As you sit beside me
The world fades away
Just you and me in focus
It all seems okay
With my fingertips
I trace your face
Your jawline
Then your lips
Our eyes lock together
I could hear a faint click
I've pictured this moment for so long
I'd started to believe this day would never come
But you smile brings me back
To reality, to you
This moment is perfect
And so are you.
I look deep in your eyes
And find a hidden chest
Inside lies all those words
I wished you would've said
Slowly we lean closer
And closer we become
I feel your pulse thumping
To the rythym of our love
Your hand cups my face
My hand finds comfort in your hair
You close your eyes
Ready for our first kiss
But our lips don't meet
My lips land right next to yours
Very close, to the side of your lips
" Why didn't you kiss me? "
Your voice is hurtful
Your hand falls from my face
And then I begin to say
"Your lips aren't meant for me to kiss
Your eyes aren't for me to miss
Your love isn't for me to feel
Your heart isn't for me to live in
I'll walk away from your life
Just needed this moment, this one time
Cause you deserve the best there is
And sadly the best isn't me"

I didn't see her for three days

then she was back
but her color was not

where her hair parted
was starkly arid
on her forehead
wasn't the dot of red
and her saree was bleached white

yet nothing was amiss
she intently scaled the fishes
cut them neatly into pieces
though a piece of her went missing

She knows well
for no price
can she stop the sale.

I'm reading poetry at the cremation ghat
amid chanting of God's name
while ferrying and burning the dead.

The noise unsettles me a bit
as sets me thinking of my own death
that by all means seems closer than farther.

Yet I get the relieving feel
reading poems would heal
all the agonies of my flesh
and take me to that spiritual level
where I would take death as
passing into another dimension.

I'm not much of a religious person
but have always felt devoted to my kindred
seeking transcendence through them.

The best thing I'm hoping right now
is when I burn
someone would amid chanting of God's name
read poetry at the burning ghat.