Beyond me

You're so beautiful 

It's beyond me, 

You're so beautiful, it's beyond

Deep red apples, philosophies, 

and every periphery 

It's delicious; wholesome, in an appetizing way. It's harmonious. 

You're nowhere near perfect, 

You give handsome a face-

A way for the simple minded to know

What the definition means

You're so beautiful, you make it easy

Easier to be content with 

Your heartbeat and the things

Your mind tells you about yourself

And the people you love the most

Words fails me, i falter myself

I search for languages with enough

Expressions equitable to every point your beauty ascends

So you could know the fill

Of what the eye sees soon as it

Encounters you

If wisdom had a face, it would 

Look like yours

If love had questions to ask

Only your eyes would hold the answers

And if your face was a city full of lights

Surfing the darkness of the night

It would be New York City;

Timeless, first world, and indescribably beautiful

Too beautiful to ever be shy

You play on imaginations

And personify temptations 

With your eyes alone you move me

Like a shadow over the sea

Your beauty transcends me

It makes me feel scared to be

©Raeez Jacobs. 2014. Poetry

You Millenium Racist, you.

It's 2014, and despite the decade and a half-or-so between now, and the offset of a time many remember sordidly and in much vain, there's a stark similarity in the way ideals are harboured, and in how we communicate our 'angst'.
Riots are the  most poignant of such features still prevalent amongst many today, especially those in said 'government' positions of labour. And then protests of educational and political significance still seem widespread, very reminiscent of the infamous, Sharpeville massacre. It's petrifying to reconcile with these realities, but it's also profoundly hard to be evasive in the face of fact and reality.

One would have anticipated a society less preoccupied with the strife, and outbursts of sporadic violence, that so much as it has damaged our social and human fabric, has simultaneously tarnished our international reputation, along with infecting us with a political amnesia- one by which ultimately, we have become oblivious about a past so many of our forefathers and relevant family members fought to abolish. A past we should presumably have learned every single lesson from.
So then, what seems to be problem? Why do such atrocities, such as; gender-based violence, rape, prejudice, discrimination in the workplace, and cultural subordination still seem to shape the way we conduct ourselves in our so-called 'democratic', post-Apartheid country. We have much to celebrate and to be proud of, but can the same be said of ourselves? what we teach our children, which stereotypes we perpetuate perpetually, and which prejudices we harbour innately, and use to live in our privatised, singular, cultural-cum-religious motivated existences? Do we feel guilty, or do we merely settle for calling ourselves victims of a traumatising past we'll never truly transcend?

Does admitting to the latter say anything about how weak or strong, moral or immoral, ethical or unethical, or about how frugal or excessive we are as human beings?

The cohort of young South African's born just after the infamous 1991 general election, in which the White Nationalist Party was ousted from parliament; abnegated from reigning supreme, that is, share a varied ideology about the nature of unification and the ramifications of segregation.
Racism is obviously not so blatant that it would surface as problematic, and it's clandestinely preserved and projected perfectly enough to go unnoticed. Amid the slew of human rights violations and the tempest of other social and anthropological iniquities we encounter and struggle against, racism which many undoubtedly shy away from even speaking about, just does it thing quietly. Is this a sort of psychological racism?
Most theorists agree that it's innate, or intuitive, and far more relative to preference, than it is motivated by reasons of political dissidence. That is to be otherwise proved nonetheless, since it's not a focal objective of this piece.


                                                              -Raeez Jacobs

Poem: The Other

For 

       my sister.

Your hand is a stranger
I defend myself always
and these marks don't
stand for nothing

I never accuse you
though time and again
it seems you defile me
as if though I'm the reason

for why you're acting
so strange and out o'
character these days

as if

I never excuse you
or make excuses for you
when they point out your
weaknesses and show me your
vices 

© Raeez Jacobs, Poetry. 2014. 

Poem: Untitled

I watched myself become spangled

With the rays of the stones glistening

In the underworld of your heart

Everything fit me, for the first time

I heard the bells of Aphrodite yonder

I felt the echo of the slave freed from the cages of the colonial kings 

My eyes felt peace and showed veneration

I could look forward to love with rhythm and sceneries dipped in the early morning yolk of cerise pink. Amarula. And burnt cinder wood sunshine 

I could bow before the gods that felt the religion in the intricate columns of my toes

Without relying too much on what came out of my mouth

No war between north and south

I could find you. And that alone could make me smile.

Monday, Tuesday through everyday

There was no degradation nor suspension,

And parents quarreled far less than was typical of themselves

I couldn't hear the disagreements portend to dark days on the horizon

My mind imbibed whatever came through the gilded labyrinths of my soul

And if mistakes don't haunt me, I could swear only your hand could fit there

You were me, and i was you.

And that alone can make

Me dance

Without moving my body.

Because a world with you bby my side 

Is a world of extraordinary things and strange feelings.

©Raeezjacobs. Poetry. 2013.

Poem: Love In Rio

Love in Rio

I said love me

With all your guts, your screwdrivers, 

Your carburetors, and your difficulties

I said love me

Through your pang of insecurities

Your monstrosities, and your many conspiracy theories, 

love me like you love 

what was once the 60s

Set aside your guard for me

I said you're going 

to do nothing but love me

The way you love old movies, causing fights, getting head while driving, 

and the way you love 

doing the Samba in Rio 

on friday nights  

Set aside your indecisiveness 

Let me help you make up your mind

Let's run face first into the mystery of a holy night and

Let's end up surprised

©RaeezJacobs. Poetry. 2013

Poem: Beautiful Mistake

I'm gonna embrace you

Even though you're wrong

I'm going to make the

Beautiful mistake 

Of colliding with your body

In the daytime

And in the middle of the night

I'm gonna let you

Take over me

Like a shadow of the alps

Over the earth below

As the sun sets behind it

I'm gonna let you

Change colours on me

And repaint me

Like i'm your muse

I'm gonna be at your disposal

In the name of youth

And for the sake of a thrill

I'm gonna be your teenage dream

Making you scream my name

With your fingers 

Walking through my head

Like a clan of warriors

Across grassy plains

I'm gonna give you a 

Reason to remember my name

Forever

©RaeezJacobs. Poetry. 2013

Poem: The Five faces of a Breakdown

You made a comment 

About where you stood

In this whole thing

And it was far away

Almost out of sight

Still there enough to

Make my mind do what

It does best

And go on to remember you

With trains of elipsis 

Along your prints on your

Path 

Wondering how i could return

In a storm of silence

Following the dots that

Were supposed to be those

Words impactful enough

To have either changed my life or 

Inspired me 

to better emotional revenue

In a world of moodless weather

And minuscule anxiety

'Stead of dragging me

Sadistically, from point A

To posting the segments of

Your dreams in which i 

Wasn't involved but haunted 

To depression by in my iris

blinded in so many ways

I might encounter another you

In my lifetime or find myself

Back at you again

Wanting to 

want to rehab myself

Off of you and the ugly

Things i do

In my personal space

Usually alone so unlike me

I lost myself i lost my soul

You took me away from being

Just myself enough

To have been wiser 

And

I failed

And you failed me

Without a word or 

comment

Rather having your new life 

Remark, actually.

©RaeezJacobs. Poetry. 2013.