A Tailor’s Tale

March 15, 2023
by Sharran 'Tom' Thomas
comments 2
LGBT / Poetry / White

Mending one’s britches, not a problem in sight.
Happy to create, always hoping for the light,
To present to another their “something new”,
Things once created, must be bid adieu.

Happy to love, and happy to give,
Until giving gave up,
Nary a reason to live–

A bleak reaction,
To a bleak crime. 

Summer came, and then came fall,
Chilling to the bone, 
When winter’s call,
Presented me Temperance,
Humility, and Joy,
For this tailor met another–
Broken boy.

A man with charm, grace, and poise.
Riding in to save me from a world filled with noise.
Music, ethereal, from a siren at sea,
Brought us closer together, and set us free.

Paris, Greece, Bern, and my heart,
A home you built, that we would never depart.
Memories fill vessels made of tears and laughs,
Bonded together from our fingers to our hearts.

Loving felt right,
From a man who made me see,
That life’s great mystery,
Was laid before my feet.

Love isn’t a number, 
Not a place, nor a high,
Love is forever, 
a sweet sacrifice.

Apart, but together,
In arms that gave me warmth,
Some comfort in your heart, 
I hope I’ve adorned.

Through the good and the bad,
I’ll forever be your man,
I’ll forever hold you close,
I’ll forever reminisce,
In this life, and the next,
I promise–
I’ll never forget this.

In moments of sadness, I look back at our time together, and wish it went on forever, and yet, it cannot be. That, to me, makes what we had so much more special. A fleeting drop in the eye of the cosmos, forever seen, and never forgotten. You will always have me, and I you. We are forever, Me and You.

Love,
Oonzlie

Pink-Red-Blue

February 28, 2020
by Sharran 'Tom' Thomas
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LGBT / Poetry / White

I understand now why naked trees sway the way they do,
alone in cold or heat,
when the leaves that promised so much colour,
float away when autumn comes to feast.

I understand now why lonely doves,
fly the seven seas,
to sigh, and rest so gently when,
their time has come to cease.

I know now why you left me here,
I know now why I cry,
but what eludes me more than this,
is why I could never get you to try.

The roads that brought us here were long,
though time kindly rejects,
and though the bridges we had built have burned,
your form I shan’t forget.

Hear me, when our song plays aloud–
the chorus of which will scream,
that it can’t believe the way we flowed;
know that this feels but like a dream.

I had the opportunity robbed of me,
and now that most of what we were has come to pass,
I’ll say that I hold only one thing close to me,
your sleepy eyes; your careful mouth–
broken too soon was this tie.

I had no idea that I was waiting on you,
but alas, it matters not now,
because at this juncture,
we’re two of two,
no longer one of one.

This Hard Rock Bottom, I Will Survive

July 29, 2019
by Sharran 'Tom' Thomas
comments 2
Self-help / Shorts

If ever you find yourself in a place of non-power, where the odds seem infinitely stacked against you, and where the last of your will power seems to have left your body, know this;

“In your suffering, and in your failure, there lies a seed of great success, the kind that shapes an extraordinary human being, and one that anecdotes quote, and space and time will not forget, and in this knowledge, also know that the road is beaten, and the road is long, but success is yours if you fight the fight today, and keep marching ever forward.”

Your failures don’t define you, but in a way, they do. Your failures have borne witness to the triumph of your spirit, and the bravery of your heart. There is no definition of human capability that would hold true if it did not account for a point of failure in one’s life; for although failure isn’t supposed to define us, in a way, it does.

“Be sure to take a step today, toward your hopes and dreams,
For although the world you know has stopped,
A step will start the spinning once more,
A step today, another tomorrow,
And before you know it, your world’s back on track.
So, before another thought of dismay,
Crosses your pacing mind,
Take a step.
Just one.”

Our understanding of loss, pride, and self-worth come from a narrow vantage point that places us in the centre of our universe. Placing ourselves in such positions of high regard automatically bring with it expectations, and the need to be the best. It is for this reason that we often feel disheartened when we haven’t achieved societal standards of good or great. Understand that if tomorrow you were to lose a job, a marriage, a personal battle, etc. the universe will continue, time will move, people will age, and that loss will slip away amidst the sands of time. Nothing is infinite, no pain, no loss, nothing. This understanding is needed to realize the small speck we occupy in an otherwise grand design, and we must, in this speck, try to live; truly live, only to grow as a human, irrespective of the standards of greatness set by society. Recognising our own mortality, and gaining strength from such a realisation is our biggest strength, as a species.

