These two poems are inspired by Mshairi's own Stay and Go poems.
Stay
Do not go my gentle one,
Do not part and leave this man.
Plagued with insanity i am,
to sometimes treat you less than true worth ma'am.
Do not leave, that madness will pass.
Do not cross the river into that other mans land.
Stay, there is still much we can be.
there is still life for that you and me.
Do not leave, plead i this man.
I will for you do many things,
lend you my ear when your heart is troubled,
Finance your travels, on all those winds of fashion
defend your purity, if with my life i must.
Do not leave, and consume with darkness my ever after days.
Stay gentle one,
and find it in you to forgive this man.
his song, his prose, his ways, his life,
remain incomplete, deranged! damned!
if you leave.
Stay.
Go
You come to me with soft words and much reminiscing,
with fine robe, your scent impressing,
with amorous look, and that smile.
to claim that you are "my gentle one"?
That and you are fading memories of mine.
yes, you were once, in the past of another time.
I have found another, kinder to my eye,
after you left this man,
and let that you and I die.
and now you want us again together?
after you have left me for another?
mad i say, you must be mad!
or have been smoking too much of that "holy herb".
I cannot turn on her now!
the old men have met,
the date has been set,
my goats have crossed the river,
the last, at tomorrows sunset.
I will not rob her of her joy.
Do you not see how content she is,
head held high as she walks down the street?
The her and me lives,
in her, and as much in me.
Go! depart from me now.
You are to me, what dung is to a cow.
