City of Dreadful Night

Bodies sweat in the heaving crowd:
Hunger, anger, anxiety, thirst
Mixing with smoke, diesel and dust,
Stranded commuters curse aloud.
The night surrounds them like a shroud
Their day like all the others cursed
Their ambitions eaten by rust
Stuck in a jam, their heads are bowed.

*
Microwaved food, conditioned air,
Cold water and LCD screens:
Building a personal paradise
In a suburban nameless lair
I make for myself pleasant scenes
and dream on till the sun shall rise.

(a-b-b-a-a-b-b-a c-d-e-c-d-e)

Fat, bald and sonneteering

I'm fat, bald and sonneteering,
Confused, half-bewildered fool,
With love's games you're engineering
My naivete as your tool.

My dandruff does not bother you.
You loudly claim indifference
To my moustache and tummy too.
For looks you claim no reverence.

But you do stare at shampoo ads,
At supermodels' six-pack abs;
You follow all new hairstyle fads
And miss no chance for elbow jabs.

So do I trust your words or eyes,
For what is truth and which are lies?

(a-b-a-b c-d-c-d e-f-e-f g-g)