He unfolded his red turban lying on his khaat
Seeing me in my new ghagra-choli he bought
The evening sun setting in his eyes like a candle
While the stars sing as I watch him eat dal bhat
Tonight, I will be awake in all the quarters of the night
Watching your dreams tune away by the sarangi at my side
​

I saw hanging clouds on the top of the world
And my dreams following the fleeting sun
Flying above the world in the machines of man
But it's engine groaning under misery
A thousand parts suddenly falling apart
Under the weight of repeated failures
Not able to reach the infinitesimal summit

Stormy sand dunes of foaming memories
A dryness palpitating the scorched heart
The thirst waiting in her eyelids, teardrops
An endless desert beckons towards agony
And a violent sun burns her bruised flesh
But to endure it, to suffer worse than death
Can make this mirage of life, meaningful
So that others can one day find its purpose.

-K

Sunset like drizzling honey
Spread across a toasted sky
Evening, a swirl of emotions
And the warm glaze of her arms
Both of us nested in the twigs
Of seeing our lives intertwined

Colliding kaleidoscope
Cascading atmosphere
Converging resonance
Convoluted perception
Untainted continuation
Seperated versimilitude

Summer, when we still had our milk teeth
Calling to me like that long lost friend
Instant crush on seeing that bar of KitKat
While waiting in line to see Harry Potter
The magic hidden in Grandma's kitchen
And the countless memories of her youth
Fall, bringing us back to the classrooms
And making the summer a part of the past

Convoluted emanations of the intellect
Proliferating pillars of translucent light
Spheres of thought orbiting infinitude
Ascending past the perception of time
Colliding the past, present and future
Creating the void that is imperceptible
To arrange the very fabric of existence

Sleepless nights haunted me
Now the insomnia is a habit  
My nightmares are a part of me
Writhing at the edge of my skin
Is it really my mind that is breaking
Or is this really who I have become

Isolated, the prisoner finds freedom
An illusion in this caricature world
Happiness isn’t in the longing of isolation
But to be alone and still remain a clockwork
Sharing the burden of emotions all around
So that in the end when you look behind
You were never the only person alone

An abyss enveloped by darkness
My heart is trapped in it's clutches
Accumulating within it's recesses
The plague of my greatest fears
I hear my own haunting screams
But no one can answer my prayers
For I have accepted the loneliness
And crushed my dream into pieces

Be like the gusts of wind
Free and unshackled
Be like the waves of the sea
Fearless and mighty
Meet each day as a new friend
Each moment as a new end
Highs and lows are parcels of life
Package them and keep them aside
Then you will find happiness waiting
Within the myriad of life smiling

The quintessence of life
Hidden in the portraits of people
A child draws his innocence
First impressions of a masterpiece
To be one displayed in time
Experiences that define existence
In the art gallery of his lifetime

Her tears, droplets of fresh spring dew
Falling upon the soft petals of her face
That first smile afterwards, a mountain breeze
Rejuvenating the barren soul lost from its path
Why then does my heart still cry tonight?
Why does it remain still as this night is?
Perhaps it has left my prison, a desert
Yearning to join its beloved on a crescent
​

Let me take you with the winds
To a journey across the azure sky
Where the sea of sound fades away
Embraced by cold sweeping currents
Maybe we can float forever and ever
And ever and ever and ever but never
Never to return back to what we left

Like the falling of autumn leaves
The beloved left the hands of the lover
Casting a veil over their broken souls
Where is the solace? If not in her laughter
That would break this spell of fall like spring
But her smile is hidden beneath the snowy ground
Because this winter has separated you and I
Making us forget our journey through the seasons

The sands move beneath my feet
Slowly creating dunes underneath
Brown landscapes and blue skies
Above and below both featureless
As there is only a calm nothingness
Stranded here is an eternal limbo
Forever trapped in this great inferno

Today the world taunts me
For I am lost in your gaze
These are the ignorant people
That cannot see your radiance
As the moon would eclipse
If only it could see your face

The evening orange sunset
Its peels running over the sky
You and I in an arabesque cafe
Coffee mixed with first love
Hanging in the air all around
That smell of your perfume
Overpowering like your eyes
And your lips after each sip
Your every breath, tantalizing
Radiating our love each second
Maybe the night never comes
And I can see you forever then
Watching the sun glow your face

Illuminating the night skies
One thousand one lanterns
Flying high to reach the stars
Their destination is nowhere
Only to float aimlessly forever
Until it lands down whenever

A thought like broken fragments
Kaleidoscopic yet still monotonous
Dancing in solitude, altering alchemy
Yet still jumbled like the morning crossword
Is there clarity hidden amongst mayhem?
Or is this chaos the unveiled mystery

-K

I was waiting on the platform
The train screeched to a halt
Crowds bolted out the doors
Within the frenzy I saw a face
That blurred the background
For that was me coming out
And me going back in again

The wrinkles on her skin never aged
They stayed the same since I was born
And then I saw her entire world change
But she still kept smiling like always
Too late, to remember all that she taught
Maybe I am already gone way too forward
Because not even death can comprehend
How her memories still remain unchanged
​

Polychromatic facades
Coruscating sculptures
Translucent casements
Fragmented colorations
Monochrome halftones
Multitudinous trances

A cacophony of darkness
The silence of his thoughts
An extinguished candle
But the burning melancholy
Like a wanderer in the desert
Only the night brings him refuge

Particles streaming through infinity
Each dot a universe of possibility
Time is not relative to their existence
A motionless movement of consistence
Trillions voyaging across the cosmic sea
But only one harboring a life giving tree

