Moving mountains
This bed isn’t just
any bed
anymore
It’s where you rested your head yesterday afternoon,
where we made love the night before,
where we lay down;
your face buried in the crevice between
my neck and shoulder,
your hand on my chest,
where we
talked about
us;
how we met,
how we started dating,
how far we’ve come,
our future.
Now this bed isn’t just
any bed
anymore
It’s the same bed we woke up in this morning
side by side.
– Preston (16/01/2024)
This is the 7th time hearing your voice message,
you, me
side by side,
is all I can envisage.
– Preston (05/10/23)
Is-skiet ta’ qabel it-tluq
Skiet perfett
Skiet li jtarrax
– Preston (15/04/23)
I cannot bear the thought of the doctors cutting your soft, delicate skin.
You are too precious to be treated that way.
Your flesh is sacred.
– Preston (01/03/23)
Pour your heart out
into me
Let me be your vase;
a safe haven
for flowers to bloom
Flourishing beauty
Press your chest against mine,
in a loving embrace
Feel my heart beat;
it’s getting faster
as your fingertips
slowly
trace lines on my back.
– Preston (26/11/22)
I speak the language of
Music, Dance
and Football
A tongue
spoken and understood
by all.
– Preston (18/10/22)
It was the night shift at St. Mary’s Hospital.
3:00 a.m.
The lights in the Intensive Care Ward dim.
All stood still. It was so eerily quiet that the faint rhythmic bleeps of the heart rate monitors sounded like blaring fire alarms.
Nurses Patel and Ramos were on duty that evening. They sat on their chairs at the reception desk, their eyes glued to their mobile phones, their faces illuminated by the white light from the screens.
The man with the black frame glasses and charcoal grey suit came out of the medical supply room and gently closed the door behind him. He pushed his glasses up, checked the timer on his watch, and pressed the small button on the side.
Twenty seconds.
As he paced calmly down the corridor, the man cast no shadow on the mint green walls. He was the shadow. As a matter of fact, nobody even noticed him walking in half an hour ago.
And then it started.
The man was getting closer to the exit when heartrate monitors from the rooms started going haywire. As he passed Room 3, he managed to catch a glimpse of one of the patients – an elderly woman – wincing in pain as she was reaching for her plastic cup of water, toppling it over in the process. And on he kept walking.
The two nurses had only just started assessing the troubling situation on their monitors. Just then, the man in the charcoal grey suit disposed of his blue rubber gloves in one of the sanitary bins. “Good night, ladies”, he said to the nurses in a hushed voice, head lowered. And with a sly smile on his face, the man slipped out of the ICU ward.
But once again the nurses had been too engrossed and absent-minded to notice him. By then the situation had escalated severely.
It was a slow build-up to what very soon became a crescendo. Within seconds, the whole ward became a symphony of beeps and buzzes. Forte. Allegro. Treble and bass.
Patel and Ramos rushed from one room to another, from bedside to bedside, in a bid to try and save at least one life. But they just couldn’t keep up.
Meanwhile, Samael had just made his way through the hospital’s front doors, and out into the pouring rain. Put on his headphones and pressed play on his Samsung A51. Franz Liszt’s Magnificat rang gloriously in his ears. His masterpiece had been completed.
– Preston (04/08/22)
Mentally
Emotionally
Lying awake
Alert
Tide is turning
On cloud nine
No time to waste
Intrepid insomniac
No rest for the wicked
– Preston (15/06/22)
if you’re introverted;
you’re weird,
antisocial
unapproachable
a hermit
a sourpuss
depressed, dull,
grey
invalid
a pussy
and an outsider
if you’re extroverted;
you’re narcissistic,
braggadocious
arrogant
a party animal
a loudmouth
a dick
playboy
man-eater
whore
if you’re romantic;
you’re an ass-kisser,
a simp
“too gentlemanly”
too nice
too forward
overboard
if you’re kind;
you’re a people-pleaser,
an attention seeker
a fake
a snowflake
if you don’t give a shit;
you’re inhumane,
rude
uncaring
ruthless
cold-hearted
detached
insensitive
I live in a world where
you’re gonna get it
one way or another.
– Preston (20/04/22)
See. Think. Write. 