Naked I waited under the painted sky
Immobilized by the questions of what when and why
My eyes dancing naked in the sacred rain
Mouth wide open drinking your warm champagne
Fated to watch the naked door
No one comes here anymore

Whatever the blessing or the burden,
the skin of stone or the stone of skin,
centuries of memories buried within.
reminding us where we have been:
the light catching the reflection of rain on a cobbled street,
the infinite horizon where heaven and spires meet,
a kiss of sunlight gilding off the dome of a duomo,
clouds caressing castles putting on a show,
concealing and revealing in equal measure,
the treasure of pleasure, now and forever,
the waft of coffee in the morning air,
the worn-out, uneven, endless stairs,
the perfection of the piazzas in the moonlight,
the shades and nuances of the night,
the black and white of everything we have known,
the colours of Rome. Nausher Nash

All the cobbled streets I once did roam
The sacred places my soul called home
That night at the Pantheon
I walked the light and laughed alone

Whatever we do, do what we must
The blue bus is calling us
Mirrors to ashes, skin to dust
Chronos always outruns us

I had this thought, this lesson taught
that all the pages I have turned
that all the pages that turned me
will still be here long after I have turned the key
that other arts and other hearts will feel the fire and the flood
and traces of these pages will linger on in their blood—Nausher Nash

Praise and blame are the same
Win or lose, it’s a crying game,
You are satiated, you are starving
You are rising, you are falling,
Here you are on a blue mountain
Halfway up, halfway down,
Stranded and exiled, looking out to sea
Holding onto misplaced gods
And what you might have been,
On the sands of time you waited
Nothing remembered, nothing regretted,
Arches to ashes, doors to dust
Blood resembles the colour of rust-Nausher Nash

Why Photograph Cathedrals?
These are our symbols and our symptoms, the flesh of our culture, the skin of stone. I want simply to save them. I want to photograph the disappearing past – but even as i do i feel it slipping like sand through my fingers. We tend while living here and now to only perceive what is blanched and bleached, random, and barren. While we regret that the present is not like the past and despair of its becoming the future, its inscrutable habits lie waiting for their meaning, and die undiscovered. I want to gather them in my hands because they will have been so beautiful. They are the proof that something was there and no longer is. And the stillness of them is boggling. We turn away but when we come back they are still there looking at you. But they are not. The waters have moved on, and cathedrals have become cafes. You can’t win because when you do you have so much to lose. Nausher.

I had this thought
that all the pages I have turned
that all the pages that turned me
will still be here long after the fire and flood
that other eyes and other hearts will see and feel the words I felt
and the pages now ashes will linger on in their blood-Nausher

Praise and blame are the same
Win or lose, its a crying game
You are satiated, you are starving
You are rising, you are falling
Here you are on a blue mountain
Halfway up, halfway down
Stranded and exiled, looking out to sea
Holding onto misplaced gods
And what you might have been
On the sands of time you waited
Nothing remembered, nothing regretted
Arches to ashes, doors to dust
Blood resembles the colour of rust-Nausher Nash

I know it’s true because I saw it in the news
Yes yes there are so many other views
But I know what I saw because I saw it in the news
I know I’m right, I win you lose
I know best because I follow all the clues
It has to be true because I saw it in the news
I’ve done my research, I’ve googled all the cues
I know it happened- it was in the news
I choose what i believe and I believe what I choose
I choose only the facts that I saw in the news.

in the beginning was the word
the hand I was dealt
the ground on which i stood
i was maimed for it.
in the ending was the word
the deepest hurt I felt
when I tried to do good
i was blamed for it – N

Your past is an illusion, a trick of your memory,
Your future is an illusion, a trick of your dreams,
Your mirror is a silver storm of confusion,
Nothing is as it seems.
You are a dancer among prancers, a poet among fools,
You’re the royalty of mayhem in a world that has no rules.

