I often wake up shivering
under the thin excuse
of a tapestry
I use as a bed sheet.
My naked body curls
its bones in a weak
attempt to make heat
for itself
by itself.
As my sleepy brains
struggle to freeze the week,
to make the morning gape.
Eventually I lift myself
and stumble over to the
roaring ac unit
and turn its knobs
At ease!
only to wake up within the hour
smothered in my own sweat,
my feeble solitary sheet
now a cheese cloth
and once again I stumble
over to the *******
and turn its knobs over again.
I play this game often
here in my simple apartment
in the midst of monsoons
and torrential brain storms.
To keep score would drive
me mad- make a poor sport
out of me.
Nobody ever wins anyways.
it's worse when I am in my bed
and not alone,
but so is another game
I find myself playing.
Too often I play a game
I like to call  "just one more cigarette"
-this game has a definite loser
and it's always definitely me.
This game keeps score without me:
the first one to 20 loses.

Before you thought,
There was no world,
no light,
no chaos,
no love,
no pain,
nothing.

When you were born,
a new universe.

Isn't that what it's all about,
the synthesis of
discontent and momentum?

Abandonment
defies the unity
of perception,
while time knits
atomic moments into
molecules that thread
perception's needle

The fabric of reality
should be so fortunate
to tear
that it might be patched
with a square of
Pandora's consequence

The chaotic repair
initiating
the synthesis of
inertia and bliss

Everything was new to her
Everything was a game
She was a treasure
And yet an undeserved bane

She danced rainbows
On the shore
Laughed fire
Over the wind

Chestnut hair
Tumbled down an ivory back
Round blue-ish mirrors
Rested under slender brows
She sat down by the rocks
Watched the clouds drift around
With a chestnut prison beside her
Splashed by a bit of the ocean spray

Flawless -
In every way but one -
Insatiable curiosity beckoned her
Told her to open the lid
And so

She did.

Horrors spilled out:
One-eyed monsters
By the names of Envy and Greed,
Along with fat abominations -
Gluttony and Lust - paying no heed
To Pandora's shouts
Or attempts to flee

With tremendous effort
The lid fell shut
Trapping disheartened Hope
Within wooden walls
And she, the curse from the Thunderer,
Collapsed -
Her rainbows dissolved
And fire doused

Everything was dead to her
Nothing was a game
She was a treasure
And yet an undeserved bane

you and I are a story
with an open ending
each person who sees us together
writes a different version
                                                         ­        some say we’re a fairytale
                                                       ­          some say we’re a tragedy
                                                         ­                                                            for others were are a comedy
                                                          ­                                                           or just a short story
in some minds we’re a thriller
going on all kinds of adventures
in others an expression of horror
two people who just should not be together

                                                       ­     the way I see it sweetheart
                                                      ­             we are all of these
                                                        but­ the most important thing
                                                        is that our story has no ending
                                                       and that’s the way it should be

- Vijayalakshmi Harish
        12.09.2012

Copyright © Vijayalakshmi Harish