I hide under
My bed
With the dead

Some people have ideas
Other people just have an idea of it

They say pigeons
Are expensive to hold
As they screech no more, with the same mellifluous song
Delivering the courier to the house, next door

My lover lives there
Beyond the shore
I adore her in her boredom and ecstasy
She loves me as long as the impatience excites her pleasure, now a desert of vast eternity

We fold envelopes for words to express
Closuring palace and palace within immortal words
From Athens to Rome in homage to her beauty
Colloseum to Parthenon in my violent *******

All of these places exist
In my mind, wrecked like a ruin
I drink a little to wet my lips and dry my tears
The rain never pours on a dead pigeon again

The memories fade away

The old lady cackles
The man in shackles
All look for hope
Left to dry out in the sun
Like rattlesnakes crisping
In the summer sheen
In the same vein
The rattlesnakes prey on ostriches
Ostriches bury their head in the sand
The sun burns the old man
The old lady stops cackling
As she chokes on a mudcrab

A crisis is eminent
The credence is gone
Accrued interest
All the fiduciary responsibility lost
I need an eternity in Emerald Glass Ceiling
Where bars let in the green sun
And the surreal nation
Knows a dictator wears pajamas
Like any person wears pajamas
But, many of the poor sleep naked
And the dictators and kings
Are never naked
They can wear emerald around their tin cans
On Grand Street
Up and down the block
Below the alley within Belgrade
The mailbox is locked
All responsibility is lost
Stolen cash in the cash register
No one can talk about the burning house
Where the hurt ate liver pie
Calculating the next Christmas wine
Emerald colored sky
When will you cry?
Cry till sun beats for forgotten souls
Moonbeams turn green
Into the ocean unknown cockles and fettered fish
Hooked by reflection of water and moonlight
Eternity in a palm of God
Looks like a winning hand

I write poems
Best
Because
Nobody loves me

If we had a world to us
Time would hold no innocence
As rage begets rage
Age comes after age
All our life is but an empty stage
Waiting to be filled with images
Of vanquished hearts and toiling souls
So let us break open heaven's iron gates
Striding as Apollo in his chariot
Rushing behind those players
When they feel hungry
As amorous birds of prey
Let them spread their wings
And never meet again
As players ending an act
After every page

My heart
As you know
Is a time bomb
It ticks and tocks
It stops for no one
But if you come
To my heart
You will notice time
Stops
But, there will be fireworks
For us

I found an island
In your arms
Country in your
Eyes
Does the rain die
If the country lies

Is it ok
To be stuck
On you
Like a petal
On a flower
Like a leaf
On a tree
Sometimes
I shudder in the
Breeze
Your lips
Weakens my knees
Your hips
Stop gravity
You are the medicine
I need
To be ok
Even when
I cannot stand
For myself
So I look
Into your eyes
And ask you
Is this the end
Or the beginning of it

The sky rumbles and thunders
A man snores on the pavement
Oh how sinister
Dogs hide in their homes afraid
The orchestra is cancelled
The crowd came to see Wagner
And two river left a swirl
The rain never stops they say
It is playing a tune
The man finally wakes up
As if he is in a free concert
Like that time in Bangladesh
When the food was cheap plates of lentils
This rain looks rare
Maybe it says something
Listen, listen closely
The crowd has left
They came to listen to the conductor
Leaving with a symphony in their hearts
And rainbow drifting above
Like an isolated cello note hovering above
The rain starts again
It is a drizzle
The man goes to sleep again

On earth with the heavenly flame
Soft breeze flows like fire
Untamed as the lion's mane

Hell is a cat dragged from the pyre
Whispers follow her coat
Frozen in the orifice of the swallowed mire

All the men saddled up to vote
Feeling the blistering cold
Wishing to warm their hands and foot

The cold lets out a hellish whisper
Almost like a howl of the olden wind
Gideon rings a bell at the end of summer

Life is an empty dream
Libraries are in an empty slumber
The plumber doesn't hear
The sky falls and rain pours
I know I sleep best with you

What happens
After we stop believing in peace
Is that we lose imagination
Which is our most human facet
We lose our ability to believe
In love
If we cannot imagine a world
With no war
Which is basically run
On the fear of love
Not on any power
War is weakness

An angel in disguise
Is no better
Than a devil in disguise
They are fettered

I need a friend on the midnight radio
Who hears me cry
Giving me himself in low hushes
Making love to me in breathless talk

An angel in disguise
Is no better
Than a devil in disguise
They both pretend to love you

Whimsical ballerina
Has me on her noose
It's a dreamy day for dancing
After all, I don't listen to dead music

Or the same tunes
That my disguised angel
Flies to and stalls her flight too
On a sparkling oceans and sand dunes

My mom has seen
Me eat ice cream
That's why she knows
I have a sore throat
And confidence issues

I care about the future
All barricaded by levees
When the river breaks them down
Soon I will reflect on my mistakes

I see a moon on the horizon
The tide is up
The stars and storms want freedom
Just like I do

I see the top of trees
The skies are cloudy
The leaves are turning hectic red
Just like the rivers in my head

I said I care about the future
But, who really stops?
Worrying.

