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The paper boats sail
upon the stream.
Curious like vagabonds
questing for dreams.

On they float
through bends & turns,
Over silt mountains
& valleys of fern.

Glide with butterflies,
Caper past toads.
Not a clue where
leads the watery road.

Caressing the earth,
Savoring the rain,
Drawn into the rapids,
Broken free again.

The tempest, the calm,
All the vistas unknown.
Horizons they cross.
To beyond, they've flown!

A paper boat I hold
Only one to spare
Place it in the water
A small white corsair.

She kneels beside me,
on a bed of grass.
Points at the boat
& throws me a glance.

Smiling, she asks,
"Leaving? Where to?"
"Let's find out", I say
"My boat is for two."
www.shreekantdhuri.wordpress.com
The deck was shuffled
The table was set
The players awaited
To place their bets.

As the cards were dealt
She thought of the past
Hoping a change in fortune
Maybe today, at long last.

She glanced at her cards
Felt a joyful rush
For she had been dealt
A high hand, a straight flush.

The game went on
The cards began to fold
Until left were but two
Raising the gold.

"Another raise of stakes?"
He toyed, with a smirk
"Why not?" she hit back,
His smugness drawing her irk.

She pushed all her chips
And coins forward, all in.
"I'm risking everything" she said
Wiping off his grin.

"I call it." he said
After a long searching look.
'He's bluffing' she thought
'Like a bait on a hook.'

Her hand she revealed,
Causing a moment of pause.
"That's that" he said
"It seems that I've lost."

Her leap of joy
Brought a smile to his face
The royal flush he hid
Had not gone to waste.
The wheels draw to a halt with an ominous screech,
Dazed, I look up from my broken revery;
Murmuring voices, shuffling footsteps alight,
A diffracted spectra, some dark, some bright.

To the windows shift my moony eyes,
As the engine spurts with a burst of life.
Through a tunneling limbo of seamless dark,
Slash ribbons of rail in swirls and arcs.

In this labyrinth, this state of oblivion,
Memories trickle, in ounces, in millions.
Lights of saffron on the arches bloom,
Will-o'-the-wisps, my conscience assumes.

Emerge awed, under a canopy of stars,
An infinity of dreams one could wish upon.
The country bathes in the moonlight deluge.
Utopia, I muse, for my poetic refuge.

The cosmos smiles, enchanting yet so strange.
Would we ever know why, if we weren't so vain?
Gold, moltened crimson, at the horizon streaks,
Warm like the dribble, of tears on one's cheeks.

The last station nears, the wheel rhythm slows.
I get up, wishing the end weren't so close.
The final chapter. Is there ever a further plot?
Perhaps, I decide, on another train of thought.
The days are long.
The roads are steep.
Have mountains to climb.
No time for sleep.

The weather is harsh.
The world is cruel.
Today, Tomorrow,
Everyday's a duel.

Be wary traveler
Misguide lurks on every turn.
Follow your heart,
The compass to one's yearn.

Now grab your shoes.
We have dreams to chase.
Adventure has a headstart
And there's no time to waste!
Life's an adventure worth having.
Was a man who believed
To read was to pray
The sound, the smell, the touch
Of books, truly made his day.

"I'll collect books," he thought
"To read to my hearts content."
And so he did, filling chests
In pursuit of his intent.

He bought and he brought
He stocked and he stored.
Reading forgotten, collecting
Meant so much more.

"Books so countless
Their stacks so tall
I would not live," he'd say
"To read them all!"

It's funny how fate works
The man's wish came true.
But not quite so fantastic
As the dreams he drew.

The books he collected
In his bibliophilic lust,
The termites left him naught
But some dunes of dust.
'Tis a tale, a sorry tale
Of a man, never took the leap
Of a man, free yet caged
A lion amongst the sheep.

A man of great ability,
Of unrealized potential
Confined and clipped by limits
The herd had deemed essential.

A man, a brilliant man,
Stripped of glory and his claws.
Left forlorn and wounded
By the sheep and their laws.

A man, a greater man
Led by the lesser to believe
He owed them much and more
And everything, without reprieve.

A man, a most herculean man
Could have the world, his to keep.
Alas had he only remembered
He was a lion, not a sheep.
The poem isn't just for prodigies rather it's for everyone - all of us, as individuals, possess the potential to do something truly extraordinary; to achieve it we must not fall prey to mob mentality.
The battle is over
Vanquished is the foe
Yet why triumph trusts
So bitter, so hollow?

In the eye of my mind
Each enemy was a villain.
Yet when I saw it true.
Were no monsters, just men.

Men, much like us,
Trying to do what's right.
Our perceptions at odds
Mirroring the sides of the fight.

Warring for Lords
Who use us as pawns
Is glory so great, risking
The sight of another dawn?

T'was not the war
But the pillage that came after
Fashioned my doubt of men
Heeding the devil on their shoulder.

Noble causes forgotten
Once reaping the spoils of war
The blood of innocents staining
Mens' honors and their swords.

The crowds cheer our names,
Place on our heads, Hero's crowns.
I paste a smile on my face.
It's my heart that wears a frown.
The poem is a reflection on the monstrosities of war.
There's a serenity in all of the chaos.
A calm within the roar of the waves.
A frozen heart beating inside an inferno.
A shadow beneath the illuminance of rays.

There's a thundering silence in all the noise.
A dulcet tranquil in the eye of the storm.
A faint scrawl on the blank of a page.
A feeling of home in the strangeness of a dorm.

There's a hint of truth in every artistic lie.
A foreshadowing of the future hidden in the past.
A glimmer of a tear in every moment of joy.
A sense of triumph even in finishing last.

There's a bitter tinge in the heavenly delish of sweet.
A lasting perfume of life on the stone of a grave.
A trace of youth in the smile of the old.
A sparkle of freedom in the eyes of a slave.

There's a ripple of bravery in the tremble of fear.
A fuzzy warmth in the embrace of the rain.
A hope of luxury in the dreams of the penniless.
A shade of humility in the swaggering of the vain.

There's a subtlety of violence in the acts of the kind.
An implicit sacrifice behind every advance.
A whisper of melody in the harmony of a human soul.
A flickering doubt in the faith of a religious stance.

There are butterflies fluttering in the orchard.
Dear narcissus in full bloom.
Take a moment to glimpse the beauty.
For its fleeting, they will be gone too soon.
The world is a harmony of such beautiful juxtapositions and contradictions. We must take a few moments from time to time out of our busy lives to appreciate it.
Her
I gave him birth
I raised him
He loves me truest
The mother says

I grew up with him
I cared for him
He loves me best
The sister says

I married him
I'd give my life for him
He loves me greatest
The wife says

He enters and asks
Where are you, love?
His little girl runs and hugs him
He has eyes only for her
For those who cherish the many important women in their lives: mother, sister, wife and daughter.
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