• Nausher Nash

Don’t kid yourself, darling, we’ve seen you before
you come up every generation to ‘reset’ and ‘restore’
you were the baying mob as Joan of Arc burned
you chanted death as Pontus Pilate turned
you rejoiced as the semites were taken away
you did nothing when Lincoln and Martin were slayed
you watched as Gandhi was shot to the ground
what did you do when Rabin was downed
don’t kid yourself, darling, we know who you are
nobody cares to read your memoir
my plane is boarding and I hear the engines roar
I’m feeling my heart soaring like before
hearing the bells outside my cell
feeling the freedom they foretell
goodbye darlings, it’s been nice
to each their own paradise
go someplace else and beat your drum
just because I’m beautiful doesn’t mean I’m dumb – Nausher Nash – Nash

the decay of the heart and the heartbreak of decay
what do we pray for, to whom do we pray
did a glance in the mirror take our breath away
for those we forgot and those we forgave
the ebb of tides, the wrath of waves
until we find beauty we will always be slaves

there is a waft of Chanel in the air
the room is bare and you aren’t there
I see a flash of fabric, a shimmer of skin
i feel the burn somewhere within
I hold the doors to the night ajar
I feel the cold of the northern star
I bottle the memory of your scent inside
To remind me what’s true, what’s lies
In the end it is all just a speck in my eye
I just want to take a moment to say goodbye
I know I made a mistake coming here again
I remind myself of what, where and when
In a dream and a prophecy, barely a trace of that place in me
I look in the mirror and all I see, the ebb and flow of memory – NausherNash

You live in that space between your head and your face
Where dreams are lived and memories are erased
Halfway up, halfway down between conqueror and clown
Between stars and scars, cigarettes and memoirs
Between fear and fate, all you do is wait
Between truth and lullabies, what you love and dispise
It doesn’t matter what you say, It’s the price you’ll have to pay
You’re a universe apart though you are inches away

You are stranded on a blue mountain
Between beauty and pain
Looking up and kneeling
Burning in the rain
Sometimes you wish you could fly
but where can you go
Where can you hide
so your shadow wont find you
Everything you are fleeing
is right here inside you – Nash Nausher

I don’t know what the year's teaching me 
I'm not taking my wings for granted
Cover your face if you want but stop  preaching me
My plane is waiting and soon departed
I'm hearing its jet engines roar
Feeling my heart soaring like before
Hearing the bells outside my cell
Feeling the freedom they foretell
Goodbye darlings, it’s been nice
To each their own paradise  - Nash

I don’t know which way the wind is blowing
I march to the beat of my own drum
If l want to know where I’m going
I look back to where I came from
If there is one thing I’ve learned it is this
If it’s not in frame it does not exist

There was so much I wanted to ask
So much I wanted to say
But somehow I knew there wasn’t time
And even if I could stay
Somehow, it was all
Beside the point anyway
I walk into the light
Staring blind wrong from right
Sweating palms clutch a shadows hand
I only survive because I dont understand
The wind carries voices but theres nobody there
The bush is burning but the mountain is bare
I see myself sitting naked on the sand
A promise and a prophesy in each hand
I mirror a mirage moving alone
I call out but it is gone
A ripple of gasps from behind a curtain
I part them only to enter oblivion
-Nausher

All the words we said, all the poetry we read
The hearts we fed and the hearts we bled
Did they mean nothing
Did they mean nothing
Did we watch the flicker of shadows crawl
Trace our smiles on the crumbling wall
Did they mean nothing
Did they mean nothing
Did we lie naked under the bitter moon
Alone with our hands in an empty room
Did they mean nothing
Did they mean nothing
Did the smoke kissing our lips say goodbye
Watch memory fade with our sigh
Did they mean nothing
Did they mean nothing – nausher nash

The light wraps you in a halo of sensuality
Shadows softly smudge the edges of reality
The sweet smoke kisses your lips and says its goodbyes
I watch your memory branded on my skin and in my eyes
But we knew the night would pass
The love we lived could never last
Reflections blurred by shadows past
Silhouettes will still roam free
Beauty for a day, or a day of eternity – Nausher Nash