Strength is often described as a measure of one’s courage;
Of their ability to power through situations of bleak defeat,
Or how much they’re willing to take before they give in.
Let me realign your understanding of that strength.
That strength is willpower,
It allows one to tap into the strength of their spirit,
To try and will oneself out of a slump, emotional or otherwise. 

However, true strength of the spirit, is the resilience of one’s vessel,
The kindness and love, that allows one to navigate the worst storms,
And still wear a smile at the end of it all,
That is true strength.
To understand the futility in holding on to destructive emotions,
And the capability to breathe when the air gets heavy,
Knowing that the air is just that, and it will not hurt you.

So much of our understanding of what life is, or is supposed to be, stems from our misunderstanding of who we are and what place we occupy in a world of ember and ash.

There is so much to this that we do not see, so much that we cannot comprehend, but therein lies the problem, because our blindness is self-brought, it exists and thrives on our inability to see beyond ourselves, and our inexplicable need to see ourselves as all-deserving of the good, and non-deserving of the bad, not realizing that there is such a thing as balance.

They Too Shall Pass

May 6, 2019
by Sharran 'Tom' Thomas
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Black / Mind Matter / Poetry / Shorts

This moment,
these joys,
your eyes,
even the curtains that separate the different acts of my life,
they too shall pass,
shall turn to dust and nothingness;
for they too shall die,
with me.

I question the validity of pain–
on the hills of reminiscence,
Looking back at my wayward life,
and all the battles I fought in vain.
Those with myself, and those with my brothers,
Those with God, and all the others.

I question the reason in living–
on the plains of endless loss,
considering all the lives that were,
and all that may come to be.
I see them rise and fall like me,
a few droplets in the sea,
born at loss, who fight for loss,
nevermore to live so free.

I question the permanence of death–
in the sea of spiritual knowledge,
and whether the land we move to, in death,
is leased to us, if only for some time,
and whether once forgotten, we are recast,
into this world again,
to make the same mistakes,
only with different faces,
to live this life again.

But I know that thoughts,
are thoughts of thoughts,
and soon,
they too shall pass.

Lessons For My Child

December 3, 2018
by Sharran 'Tom' Thomas
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Shorts

There is so much that I cannot teach you.
There is so much that you must go through alone.
The world is good, but it is not entirely so.
There are people who seek to harm you.
Not for any fault of yours,
But due to faults of their own.
Not everyone is like this.
Not everyone navigates through the wrongs alone.
However, be aware, that they will present themselves to you.
As wolves in sheepskin, they will offer themselves to you–
In friendship, or in love.
You must be wary of these persons,
For friendship is not what they offer, and love is not theirs to give.
Be wary, young child. Be wary.

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Ten Feet of Earth

November 27, 2018
by Sharran 'Tom' Thomas
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Black / Poetry

Ten feet of Earth,
we are known to inherit–

One belonging to our past, and all of its lessons;
of all those who lived before us,
who tell us their tale–
morbid, black thunder,
from beyond their grave.

Two for ourselves, and all that we’re worth,
all that we’ve gathered,
and brought to this Earth;
all the hate that we’ve spewed,
and the lies we have said,
to all those we have loved,
who now lay dead.

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Big City

November 23, 2018
by Sharran 'Tom' Thomas
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Poetry

Big city,
your bright nova’s shining.
What dreams can you not make true?
I can’t imagine the number of dreams that were brought to you.

Where, pray tell, are those dreamers now?
sprawled in mansions along your vistas?
or lost amidst sidewalks too poor to fix-up?
Where, pray tell, have their dreams then gone?

I reckon one day, I’ll come to your keep,
and offer my penance, and my dreams, so meek–
and tell you a tale, of whence I have come,
and hope that you’ll see me a befitting son.

