If you don’t love me , I can take it
I only ask you
Spare me one more night
Just let me love your lies a little longer

A loveless kiss hurts less
Than a reality fuelled bite.

there was no power

from my Mumbai hotel I
could see the stream of people
in the narrow street below

a cart carrying the dead listed
and nearly toppled over

the ox pulling it did not stop
dragging the askew carriage along

passersby steered clear of the primitive hearse
knowing it carried the curse, the fever felling the denizens
of this muggy megapolis

a plague harvesting souls
quicker than they could be burned

the Mithi was thick with their ashes,
diluted only by tears of the mourners
who harbored fears they would be next

I was there, a helpless healer;
a doctor turned detective, running
a race to find a cause, a miracle cure

all my potions impotent,
all my staring at slides a lesson
in limitations, ignorance--a discovery
of crawling creatures too miniscule
to be dissected, too beguiling to be
understood

my eyes were tired of looking
at the tiny death moguls and their victims
my ears weary of the entreaties for relief
from suffering

yet I stood and watched, one wagon
after another, carrying carrion for the pyres

I prayed the power would stay off,
for light would have shone on me:
a curious survivor, unworthy of whatever
grace kept me from the heaps of lifeless
limbs bound for the fires of the night

You were the type of person who loved dancing in the rain.
Laughter and the smell of daisies followed you everywhere
I don't think you owned a sweater that wasn't oversized
You would leave pressed flowers in all of my books, and I still find them today
I never would have imagined how terrible life without you is
If only life came back to people who deserved it, people like you.
No one except for me knew that behind the daisies and the oversized sweaters, you were hurting
You wore the sweaters to hide yourself
You were ashamed
You never wanted anyone else to hurt, so you spent your time fixing others instead of yourself
I tried to help you but I failed
And I hate myself for letting you hurt
I know I musn't dwell on the past, but it's hard when that's the only thing keeping you alive is my mind

Reminds me of the time that I spent, time that I wasted.
Til the past and the future blend, and I feel so complacent.
Lost amid waves, formed in the wind of
Summer nights and lies that I told myself as a kid.

Now there's nothing honest left, except things to remember by.
A thousand little tokens, to remind me of every night
I let emptiness fill me, felt so fulfilling at the time,
But now I'm left to reminisces, realize I can't rewind.

I guess it takes more than a mess of emotion
To paint another picture, perfect, something envoking
The ideas that got me through the day, I heard it said, once again
There's never going to be another way forward

I take another shot in the dark, another empty park
Held in place by time itself, left to vacant dark, I take
Yet another step in place, too afraid to grow up
Holding off every force that i know of, as of late

I've been stuck in my head for long as I can remember
My memories tied to the presence of weather
All my best are nestled in cloudy days with the
Scent of rain so reminiscent, find myself stuck in these visions
Clinging to blind faith in
Emotions
Memories
So far gone, and I keep forgetting to make new ones

the formation of the rain
on the window
recasts the landscape
into a kaleidoscope
picture
a glossy eight by ten
viewed through a prism

skinny white trash *** stands
outside the trailer park gate
turning tricks & making $200
@ night; the cops & troopers
leave her alone b/c she gives
to the policeman's fund; every
now & then she'll make it $20
just for them & she'll dance
at their bachelor parties but
she can't get hired at the strip
club cuz she's too skanky &
everybody's already seen her
scabby skinny white *** naked