Stop it oh Ringmaster,
Stop it you fool!
Can't you see it's pointless
To crack that whip any more?
Your stupid beast has fled in terror
Back to his cage,  trembling.
Where once he used to pace
In majestic pride ,
He now cowers in a corner
Afraid,  very afraid.
He's not half the miserable beast
He's already been.
For he seems to hear
A whip deadlier,  a whip unseen.
Every now and then he shakes
In mortal fear of his new fear!
His new Ringmaster is mightier
And way too nastier
'Coz he cracks a whip
That's frozen time, stopped everything
From meaning anything.
Neither night nor day nor love nor lust
Has any more to it now.
Look how he's forgotten
To urinate to defecate to fornicate.
The meat you threw yesterday
Lies untouched in his cage.
Is it that he's hungry no more
Or has he forgotten he's hungry?
Look how he trembles at every footfall
Of even the scurrying rats!
Of every whiff of air even,
Of even his cagemate!
No. He won't dance anymore
Not to your tune,  not to anybody's!
His time's up,  his show done.
He's figured out he's only a sucker
Running from fear to fear
Whip him hard but he won't budge
You don't scare him no more.
This new whip,  unseen but lethal
Is now his new master and Lord.

I have so many things to tell you
In a thousand silent words
When I finally meet you
And the coffee in its cup goes cold...

Even if I only just stroked
Your fragile delicate hand
I'd be holding you entirely
In a tight unending hug.

Oh would I gaze into your liquid eyes
Trying, in vain, to fathom them!
Would I breathe deep enough
Of your aromatic breath
And listen to those curls
Hum a happy song as they
Caress, coyly, your dimpled face!

I ask myself again and again
If we ever have met.
And I'm sure we have
Time and again
Not merely sipped from
Many a cup of coffee gone cold
But from Life itself.
Across so many light years.
Across galaxies and millennia.
And we had gone our separate ways
Until, at this very moment.
When we forget the coffee
In its cup gone cold.

Talk to me, my love!
say something, anything!
The silence that enshrouds me
is an icky sticky thing.
It's woven its silken strands
tighter and tighter around me.
And inside this cocoon,
I struggle and wiggle,
wanting to hear your voice.
I hum your favourite songs
but can you hear them?
Every breath is a sigh,
every moment a longing...
My ears perk up at every muffled noise--
is that your voice?
Hurry, my love,
say something, anything!
For it wont be long
before the silken strands break
and my soul flutters far
to destinations unknown...

I glide past your window,
looking in.
I caress your clothes
hung out to dry.
I tickle your curls
as you walk past.
I mop up all your bouquet.
I embrace you in the early morning cold,
giving you goosebumps.
I enter you through your pores
into your very being.
Now I am you...

My cat, one day,
Discovered the mirror.
He jumped onto a table
And looked into it, sideways
And saw another reality
And was fascinated
And enchanted
And he just wouldn't let go
And again and again
Went after it.
The other cat was enchanted too
And he kept pawing at my cat
And meowing a similar meow
And he wouldn't let go either.
Though I tried telling him
That it was futile,
That his reality was different.
But my cat seemed not to agree.
Did he see something that I didn't?
He pawed at it every day
And kept pawing and meowing
Until, one day, he made it there.
Or so it seems.
For he's not here now
And neither is my dad
Nor my grandma, my little sister
And so many others
And many things, besides.
And little wisps of memories even.
They all seem to have succeeded
Like my cat.

fare thee well
oh my good ol' hawai chappal!
thy sole is free now
to roam worlds unknown
unfettered at last from feet
and straps and strings unseen...
don't let your gait slacken
in fear of some fearsome vulcan
do'nt baulk at the spectre
of, in his cauldron, giving up your sulphur
for you may yet be reborn
in an avatar as yet unknown.
a glove, a doll or an eraser
a ******, a cap or something baser.
for you, i shed a silent tear
so loyally did you serve me, my dear!