A strange look greets me as I turn my gaze to a mirror and stare into my image
It looks rather vapid and gloomy, perhaps reminding me of my moral pillage

The virtual world in its realm as they say; or perhaps it’s just light blocked by a glass shard
The mirror smiles and whispers ‘I only shield the light but not the truth, however scarred’

The ‘other’ world intrigues me and I yearn for what lies on that side
Is it a blissful place or has it the same ebb and flow of the tide

I wonder; is it after all a mere reflection of self or out there lies a different and an asserting me
I invite ‘myself’ over on a voyage where what this discovery holds, I shall eventually see

I reach out to myself with an desire to bridge the virtuous gap in my ravine
For once the ego is set aside, the vanity gone
and just my soul in its sublime

My life unfolds on the mirror side of me with the same ugliness, turpitude, conceit and lies
A little perturbed, I now realize I was crass to assume that events and time here differently flies

I saw the same conundrum in my conscience and the as similar events griped me in their jaws
As like always, I faltered and erred here too, as I was used to always put myself before the cause

I falsely believed that here I was the Captain of my ship, sailing the smooth waters of life on a full mast
But what I saw instead was a reflection of my bygones in the future and a glimpse of my future in the past

Nonplussed, I look at the mirror ‘me’ to desperately seek a reason for this strange decree
The mirror ‘me’ smilingly says ‘Cause and effect in this world too obey the rules as they be

‘Here’, the other me reveals, ‘Right doesn’t magically become the wrong; nor wrong the right’
In the struggles of life, though queer it may seem, but with only yourself did you always fight

Now wiser, I thank ‘me’ exchange pleasantries and return to the real, albeit shaken, rumbling and aghast
In my journey back home I realize that it is wise to ponder on your future but a tad wiser to reflect on your past

Ashamed, I realize how naive I was to seek a different reality; always and every-time looking for an excuse to flee
Now when I look at the mirror reflection, I say to myself it has always been you there, you simply chose not to see

The vicious lava gushed like fire as it spewed from a mountain’s vent
When the fury mollified, carved on you was god’s word we call the covenant

Sierra you were at times, a rock, pebble or a boulder
Lofty palaces with all their pride perched atop your shoulder

Cultures shared their thoughts with you and profound markings did you bear
Reposing their trust and narrating to progeny the glorious days that were once there

A lost soul wandering fearfully in the lands with no one by his side
Yearningly he looked up to you and wisely did you guide

You instill courage even in the puniest beings, for as the fable goes
When faced with the mighty Goliath, pebbles were all that David chose

People happily etched you when life was conceived by a womb
Also, when they departed you solemnly marked their tomb

They cut you, polished your contours to take pride in their arrows and spear
Used you mercilessly on the battle field but finally they also lost their dear

Exquisite carvings you did give to them to adorn their courts, parapet and ledge
The sculptor humbly said that you were always there and that he simply chipped the edge

But spiritually you were mocked as lifeless and this is for all to see
It is only when God graced your idol did mankind bow to thee

Through the ages you stood with contempt on the royal yard sniding at the aisle
In the end, your conceit lay scattered in dust as sands of time cut your profile

For it is early that one must realize and for one’s sins atone
As time and tide are known to have callous hearts of stone

Many shapes, many sizes and many forms have filled my world
Rolled out as square, triangles and such as my imagination unfurled

But there is something curiously elegant about this form
Equal in all respects and curving to the exact norm

No sharp edges, no rough profile, nothing obtuse and nothing acute
Gracefully swerving and leaving everyone spellbound and mute

Every glance at you never fails to produce a sigh
Look there is the radius and so is the mysterious pi

Your centre truly rules without favour or prejudice
Measures every point on it equally and precise

Alas, the tangent covets to touch you twice but can’t afford
The chord crosses you twice but has it really struck a chord

It begins with a point on the paper and no matter how you treat
You start from a place somewhere but still make both ends meet

Of the infinite desires and varied emotions in a girdle
All the events in life finally come a full circle

In this world where gloom, despair and hopelessness are so rife
You truly make us contemplate on the circle of life

They all glance at you, some curse, some regale with joy
Some admire thou but for others you are just a toy

Your pair of hands clasp together and then move apart
Subtly hinting that it is time to arrive as it is to depart

Time provides succor, it also inflicts mayhem on all alike
The king, the pauper and the vast array of human psyche

But every day you remind us to arise and awake
Exhort us to do our karma; just for karma’s sake

You chime loyally, and with melody, every hour
Your voice heard by all near you and all those afar

You are strapped to the wrist and perched atop a mighty tower
Events tumble like leaves but you truly wield the power

Each division of the moment you can equally resolve
You see everything and keep a watch on them all

You show no favour, no prejudice, no animosity no mock
But in the race against time is in fact a race against the clock

In a life’s sojourn, all that was not and all that was mine
I revere you as the only faithful keeper of time

The parched earth with wrinkles; its visage in a lorn
A few blades of grass scattered alongwith the thorn

The tiller ploughs you gently with coulter parting your soil
He sows his hopes with the grain and a melancholic toil

You now look at the sky and longingly wish for drops of rain
Expecting them to shower their feelings to assuage your pain

But alas, the clouds take no notice and with dispassion dismiss your plea
Refuse you even the scanty drops that you long for before elsewhere they flee

And as bolt from the blue, it pours when it rains; as they say
The torrents of fury washing all that was in its way

Battling the vagaries, one fine morning a sprout peeked into the world
Bravely raising its delicate stalk and then its green leaf unfurled

Inspired by your valour, did a horde of them grow in the fields
With resolute firmness showing to all the power that unity wields

The farmer was blissful and heartily commended you on your feat
As again since ages, you’ll feed mankind with your rice and your wheat

