trumpets blaring
Warning the world that the end is near

And when all life on earth
Is vanquished beyond a trace
One lone serpent slithers His way to Bethlehem
His long two-dimensional body
Forming peaks and valleys as he moves

Finally he ascends to heaven
His body raining gold coins down onto the world
If any of the village children were still alive
They could gather and collect the trickles
In their baskets

Driving on a snowy evening

by Randy Ai

A family man sits alone in the driver's seat.
His anger simmering. His eyes are crazed.
His pride shaken by the burden of debt.
His savings stolen by the banks and insurance companies
Leaving him with only the bitter aftertaste of betrayal.
The winds of the unforgiving world howl.
His hands grip the steering wheel of a car that he can no longer afford.
He knows that faceless men will soon come and take away all that is dear to him.
His house will be sold to the highest bidder.
His family will be broken.
His life will be shattered.
He holds on to his former life... for one last second before the plunge.

His preparations have been meticulous.
The front bumper of his car fitted with blades and saws
Sharp enough to tear through flesh and bone.

The engine roars as he presses his foot deeply against the accelerator.
The car races forward in one last suicidal charge into the heart of the City's financial district.
Men and women in suits look on in horror, as he rams into them and tears them apart.

More than a dozen bankers and insurance agents lie dead
Before the police finally shoot him.

His funeral is held in a small park at the edge of the City
Quietly tucked away from the much larger funeral held for his victims.
Afterwards, his family files a claim
Under his policy of insurance.
They successfully collect on his life insurance.
They also make a claim for damages to his car.

Beloved

by Randy Ai

My pain is a lonely child
Left alone in the street
Crying for attention
Upon the first drops of rain

I struggle to ignore him
Walk away, and live life
Find happiness in love
And find hope in the puddles

But even as I am brave
His soft eyes beckon me;
My beloved lures me
As he craves my every touch

Suddenly, his hands grab me
Refusing to let go
Scorching my exposed body
And poaching my will to live

His set of pale, hungry teeth
So piercing and merciless
Sinks deeply into me
As though my flesh was his feast

“Child, you are all grown up now!”
I scream out in despair,
“Leave your only father
To die alone in his peace”

He looks at me in pity
But his teeth sink deeper
Not enough to kill me
So that soon he can eat again

Music

By Randy Ai

Her body is a beautiful playground

A sheet of music in the wind

And a blueprint for a symphony

He who wrote this music

Must have taken pains to scribe every single note

Waiting patiently for the day

That silence would turn to sound

She is inked with the combined memory

Of our collective and ancient history

The tiny neural pathways

Giving rise to the sensation of flesh

My fingers dance across the notes

Indulging in fast staccatos, and slow arpeggios

I play entire stanzas with the fury of a genius

Pushing her harder towards a cadence

I have become both conductor and musician

Master and magician

Vying for complete command

Of the instrument of my desire

Yet despite my power, I merely interpret the music

And cannot write it

I have no input in the process of composition

That began millennia ago

At times, in the middle of the night

She teases me by calling me an aspiring composer

And informs me that I worry too much

And as she lies there breathless

With my ears placed against her chest

Listening to the tempo of her heart beat

She reminds me that there is still beauty

In playing someone else’s music –

So perfectly

Awakening

By Randy Ai

(February 3, 2013)

In my dreams I will awake

Awake three times before I die

And awake once more before the rise

Of the bread of Jesus Christ

In my dreams I travel far

From the beaches of my youth

Into worlds not heard by time

Or the sunsets passing by

Flying above the chimney tops

Over mountains, trees, and frozen thoughts

Through glass walls of sharp debris

That shatter and cut into me

Although I fell three times before

A wingless bird will fall once more

Into hell and deeper still

Into caverns borne by ill

But as I die I will awake

My dreams will blur the real from fake

And in the comfort of my bed

I will not know if I am dead