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Ballad Of A Painting

November 21, 2018
by Sharran 'Tom' Thomas
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LGBT / Poetry / White

Painted in shades of grey,
he was raised within a wooden frame–
that did no justice,
to his imprisoned grace.

Thus, from his cage
of grey, he rose,
to paint himself in shades of white,
and raise himself outside the frame,
that had so unjustly held him down.

As he moved through the world outside,
that always peered in,
he brushed himself in teals and pinks,
till there was no grey upon his skin.

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Her Highness, Sadness

November 18, 2018
by Sharran 'Tom' Thomas
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Shorts / White

On a balmy spring afternoon, he sat there on the floor, with flushed cheeks that carried rivulets of warm salty tears down its length. His raven-black hair stuck out amidst the library walls; walls that were no stranger to this boy, for after all, they had seen him grow to the age that he was now. He sat picking away at a rather obscure thought, one that had been discussed, and dissected over the eons, one that did not, however, had not been answered to his fancy.

Sadness is the purest emotion.
When sadness ascends the frame of your body, and takes over the planes of your mind,
you pay no heed to where you are, or who you’re with–
the emotion takes the reigns.

 You could be a man of much self-assured hubris,
and yet, when sadness sings her tune, you care not where you are–
Looking at the blood reports, on a crowded hospital floor, confirming your worst fear,
Receiving a call during a Diplomat’s dinner, notifying you that your best friend has died.

No, not even the most proud and unshaken can silence sadness when she calls.
We are slaves to a Queen who ruled much before man,
who has seen more death, and fed more pain than we would ever know. 

Sadness is the purest emotion,
for purity stems from a place of force,
a place of non-escape.
Where all are equal,
in one way or the next.

Flushed cheeks, pulsating against the rivulets that have now run dry; the ones that have now begun to pull at his skin. He cried, not because he pondered about sadness itself, but because the reflections it brought were far from happy. Reflections, like crystal rain, where within each drop he could see the sadness of his life, the truth in his thoughts, and the sheer weight of this dark reminiscence that kept him rooted to the spot, unable to wince, or think of another, for when the Queen spoke, she demanded all attention, and all attention she received.

And thus, upon once barren land, along grooves etched by forced rain, erupted more warm, salty rivulets.

A Comparative Analysis Of You And My Body

November 16, 2018
by Sharran 'Tom' Thomas
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Mind Matter / White

It’s almost the end of 2018, and I still think about you. I Still think about your hands, my hips, and your warmth.

I still fantasise about us together; and you have no idea how hard the reality of today with respect to that, confuses me. Because I fantasise about the idea of you, more than you as a person; the idea of someone who would be perfect for me.

I’m finally able to say it. Our relationship –as two human beings existing, but for a moment– granted me so much happiness, and allowed me so much contentment. It didn’t shake me to the thought that I was in love with the man that you could be, and not the boy that you were. It helped ease my mind into not questioning it. I should have; in retrospect, I should have– because, given some foresight, I would have recognised how I was channeling my need for a perfect future, a stable future, with someone I cared about– onto your broad, yet fragile shoulders.

Maybe if I did question it, your eventual departure, and sudden withdrawal would have bothered me much less, and maybe then, I’d have sooner understood that what I felt for you was but a fleeting emotion that I attest to the spirits of all those who I felt romantic love toward; all of my valentines in blue, who have vanished without a trace, all the ones that till this  moment of clarity, remained elusive enigmas in the woods of my mind.

Maybe if I questioned it more, or gave it more thought, it wouldn’t be that every space I look to, in the name of love, I would have to see your face, or hear your voice, or smell your scent. Maybe then I’d allow myself relief, and solace, in the knowledge that our love was short-lived, but not fake. But since I did not, I sit here writing, in the atmosphere of yet another song that reminds me of you, and rainfall that takes me back to us; but this time, in reminiscence rather than fantasy.

And now that I have written, in prose loosely suggesting your impact on my being, I feel full again; as though I have washed in incense and elderflower, your scent from my body, and your mark from my spirit.

The first rains are supposed to be cleansing–
you poured down onto my body, like a monsoon cloud burdened with rain,
but whilst you shared your bounty,
you flooded yourself out.

I can tell when we began,
and now I say that we have ended.
How glorious that is.

Thank you.