I have been walking a straight line
Searching for what is mine
Looking over my shoulder
Searching for the soul in sculpture
I sit and wait for tomorrow
To remove the mask that I borrowed
An ear to the ground, my lips to your ear
It is not over yet but it’s getting near
Through the sandglass and into the sea
I’m waiting for the waves to bring myself back to me

the touch of fingers and the patterns they trace
the perfume of passion
the bone crushing embrace
the drumbeat of your heart
fingerprints every secret place
desire soaks muscle memory
pours fuel on your blaze
I read the braille of your beauty
I read the poetry in your face
it speaks of lives you have loved
and memories you’ve erased

• N

All the words we said, all the poetry we read
The hearts we fed and the hearts we bled
Did they mean nothing
Did they mean nothing
Did you watch the flicker of shadows crawl
Trace your smile on the crumbling wall
Lay naked under your bitter moon
Alone with your hand in your empty room
Did you come alone, did you go or stay
Hear today, here today

Your past is an illusion, a trick of your memory
Your future an illusion, a trick of your dreams
Your mirror is a silver storm of confusion
Nothing is as it seems

You are stranded on a blue mountain
Between beauty and pain
Looking up and kneeling
Burning in the rain

Walking down your haunted ground
You see the people you used to be
The selves you lost and the selves you found
The ghost of you mirrored in eternity – Nash Nausher

Guided by stars, maimed by a touch
Looking through bars have you seen too much
You’re running down the track
The night burning down your back
You follow the ghost of you
And your ghost will follow you
For those you burnt and those you forgave
Too late you’ve learnt you’re only a slave
Blinded by truth, enlightened by a lie
The die is cast in the blink of an eye

Sometimes I wish I could fly
but where can I go
Where can I hide
so my shadow wont find me
Everything I am fleeing
is right here inside me
There is a lover in my head
dancing naked in the rain
Your mind is clear she said
but your soul is insane- Nausher Nash

The night caresses
secrets in a dream
speaking of promises unspoken
The highway opens out to the wind
of the morning sun and nothing recalled
will ever be forgotten
Tender warmth
at the end of a cigarette
How can smoke put out a fire
How can there be questions to some answers
All definitions lost
in the black light forever
Ecstasy is as easy as pain
is as easy as ecstasy-
Nausher

You’ve been faulted and you’ve been feted
You’ve been excluded you’ve been exalted
When seeking the sacred always be naked
You dance with an angel, walk with a ghost
All versions of you end at the goalpost
Is it the sound of a shutter, the drum of a heart beat
Is it heaven above or the ground beneath your feet
You look up to the skies
And this is your prayer
The power of beauty
The beauty of power – Nausher

Your past is an illusion, a trick of your memory
Your future an illusion, a trick of your dreams
Your mirror is a silver storm of confusion
Nothing is as it seems

You are stranded on a blue mountain
Between beauty and pain
Looking up and kneeling
Burning in the rain

Walking down your haunted ground
You come across the people you used to be
The selves you lost and the selves you found
The ghost of you mirrored in eternity – Nash Nausher

There is so much poetry in your beautiful face
Speaking of lives you have loved
And memories you’ve erased

You look at your reflection, and there is nobody there
The empty heart, the hollow stare
People who come, and ghosts who go
You are the one you miss the most
Your fingers clutch your shadows hand
You only survive because you don’t understand
The wind carries voices but there’s nobody there
The bush is burning but the mountain is bare
Did the looking glass
look back at you in wonder,
Did you look through a mask
only to see a stranger – Nash Nausher

I am a dove descending
from the heaven to the ocean bed
I am the voice singing
silent in this wilderness of red
here i am on the blue mountain
halfway up, halfway down
stranded and exiled, looking out to sea
holding onto misplaced gods
and what i might have been
I reap what I sow
it comes and goes with a nod and a wink
but of all the ones who come
and all the ones who go
I miss myself the most I think- Nausher

you look at your reflection, and there is nobody there
the empty heart, the hollow stare
people who come, and ghosts who go
you are the one you miss the most

I hope I always love you darling
Because things change so fast
When I look at you I see sand whispering in the hour glass
I see the colour in your eyes change as the hours pass
You are a renaissance painting
In a light that’s fading
There is a hole in your heart
And you’ve filled it with art
I look in the mirror and all I see
Your eyes looking back at me – Nash Nausher