If you think you have
Hurt someone
Remember, people
Never realize the difference
Those who do
Are the ones who have been heartbroken

Life without music
Is just love without
The words
Or the other way around

You are my friend
Maybe

Would you push me away?
If I wanted to be friends with you
Or would you pull me in too close?
With your pop music
Your favourite vinyl records
Now all lay broken
I still wanna be your best friend
Witless pet shop toys lay strewn about
The Pet Shop Boys are dead now
Now your world is burning
I still wanna catch you in those flames
Would you push me away?
If I wanted to be friends with you
Or would you pull me in too close?

I wonder
If I can get lost
In poetry
Then, I find myself
Everyday
A little more clearer
Than the last day
Like a lost poem

I will not hurt you
If you break down
Like the dawn
If tears like morning hue
Cover the skies in blue
If what was once skin turns violet
I will not hurt you
Let your colours fill your eyes
If you are crying out loud
Let me see your soul
Is it bleached like clouds?
Or deep like a valley
My heart is shallow
Like a pond
You swim like a fish
I will not hurt you
My love cannot save you
Or destroy you
The water just wanders

If you are traveling
Along the spraying waters
On the shore
You will remember the heavy rain
Fall on the ground
As the city blossoms with life
The rain freezes over
As summer ends
When winter springs out
Like a deer near a stream
Looking for Siberia
Escaping the wild tigers and foxes
Among the streets of wolves
Found and lost just as easily
When the cold ice lasts years
The bears never wake up from a slumber
Thus, dust to dust
Ashes fall down like snow
You cannot stop this blizzard from bringing bitter cold
Someday, looking for Siberia
The heart finds warmth
And makes it out of this desert
Into your arms offering wine and soup
My mind reminisces those distant cities and silent shores
Soon I will reflect on these little things
When I escape, looking for a soul in Siberia

The day was cold
As hell
It was 9 o' clock
I think
You were in your sweater
I was loaded with 3 layers
When we hugged, my insides became cold
Because I knew you got
Your love
And warmth
From someone else

My heart cannot express
What is on my mind
So it just stays silent
When it skips a heartbeat
In your beauty

Once, I loved you
Now I hear you
In my heart
Like a distant cry in a dark rainforest
I guess it is still raining tears
Because the cries have gone silent
Ever since you went away
Seems different now

My mind echos
Our songs we played
Each time you fade away
The song comes to me
Like echos from another day

Love is great
Love is expensive
Because it isn't easy
To maintain
Like great treasure under blue depths of oceans

You were once mine
Now I am moving on

If I had time
I would take you away
Where the laughs of children
In play, fill the day
How can I have time?
If my mind tells me
I love you and want those children
To be ours
So, don't be sad
You're the best thing I've ever had

If you loved me
You wouldn't stay silent
If you loved me
You would accept me as I am
If you loved me
You would have told me
Even if I didn't love myself
Because I needed to hear it
From someone lost like I am

As we look at stars
Where blue and yellow flicker
I find something there
Which makes me reach out
Into infinity
Feeling returns to my fingertips
My heart caves in
As our arms touch
My eyes explore more mysterious ways
Pupils dilating in excited breaths
As I make contact with space
In this universe so lost
Finally belonging again

Some learn from life
Others learn from their own mistakes

If you think life is a *****
Remember
Love is a dog from hell
If you think suicide is the answer
Remember
Life isn't in question
If you fear life's little failures
Remember
Fear is no success at all

If you write
And your heart tells
You
"No."
Then, your mind will scream
Some words that will take years
To be heard
If you feel immature
Like a monkey in an institution
Then, poetry isn't for you
If you stare at the paper
Begging for words
Looking at the whiteness stare into your soul
Making a hole in the heart
Then, it isn't worth it
People hate the truth
And poetry is the truth
If you don't have the courage to speak
Write about a suicide victim
Or peace in the war
Then, you cannot be poetic
Only love is poetic
Remember my words
Even the truth is poetic
But, if you write to get women
You are just wasting your time
Because true love needs a lot of *******
I remember when I could smell Autumn
Now that fragrance has gone away
With a woman I once loved
If you feel like me
Then write a sad poem and let your soul cry
Because no one else will