Voluminous drapes of trance
Fragmentary thoughts escape
Gyrating vortex of the sphere
Siphoning the persistent psyche
Split the sphere into hemisphere
Disintegrating into the perspective

Strings of an unstrung mind
Without tuning has collapsed
Breaking the cycles of reality
Merging fantasy with actuality
One is not two and two is none
If not two then where is the one

I have drowned in the wave of summer
Drifting away from the shore of winter
My memories are buried in the permafrost
Formed with the chill permeating my heart
Thaw my emotions and break this icy spell
So that I can still feel the heat in my soul

An eden in the desert
Colorful and vibrant
Dancing on the bridge
Of a distant shore
Her eyes fluttering
Like a butterflies flight
Look at her, see her mystery
Every word she says is melody
Be with her, see the magic
Her past is one of the tragic
I see her, you see her, she is here
Open your heart, you will find her
She is with you, everywhere
Hidden behind the despair

A thousand feet
Walking in the rain
A thousand emotions
Washed down the drain
Each face a possibility
Each heart a capability
A thousand drops later
The storm still rages

These palpable thoughts, raining in clouds of dust
Upon unfolded, crumpling stacks of discarded dreams
Bottles of ink, trying to resuscitate the forgotten words
Only to spill on the sheets, holding the empty hopes
Is the mind gone along with its representation?
To be forever lost, trapped inside an overgrown shell

Silhouette on the scorching sidewalk
A mirage peering out of the door
An epiphany jumps from the bulwark
Out of reach from the shadow of four
The gazing silence from the clouds
In the aftermath of the deafening roar
Speaking to the mindless tongue
Of the silhouette standing from before

The cadence of the prelude
Starts the symphony of time
The piano playing in C major
Resonating the law of nature
Violins strumming a soft hue
Tuning the many colors of life
The rhythm begins to conclude
With the last note of a trombone

The victors of war raging in their voilent wrath
A loom of clouded darkness wrapping the world
Death over shadowing life like a burning chaos
Within it all foaming under the bloodied sands
The fury, the miasma, the ferocity like wild hounds
Tearing apart the judgment, one by one, slowly
Of those who fell and those that finally survived
But at what cost? When their mind has already died
And for what reason? When their soul is already lost

Shooting stars in a sunless sky
The moon is sadly hanging by
Darkness descends into life
Silhouettes are seen from above
The long night is here at last
To devour those wanting sunlight
Succumbed into an aimless quest
To become the very beast
They were subjugated to fight

Freedom
The captured craves it
The captor hates it
What is its price then?
Priceless or bargained?
Or else only imagination
For nobody is really free
Only some pretend to be

Twilight pouring in the atmosphere
Filling the sky with it’s heavy dose
I’ll wait till the sunset empties itself
To watch the dancing stars myself
Playing with my only friends tonight
Until I doze off soundly till the first light

The crackling waves speak gently
Come back from the distant shore
Nobody is waiting for you anymore
Only thousands of memories buried
Only an empty pain hidden beneath
Asleep peacefully inside the cold earth
So come float away with me in this berth

Grasping cognizance
Alienating ignorance
Transpiring inception
Oscillating conception
Materializing existence
Perceiving intelligence

The stranger bids me farewell
Thunderstorms ringing like a bell
Emitting steam the train has left
But I am still standing here bereft
One moment like a thousand days
After which we parted our ways
Just two small specks on a canvas
Met by coincidence joined by chances

I have seen the cloth tied with knots
On you, standing at the edge of firdaws
Seeing it's rivers humming like a soft note
Reveal yourself to me like a red eclipse
Coloring my emotions with a blood dye
And leave me like the wandering dervish
So I can preach your mysticism to myself

Why is there an ocean of tears
But no river of emotion draining
Where have my memories gone
An empty shell filled with nothing
Tear apart my haunting misery
And find the same personality

My requiem is your broken dream
Am I living or has the clock stopped
That one moment is the only lifetime
Our hands touched for the first time
Do you remember our first sunset kiss?
Your request is still weighing on my mind
My mind betrayed the heart that night

Walk with me on the edges of a thread
Waiting for you and me at the knot’s end
The needle joining the seams together
By the hands of an unknown master
Stitching the cloak with such intricacy
That recreating it would only be fallacy

The empty seat,
In a happy room
The past lingering,
Making the present gloom
Where are the tears?
Still here inside my eyes
Because my heart is gone
With all my emotions inside

Flowers and a square ground
Waiting for you probably wilted
Numb as a lifeless force, dead
But still waiting for what I hoped
Sitting on that broken bench, cold
Hoping your tombstone disappeared

Let me drown in your eyes
So don’t close your eyelids
I have found my destination
Won’t you let me stay there?
Where I found your heart
And my dreams intertwined

The midnight soul, in its angelic form
Waiting for the last train on the platform
The midday body, like a withered leaf
Seeing the train leave in utter disbelief
As the clock ticks forward the body fades
Time, as they say, an enemy that breaks
Only the soul remains at the strike of twelve
And a dark night overpowers the shining day

Machinations of dreamlands
Clockworks turning into ideas
Inside a dystopia of emotions
Perfectly tuned to each possibility
Until each sequence is in sync
And all residents devoid of variables

-K

Infinite, trapped inside layers of dreams
It is the inconceivable limit of all minds
Motionless but somehow always moving
As if it is the night sky, constantly shifting
A state of perfection is its paradoxical utopia
Imperfect and breaking logical reasoning
Because then it would make everything, finite