I hope I always love you darling
Because things change so fast
You inspire the images in my mind
And the words in my heart
But in the blink of an eye the feeling is gone
I sit and watch bygones be bygones
I’ve seen beauty and I’ve watched decay
I’ve heard the silence after the hurray
I’ve seen the indifference in their eyes
I’ve learnt the truth through their lies
I’ve touched the apple on the proverbial tree
I’ve felt the chains even when I was free
I look in the mirror and all I see
your eyes looking back at me

Don’t kid yourself, darling, we’ve seen you before
you come up every generation to ‘reset’ and ‘restore’
you were the baying mob as Joan of Arc burned
you chanted death as Pontus Pilate turned
you rejoiced as the semites were taken away
you did nothing when Lincoln and Martin were slayed
you watched as Gandhi was shot to the ground
what did you do when Rabin was downed
don’t kid yourself, darling, we know who you are
nobody cares to read your memoir
we know how it plays out, your life and your death
living behind masks, fainting from your rancid breath
frothing your opinions about infections and elections
spare me, please., your pompous impressions
there isn’t an original thought in your woke head
you are just about as awake as you are dead
you know everything there is to know
because google and cnn told you so
go someplace else and beat your drum
just because I’m beautiful doesn’t mean I’m dumb – Nausher Nash

I see you – the sagging skin and desperate lies
The average made lethal in the dead stare of a million eyes
It never stops, it will never stop, I’m no longer waiting for the penny to drop
I was searching for some beauty and some grace- something to wash out this fetid space
I follow the taillights in the sky
Starting and ending with a sigh
Fading down corridors into another world
Away from the trivial the babble the trash they hurled
i feel the warm breath of a stormy sea
Hear waves ebb and flow deep inside of me
Feel its heart beating like it is my own
They will still be here long after I am gone
A soul at peace in a world of violence
And the sower will sow the word
And the word will be silence – Nash Nausher

Let this be my ashes blowing in the wind

My epitaph, my prologue, my beginning, my end

I cannot find the door though I have the key

Crossing the rubicon on my way to the sea

Naked now my skin is crawling

I sit in my bones looking out from the hill

Face pressed against the window

The snow is melting and the earth is still – Nausher Nash

The house on the rock, the writing on the wall
Give me back my secrets before I fall
Inside of me, in spite of me
Only your lies will set me free

The wound I wear, look back and stare
Nobody cares darling, nobody cares
Fragile as glass, as reflections in glass
Put on your happy face and let it pass

Listen to the sound of the hourglass flow
Listen to the sound of your shadow
It doesn’t matter what you see or say
Thank you for coming but you cannot stay

Riding the elevator, lights going dim

I saw your reflection coming in

Light playing with fabric and skin

The scent of your Chanel hanging

You step out and leave me standing

The memory of your reflection calling

The perfume, the fabric, and the skin

I bottle the memory burning within

To remind me of what might have been

you were the most beautiful person in the world I knew
and, for a while, walking with you, I felt beautiful too
but then one night in the harsh light, I saw the lie in your eye
I suddenly realized who I’d idolized and watched the halo around you die
i watched the chains wash away in the biblical rain
try as i might I could never feel the same way for you again – Nash Nausher

What do you think you will do for the next 40 years
when your face looks like a cobweb and you’ve dried up your tears
When no one gives you a second look and you sit staring at the phone
When growing up means you were wrong about everything you’ve known
Stalking your ghost, counting your stocks and gold
Count the lies that you bought, dreams that you sold

– Nash

You threw away your toys

and masked all your joys

you cloaked your fears

with hollow cheers

later you sat in an old age home

trying to forget all you’ve known

watching the idiot box

the clown and the fox

I've spent a good deal of my life travelling,
and I've spent it in museums and libraries,
I've worshipped the beautiful and avoided the ugly.
Very early in the game
I learned praise and blame are the same 
I learnt that everything is related
everything is connected
Christ and crutches
Guilt and guillotines
Saviours and sadists
Martyrs and masochists
Press and propaganda
Erotica and enlightenment
History and hyperbole
Climate and constipation
Memories and mortuaries
Woke and broke - Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