After the harvest you lay barren, yearning for the apt season
You may now be devoid of crops but surely not of reason

Even when the weather is gloomy and there is no sun to shine
Tread along the untrodden and the victory shall be thine

Toil begets success like sloth begets failure; slowly this truth does seep
It is the same with our actions because as you sow so shall you reap

Mankind wanted barter to earn a living for their need
Though nature gave in surfeit but not enough for their greed

The silver, the gold and the diamonds; they all had their stint
Then someone did the alter and out you popped from the mint

You make them toil and labour like apian for its honey
As finally what one desires is a value for their money

You journey through this world and often exchange hand
All wishing that you would appear at the wave of a magic wand

Some openly mint you while others do it in stealth
The more you get added the more it adds to wealth

Piety makes a decree while evil may enjoin
But aren’t they really two faces of the same coin

If only had you gauged bliss instead of treasure
Love in the world would have no bound or measure

You may have the glitter and shine but after all is said and done
When it came to joy the pauper had it all and the king had none

You lay on the table, gloomy, but when the quill dipped the ink
My thoughts were incoherent but it at least got me to think

The emotions I did bungle and often did I caper
Seldom got it right when you put words to paper

The dusty papyrus bundled up in a big wide sheaf
The abstract curiously takes some shape as you turn over a new leaf

You may have filled in you though delible ink a dime
Colour may fade later but your essence is etched on time

Speaking of an adage, curiously it is more often than not
The faintest of the ink is always stronger than a memorized thought

The poet, the author contemplating and immersed pensively alone
You are bonded to them like a sculptor and his chisel to his mighty stone

Contented when you stop and say that I’ve wrote it all
Mysteriously there appears a writing on the wall

Your nib, sharp and resolute scribbles furiously on the obverse and the rear
But at times fate intervenes sadly and reminds you to simply sign here

Ambitions held aloft and when destiny gives you the wink
And there in irony it may seem so that you’ve not dried the ink

Providence flows through your veins right up to your point
For it is you to finally decide who gets to anoint

But this world is ephemeral and sadly the end is near
This you must behold for all those whom you may smear.

On the judgment day, the divine scribe holding you, wishes us well
As finally it is one’s deeds that lands one in the heaven or in the hell.

In the annals of time you have been picked as there you lay in dust
You benignly say; feel me, curse me, or simply read me if you must

As I longingly opened you and lovingly read through the pages
I was left mesmerized in your treasured wisdom of the ages

A beatific thought once crossed me only to vanish in the vagaries of time
But I can count on you to record all the prose and all the beautiful rhyme

Through the ages in all their honesty, the mankind does aver
You may look ugly but you are seldom judged by your cover

You take various forms as pulp, paperback or leather bound
The cruel gadgets have hounded you but you have held your ground

The mighty oak like others felled down and alas in the moment of grief
A part of nature divinely takes another form as it gently adds a new leaf

You have immersed in you great schemes; some genteel, some by hook and crook
But finally the canon of nature has its say and does go by the book

You are seen everywhere; be it a repository of knowledge or a simple home
Give me all the riches all the wealth in the world but I’ll still cherish the tome

In the lord’s abode , with prayers on lips and souls perched on a pew
Following your words a few look you up while others look up to you

You brought them together; two stranger a cloth
The seam defining their bond as it does in a troth

You resurrect and blow life into a scarecrow lying on the hay
You also crisscross through wool as if you’ve got something to say

The tip and the end sinuously writhing; vanish and miraculously appear
Be it the muslin or the worn blanket, you’ve sewn the front and have deftly done the rear

In swift hands you plough the fibers with easing scud
But an iota of neglect and you unsparingly draw blood

Though a wonted thing you are and grace you may lack
When you are actually sought, you disappear in a stack

You pierce through the skin, some tattoo some make the doodle
A select few choose to go under the knife, others prefer the needle

Be it a slit, a cut or a gnash and all that may seem bizarre
You skillfully do your job gently leaving behind a scar

A thread firmly you carry and weave through the fabric of time
I have dwindled my eight but your stitch saved my nine

A rich man denied an entrance in the kingdom of heaven; so said the riddle
It is destiny that shall help the camel pass through the eye of the needle

As I gently close my eyes and descend into a dream
Floating between the flux of the surreal and the true
A sense of exhilaration grips me for as it may seem
What lays ahead shall definitely be new

My mind wanders in fantasy with renewed excitement and hope
Scouring all the elements to see what they hold for me
But in fact it was fate that was giving me enough rope
As things unfold in this reverie and all that I am about to see

My pent up emotions take vivid forms in many a vicarious life
At times I become the lord of the skies with all at my mercy
Seldom I am tormented by demons of past and in a strife
I flout all norms and summon foolish courage to propound a heresy

Every now and then I build a world around me filled with desire
Only to alter them time and again in the chain of events to come
Deep down I know that this was not a true play of events but only a satire
Still I was strangely happy when things went my way but was sad at some

The ruffled feathers of time meander in the mist
I pick and choose a few only to discard the rest
When plans go awry and fate gives it a cruel twist
All along probing me to think that perhaps this is for my best

Sometimes I did well for mankind; the altruism bordering cloy
But mostly the thoughts were centered around my well being
When I get what I crave, I am filled to the brim with joy
But when I am hurt isn’t it odd that I don’t feel a thing

Though I have crafted the dream and I remain its architect
I strangely have no control in steering it or how it may unfold
When I achieved what I desired for I sublimely felt perfect
Aghast I was when aspirations shattered and feared for what else it may hold

The eyes open and now awake, it is from this magical spell that I flee
Drawn into this real world that has a sullen gleam
For even if illusions they were and illusions they shall be
I know that finally I shall immerse into a never ending dream