Caricature in flesh

 Ive copied them all to get a sense of self
Not a drop of myself toasting daily health
faceless baseless merry I tell you what i've heard
my gestures are well rehearsed though thoroughly absurd

they've been learnt for survival
The real fell during subsidence
like cliff rock into the sea
bread into the stew mouths of glee

Turn to the mirror briefly
just to get an ounce of relief
I don't recognise anything
A method actor lip synking

so deep into the new role
the old me vanished as a whole
got washed out like a stain through the steam
no matter how unique I really seemed

I think to myself huddled in demand
what a beautiful shell

One hundred owls

 I'm in the tree with a hundred owls
hooting the night out screeching power
fear induced entities crawl surrepticiously 
upon the forest floor

avoiding these hypefocused eyes
that survey all that moves or cries
Up here its any sign of movement
and these ones dive into the blackness

just to surface with prey in mouth
beak wet with blood spelled
something for the hungry chicks sounding 
begging for what vanished from the ground

These owls decide among living and dead
with which phantoms to converse with
close to Royalty yet supernatural nearer
The rodent shakes persecuted in terror

across the leaf littered forest wings tear
lifting the loose matter into the air
like a sea wake behind it
pitch darkness

one hundred owls speak
eye
claw
beak

Discount your anger

 Now they are friends
They used to bomb and burn our homes
Used to mock us to no end
We have been designated for the title of bigger man

To leave and let the past transgressions lie
to be akwardly polite as old offenders pass by
No knife tucked under hungering for fingers to wrap
and present for a chance at miraculous rectification

just bow your head
shrapnel still in the wall
old leaflets half stomped into the mud
still readable denigrating your people

Fire took the clumps of suburbs
instead water they sprayed more bullets
No real exit as they culled us off
Like a common pest

Like the nazi did the jew
the hutu to the tutsi
death by popular demand
we just bow our heads

praying not to be slaughtered
yet the hour has passed and now we are few
vengence occupies the space
where the heart was

The killers have denied their part
photographed themselves in handshake clasp
local blogs and rags show peace has been brokered
At the cost of people who once lived

a famous politician with support from abroad
sets it all up to repeat
As you bow your head
go about your business