I’ve seen beauty and I’ve watched decay
I’ve heard the silence after the hurray
I’ve seen the indifference in their eyes
I’ve learnt reality through their lies
I’ve touched the apple on the proverbial tree
I’ve felt the chains even when I was free
I look in the mirror and all I see
your eyes looking back at me

You are a poet in a nation of shopkeepers
You are a prophet in seas of insanity
You are the head on a coin
A message, a sign
You are nothing
Yet you are the messiah
You’re daughter of lightning
You’re goddess of thunder
The power of beauty
The beauty of power – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

roll the dice and pay the price
remember you only die twice
you’re dead when you are forgotten

and then at the final end

The night caresses secrets in the sand
A memory nailed on each hand
Straining through the ebbs and falls
You capture a fleeting embrace
The paint is peeling off the walls
The past is etched on your face
You roll the dice and pay the price
You know you only die twice
Once when you’re in the coffin
And once when you’re forgotten – Nausher Nash

I’ve made a religion out of beauty

it imprisons and it frees me
I doubt and I falter

I still kneel at her altar

I catch my reflection

Kissing my assassin

Shadows shimmer intertwined

With the light I left behind

A breath separates heaven and hell

I’ve nothing to buy and nothing to sell

Waiting to catch up with my past

I watch my future pass

I hear the praise I hear the blame

Hold the cross high

So i can see it above the flame –

Nausher Nash Banaji

It looks like your world, but everything is different

Everything seems close, but oddly distant

How were you to know

Where it all would go

For a moment all the world was right

How were you to get ready for the fight

What blink of an eye, whose tear, whose stare

What fork on which road is taking you where

You’re running down the track

The night burning down your back

You follow the ghost of you

And your ghosts are following you

Blinded by truth, enlightened by a lie

The die is cast in the blink of an eye

You are waiting on the crosswalk

Listening to the crosstalk

Waiting to catch up with your past

And your future just passed

You catch your reflection

Kissing your assassin

Waiting to catch up with your past

And your future just passed

Your mirror is a river

Painting on water

Waiting to catch up with your past

And your future just passed – Nash Nausher

You live in that space between your head and your face
Where dreams are lived and memories are erased
Halfway up, halfway down between conqueror and clown
Between stars and scars, cigarettes and memoirs
Between fear and fate, all you do is wait
Between truth and lullabies, what you love and despise
It doesn’t matter what you say, it’s a price you’ll have to pay
You’re a universe apart though only inches away – Nash

you take nothing for your journey

and you take nothing from it

here you abide and there you departed

you dust memories off your feet

you ended your journey just as you started

you reached the water’s edge

but the water never parted

you’re a comma on a page

its the course that you charted

and no matter what you say

it doesn’t matter anyway

you cannot stay

– Nausher Nash

I close my eyes and my life seems carried away by the river

What’s left behind I cannot say – It’s just the sound of the water

Crossing the Rubicon on the way to the sea

I cannot find the door though I have the key

Go with the flow my heart says

No one knows what’s true anyways

we played our part, we were miscast

we knew it was all too good to last – Nausher Nash

Take the leaves back to the forest
And the water back to the sea
Turn the stones back to ashes
Bring the dust back to me
Naked now my skin is crawling
I sit in my bones looking out from the hill
Face pressed against the window
The snow is melting and the earth is still – Nausher Nash

let this be my ashes blowing in the wind

my epitaph, my prologue, my beginning, my end

Let me walk this road until I reach the bend

i hope that when it happens, it happens suddenly

I see no point in living  without beauty

Lingering in fools company

I just want to be alone with me

a transparent layer in history – Nash Nausher

In the dark you reach for the sky
Memories lie and promises die
Your fingers clutch your shadows hand
You survive only because you don’t understand
The wind carries voices but there’s nobody there
The bush is burning but the mountain is bare
Was it paradise lost or paradise found
Was it safety you sought in 6 feet of ground,
Were you tipping your eyes to make an impression,
Wearing a face with a borrowed expression,
Did the looking glass
look back at you in wonder,
Did you look through a mask
only to see a stranger –
Nausher Nash

