Moon Child

Shaking the fantasies off her hair, o’ beautiful child of darkness,

The night croons and moans to the rhythm of day’s divinity,

Naked children running like mad hyenas to their infancy

underneath their mother beside Aphrodite’s jeweled

silver orb that turns into a woman’s face. Her kiss

is a vampire beam, the moon shines a path down

to her blonde south while she howls to the little

imps with a saint’s fury in her eyes, dancing

in the dark; she bleeds rainbow syrup

from her bra, chewing dirty pearls,

drinking cheap wine in the forest

of leather. Flee from the vamp

while she’s killing the dance,

an ancient child of past

century, a tramp

of the moon.

- a.i.a.

Ophelia's Children

We the night creatures

Our souls sing loudest in the dark

Singing to the moon for company

Let the stars in heaven wander

We alone roam this accursed earth

This soil of Gods and monsters.

Footsteps echo through lifeless art

The paintings they lose their colors

Music they play, naught but noise

Zeus’ daughters prancing for a holiday

Plucking lyres and shooting comets to ground

Eight muses now weep for their sister.

She has fallen, a mortal in her ragged woes

Swallowing starred medicines down her throat

Wishing to be an ethereal movie harlot

Alas! Her mortal form can no more contain

Her divine dreams now become her ruin

Sweet innocence lost on a first-class theater.

Ophelia giving birth to hungry new actors

They sprang forth seeking their duets

Demanding the Muses’ hands for a dance

Three sisters dressed in phantom black robes

Silently praying to cut off each string.

“We the night creatures”

“Our soul sings loudest in the night”

A hullabaloo swirls like a blending machine

Threatening to kiss each sister on the lips

Thus a play cut short before its end

But voices, whispers, heard still

Hamlet’s monologue sings a final chord.

- a.i.a. & ariff halim