Untamed!*
Its landlocked audacity!
My arrogant city
Needs a sea.

Gasp!
I stutter!
Chest rising, air-hungry...
Again, I sputter!

Efforts to resuscitate
My grappling form
Are all falling in vain
What is this storm?

Hands reaching out
With a desperate yearn for something
I lost, while I was busy
Extracting, gaining, bargaining.

Parched throat
Unmoistened by water
Tremulous heart
Beating feebler, faster.

No antidote works,
No therapies suffice,
Oxygen flows through,
Still I'm devoid of life.

The world dejectedly shakes its head
Everything known to man
Has been done. But
twists of fate, who can understand?

'Cause in a magical instant,
The Hand divine
Rests on my ebbing existence
One more time.

Once again dysrhythmic heart beats
Start dancing in orderly unison.
Breaths start entering-exiting
In perfect, beautiful, natural fashion.

In goes life,
The reason for my being,
In goes truth,
All knowledge, all meaning.

And finally, after the
Evil, cidal, unending eternity,
Out comes a deep, long, fulfilling
Exhalation of Poetry.

Now, alive, I truly am.

He vanished one fine day
Left his cellphone on his bed
Packed no clothes
Withdrew no money from the bank
Spoke to no one
He was under no debt
And otherwise too,
He didn't appear distressed-
Well, assuming so,
Because whenever you would
Mock him, call him a name or two,
Become aghast and ask
"Who gets married and starts a family at fifty two!?"-
He'd not do much,
He'd mutter few profanities,
Or curse your favorite cricketing team,
Or he'd just skip lunch,
Go for a stroll and he'd be fine again.
But this time he strolled away
Without a trace
Leaving you to scour newspapers everyday
Matching the photos they print
Of abandoned dead bodies,
With his prematurely aged face.

Popping out from slumberous state,
Little buds, you come to life.
Fight, fist, fend the odds,
You’re different; you survive.

Combative, commanding, cruel,
Your army, every restraint exceeds,
As it marches on, devouring
The very platter on which it feeds.

Slithering, slipping stealthily,
Deadly tentacles spare no bone, sinew.
Boundaries are blurred; your territory expands,
Your militia continues to exponentially grow.

And soon, your red flags of victory-
Those flags of death, demise and doom
Are planted everywhere; each bit
Of terrain you’ve invaded and consumed.

There you sit, content, in the middle of all the gloom,
Immortal, indestructible, infinite.
With power of the magnitude you possess,
There’s no force that can give you a fight.

And when flies of decay begin to hover over
Your kingdom, you smile, flexing your pincers.
Thriving on the depressing glow of the setting sun,
You- the kark, the crab, the cancer.

*(to the malady that ate my Grandmother away)

This* big a commitment,
And this tiny an assurance!
But I guess when a guy
So tall, so tough,
Takes his finger
That too the littlest,
And with a face
So earnest,
Curls it around yours,
While making a side remark
On how easily the two "pinkies" fit,
He means to keep his promise,
Oh yes, he means it.

Lie in prostration, child,
When life bereaves you
Of all truth, all inspiration
All light, all the ways.

For they'll find you,
They'll come to you,
Bathed in glory,
Unreal beauty and grace,
Twin guardian angels,
Soft, tender glow
On perfectly sculpted face
Capped with sparkling halo.

All you'll need to do then,
Is to rise, lift your arms,
And you'll feel your pain
Start to slowly dissipate,
As you'll cup your weak,
Trembling palms, to
*Reach out and touch Hope,
Reach out and touch Faith.

His situation was dire.
Despite having taken shelter
Inside that ring of fire,
Fuelled with whiskey and ****,
And ****** with flesh,

She still held in her beautiful hands
The end of the rope around his neck.

Stepping into, and out of the flames
With unbelievable, unnatural ease,
She would tighten and loosen
That noose of her deadly love,
As and when she pleased.