I woke up this morning and I had the blues

I saw the Nantes cathedral in the news

I watched arson fires burning on live feeds

My friends said why are you sharing these

This isn’t something we want to see

Show us someone taking the knee

Show us something that will make us feel guilty

I said what are you talking about

This is something we should cry and shout

I said this is our beauty and our heritage

This is something worthy of our rage

They said, don’t bother with the shares

Nobody cares darling, nobody cares

Don’t you get it, they are tearing it all down

Everything I love is being burnt to the ground

What can you do about it, they said shrugging

Wasn’t it just another old building or something

i guess nobody cares, I said, and you are right in what you say

But why the fuck did this have to happen on my birthday

Goodbye, darlings, it’s been nice

I hope I find my paradise

Hope my wishes do come true

Hope my new year brings something new –

Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

,

I seek you in a renaissance painting
Unblemished by age, resplendent and serene
When the world was yours for the taking
My whore, my courtesan, my poet, my queen
In the end it is all just a speck in the eye
I just want to take a moment to say goodbye
I know I made a mistake coming here again
Can I remind myself of what, where and when
All the words we said, all the poetry we read
The hearts we fed and the hearts we bled
Does it mean something
Does it mean nothing
In a dream and a prophecy, barely a trace of that place in me
I look in the mirror and all I see, the ebb and flow of memory – NausherNash

I follow the taillights in the sky
Starting and ending
Fading down pillared corridors into another world
Away from the trivial the inane the babble the trash
Away from life’s symmetry of madness
i feel the warm breath of stormy seas
Hear waves ebb and flow deep inside of me
Feel their heart beating like it is my own
See them turn, retreat and return
They will still be here long after I am gone
A soul at peace in a world of violence
And the sower will sow the word
And the word will be silence – Nash Nausher

Your hands don’t hold the answer

Hold it higher, she said, hold it higher

Higher so I can see the cross above the flames

Praise and blame, darling, are all the same

It’s not tears, it’s smoke in my eyes

I seek the heavens, I search the skies

Born of tempests, a warrior at the mouth of dawn

I am a child of beauty in a storm

Standing in the fire looking out to sea

Waiting for the waves to bring the water back to me – NausherNash

In the dark you reach for the sky

Memories fade, memories lie

Your fingers clutch your shadows hand

You only survive because you don’t understand

The wind carries voices but there’s nobody there

The bush is burning but the mountain is bare

Was it paradise lost or paradise found

Was it safety you sought in 6 feet of ground,

Were you tipping your eyes to make an impression,

Wearing a face with a borrowed expression,

Did the looking glass

look back at you in wonder,

Did you look through a mask

only to see a stranger –

Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

standing at the window looking out
I watch the angels play and shout
an oasis of elixir in a season of drought
I watch patterns play on their golden skin
Siamese, Gemini or twins
I think I’m on earth but maybe it is heaven
🖤

Soon we will leave this world, this country, this love,

the eyes we view them with are eyes that must close before too long.

But this much is certain:

we will still have, left deep within us,

the light catching the reflection of rain on its cobbled streets,

a blaze of sun gilding off the dome of a duomo,

the perfection of the piazzas,

the thousands upon thousands

of shades and nuances of history,

the stones, the skin,

the colours of Italy. Nausher Nash

I don’t know which way the wind is blowing

I march to the beat of my own drum

If l want to know where I’m going

I look back to where I came from

I look into your eyes and see
A shimmer of that side of me
That beauty is truth, truth beauty
That’s all we need to know and all we need to be

I’m Looking for my past selves
Sleeping with my old self
I am just a shadow of my wild me
I can’t remember what that was like to be
I look into your eyes and see
A shimmer of that side of me
Through the sandglass and into the sea
I’m waiting for the waves to bring myself back to me – Nausher

 the verdict is in, skin to stone, stone to skin
my brother, my siamese, my twin
my better half, my other side
my friend, philosopher, and guide
what’s left behind we do not know
it’s the way the story goes
here today, gone tomorrow
we live here on time borrowed
here we started and there we departed
lost in the count and never counted
no matter what you say it doesn’t matter anyway
you cannot return and you cannot stay

– Nausher

It draws their gaze across placid curves
Do they thirst for a sip of fire
The heart beats hollow in mind caves
Tribal moans in primal pyres