As heaven's angels glow with the grace of few
And our Earth basks in delight of such beauty
None would be kinder or lovelier than you
And if celestial bodies wandered free
As it would be no easy task to mourn or woe
Take respite from the desert of endless time
Be with me through beautiful cosmic shores
If you watch for the stars, I will temper tides
I will be in your sweet thoughts, soundless
As the heavens shine in otherworldly splendor
And holding us in its unseen presence
Possessed by your sadness and others'
If the stars were not so far from lovers
I would brighten in your lovely laughter

I knew nights like this
Did not come around often
It all started with a phone call
Telling me, I'm home alone
Only you deserve me
All of this uttered from some soul
I glorified long ago

Cold December night, I think
If I look closely, the streets of Delhi
Were streaming with clouds of foggy
Moonlight that curled into an endless steam of tea and romance
The kind of fog that covers the top of warm lips
Embraces the eggs lying cold desolate on a bachelor's tray
As I drifted out of my home on an empty stomach
My mind in a rumble over the row with my Dad
I couldn't recall where I had seen those lights
That had turned yellow now
That day, I bought a cigarette in haste
I remember because I got it on a loan
The vendor says,"It's alright. You smoke all the time."
I could hear the humdrum of my heart yell to an unrecognizable roar
Not a dull one, straight from the lion's den
Maybe, I might die soon enough before I pay him for the endless cocked lighters and cursory cancer sticks
I rushed into the Ola cab, bought some chewing gum
Condoms for the bedroom
A matchbox for the road
Her kiss was in my list
The cab driver says,"45 mins, boss."
"Can't you go any faster?"
"Well, the traffic is what you see, what you get."
Man, gaining my manhood would take a lot more than fights and nerves of steel
It would need *****
So, I let out a projectile of my lunch out of the car
It may have been those ******* eggs for breakfast too
Or the ceaseless music love run carefree

Anyway
So, I reach the door
There she is
Bright as a pale morning
Welcoming as a hug in summer
We made love with some haste at first
Until, the kissing started and we ripped our clothes
To reveal what was inside
Seemingly patient
Waiting for this day to begin
Ending sooner than a tornado on an ocean
Surmised by a whirling rain of Monsoons
Misty as the howling wind on Tuesdays when the car goes for a spin
Unshared and undiscovered by two souls
Who coveted and coveted
Only trying to sift through the essence of youth
All I discovered was, the old man I left back at home
The mother I left weeping
Never expected me to do things so recklessly
As I lost her in the end
Unwilling perhaps, the trains kept coming
And I could not stop myself from
Setting foot on the last one at midnight
All of them strangers

It's cloud's shapes
I am looking at
But, I cannot find you at all
Around where the path curves
Right along a garden
How sad love is
Yet, so out of reach
In this world
Of swirling daisies
And friendly flowers
Why is a rose so red
Why is the sky so white

The difference
Between you and me
I still love you
Even if you don't
Love yourself

If recluse was right for my love and trust
Better friendship, would lack no such tryst for us
Your footsteps pass my love's long day, often
Haunting the sin in me to ablution
Hallways and havens of lust we waste
Straddling the columns known by the wholly chaste
Of the college and courtyard, today
With the libraries sleeping away
On the venomous and jealous day

Writers and students
Sitting in bunches,
Like roses gathered
The thorns touched in bloom
Distant from the doom
Dust to dust
Between us
No more tomorrow, halcyon or sorrow
Ashes to ashes
Such prejudice shall never pass today

Today, today
It lurks in the hardships damaged now
Of working class martyrs dying for freedom
Today, today
And countless clusters of sweat and tempers
Each holding their spectacle for a lousy cigarette
Today
The pipes will turn cold
The streets will be filled
Everyone will be wearing the same skin
But, so loved for wearing it

That is how I feel for you, amidst the dissent,
I got sick waiting for the day.

The streets
Are full
I am lonely

A fly
In my closet
Cannot bee

There is a
Bead
On a dewy bud

The birds
Are singing
Maybe

The rivers look
Alive
Rainy day

You exist in my mind
You live in my heart
You hold a place in my lines
Which try to bridge mind, body and soul
Without you in my life
This poem is an incomplete metaphor
For love

It is when
We do not understand something
We cease to question it
Thus, turning to assumption
A child, although
In doubt
Will seek an answer
Sometimes such answers
Quieten the madness of our heart
Which is still a child finding its own genius
Sleeping in the chaos