Bated breath baited eyes 
Are we willing to wait for stillness
The perfume of cinnamon on your sighs
Surrounds our stones and our senses

In a ghostly haze that sets us free
We search what we carefully conceal
I wonder if we are aware
Of the shadows and light that haunt us there

We watch the beauty of the bare
The empty walls we cannot share
You walk with me in black and white
With velvet coat in velvet night

Through impervious apathy
And slavish parables of duty
Let us breathe even for a moment
At the edge of earth the skin of infinity –

– Nausher Nash

The house on the rock, the writing on the wall

Give me back my secrets before I fall

Inside of me, in spite of me

I have the key, I have the key

It doesn’t matter how you persist

If it is not in frame it doesn’t exist –

Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Beauty makes a heaven of hell, there was a time it knew me well

Walls don’t work, you always say, but open the doors anyway

I can stand, I can fall, it’s my choice to fly or crawl

What I love and what I hate are the hands that guide my fate – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

I shoot arrows into the air,
They fall on earth, I know not where,
Sometimes they pierce or touch a heart,
Sometimes thats an end and sometimes that’s a start

Standing, I am waiting at my door
One moment a prince, the next moment a whore
The Savonarolas have been at it for centuries
Burning down beauty in a bonfire of the vanities
Praising the ugly and questioning our sanity
In the name of love everything is profanity
I have beauty on my brain like you have money, god and fame
Let Savonarola come and burn it all down
My finger is on the shutter and I still wear the crown

When I see the rabid, virtue signalling pc mob on social media
I’m reminded of all the other times they frothed their hysteria
Here they come with pitchforks and pamphlets
Spitting out commandments from their broken tablets
I can smell the rancid sweat of their hate and ignorance,
Their bad breath and their bad opinions
I’m seeing their posts, gnarled, plastic and empty
Their faces oozing ugliness, wearing masks to hide the ugly
Out of their septic holes they hiss and they spew
Box cars to ‘protection camps’ – they are the first in que
-Nausher Nash

In the end it is all just a speck in my eye
I just want to take a moment to say goodbye
I know I made a mistake coming here again
Can I remind myself of what, where and when
In a dream and a prophecy, barely a trace of that place in me
I look in the mirror and all I see, the ebb and flow of memory – NausherNash

The night is done
Gone with the wind of the first sun
Dreams on ice
Crucified twice
I want to be alone with me
A transparent layer in history
You ask if I’m religious and this is what I say
I kneel to the naked and to beauty I pray
This is my temple and I am it’s priest
Seeking perfection in man and beast
I see the colours of shade
Splattered with blood and blame
Every decision ever made
Has vanity in its name

Come, let’s play Armchair Jesus

Saving the world online

One Facebook post at a time

Playing victim and saviour in turn

While our own house burns

We tear down our culture and what have we built

We’ve unlearned our history with flag-waving guilt

We just need clicks on our posts to feel fulfilled-

Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

If you are going to die anyway, you might as well die with memories of love, lust and desire

Your body may have failed but your heart is still on fire

There is something about nudity, and the cross, that takes me higher

Kissing you kissing me

The ebb and flow of the sheltering sea

Somewhere between here and why

The truth and lie of my alibi

 

Open your doors to what might be

The ebb and flow of the sheltering sea

Somewhere between where and why

The lost empire of the firefly

 

Feel beauty and you are free

The ebb and flow of the sheltering sea

Somewhere between how and why

The prophecy of the magpie –

Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Don’t play victim Don’t play saviour

We are bored with your behaviour

We are bored with all the flag-waving guilt

You tear down culture but what have you yourself built

You are just a creature who needs clicks to feel fulfilled – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

with every season and every passing year

we spend less and less time facing a mirror

we cross the bridge but not the river

until we can’t recognize the face in the picture – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

I see you like this

naked on the veranda of an Italian villa

looking down at a throbbing mob of lovers

a cigarette in one hand, regret in the other

watching their yearning with your cold dark eyes

watching them burning, hearing their sighs

you see the swell of the surging crowd

you hear them chant your name aloud

enchantment in one hand, in the other hand a shroud

You ask me if I’m religious and this is what I say

I kneel to the naked and to beauty I pray

I can see the winding vines of history
Splattered with blood and blame
And every decision that was made
Had vanity in its name

 

 

 

When I look at you I see sand whispering in the hourglass

I see the colour in your eyes change as the hours pass

Changing turning I could never find the key

The pain of decay, the decay of beauty

Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Don’t flatter yourself darling, it’s not to be

Don’t go confusing youth for beauty

Dont mistake the tautness of skin with the angles of bone

When you face the mirror you stand alone

Everything is not equal, and everyone is not the same

I know everything there is to know about the blame game

Time changes everything in a film running backwards

You keep moving your goalposts and shifting your standards

The beginning is the end but not everything ends well

You will find hell in heaven and heaven in hell

They may mock you and jeer and you might scoff

You have reached the edge of earth my darling

And are in danger of falling off

Your painted armies are soaked with youth and defiance

Our naked bodies are cloaked with truth and silence

I sit and await the hand of fate
Walk the street to my own heartbeat
Love and hate are an open gate
I feel the heat beneath her feet

 

I can’t even remember what i came here to get away from

My mind is churning but my face is calm

We move to the symphony of lust

Until ashes turn to ashes and dust to dust

I’ve been standing watching the light fading
Watching day passing and night returning
Standing, watching mirrors pretending
Losing beauty, watching life turning
Burning, watching my past erasing
Unbeing, unseeing what i’m seeing
Even as the mirrors are breaking – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

I’m walking down my night mind

Searching for what is mine

I have been running down passages

But all I see is the empty spaces

Did I see a shadow stir

I’m still waiting for an answer

Through the sandglass and into the sea

I’m waiting for the waves to bring myself back to me

– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

You go down on your knee
Open your heart to the moon and the bottomless sea
Look up at the sky and sigh
Why this, why that, and why

White grows gray, gray grows black
Nothing to say, ricochet those dead years back
Look up at the sky and lie
Why this, why that, and why

Count your chances, a thousand to one,
An ear on your heart, eyes on an eclipsed sun
Look up at the sky and cry
Why this, why that, and why

– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Where is the Seraphim welcoming me in
Watch me pass through heaven’s gate
I can’t remember where I have been
I’m sorry darling it’s been so late

Where is the Seraphim welcoming me in
See the power of beauty one last time
All the fairy tales were wrong in the end
They made ugliness a virtue and beauty a crime

Where is the Seraphim welcoming me in
Those truths are gone those lies were a game
Your sins are a gift your virtues forgiven
You learnt praise and blame are all the same – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Where is the Seraphim welcoming me in

When i pass through heaven’s gate

I can’t remember where I have been

I’m sorry darling it’s been so late

Where is the Seraphim welcoming me in

See that power of beauty one last time

All the fairy tales were wrong in the end

They made ugliness a virtue and beauty a crime

– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

You see yourself sitting naked on the sand

A promise and a prophecy in each hand

You mirror a mirage moving alone

You call out but it is gone

A ripple of gasps from behind a curtain

You part them only to enter oblivion

Mirror mirror on the wall
What do we see before we fall
The poetry of memories and lust
Ashes to ashes dust to dust
We stumble between the blur and the after
We leave behind our breath on the mirror
The power of beauty
The beauty of power
– Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Spend enough time in libraries and you find
 that everything is related, everything is connected
Christ and crutches
Guilt and guillotines
Penises and propaganda
Erotica and enlightenment
Climate and constipation
Martyrs and masturbation

Woke and broke

Ignorance about the past leads to arrogance about the future

Maybe a mirror will garner the truth better

The truth is time changes everything

In a film running backwards

Where a beginning is the end

But not everything ends well

Dream meets poetry

Words are the clay of history

You have reached the edge of the earth

And you are in danger of falling off

Out of the bubble and into the sea

Lemmings off the cliff who think they are free

Burnt at the stake for everyone else’s mistake

Constipated guilt as you march to save civilization

This relish to swim in this fetid sewer of self-flagellation. – Nausher Nash Banaji Duo

Between rapture and ecstasy

Your breath feels like autumn to me

In the depths of your eyes the question lies

The answer waits, starves and dies