Oh I find love such an easy thing to do
Easier still to say that I love you
But living up to it I find manifold tough
Tiding over hurdles riding oceans rough!

Love comes such easy wear it like my name
It’s there just for taking a mere child’s game
But living up to it I find quite a hard deal
With voids to fill up and wounds to heal!

On the face it seems love is an easy game
Knocking on her door laying your claim
But living up to it demands lot of commitment
Whose tip is only touched with I love you statement!

But I do find love an easy thing to do
That took me half the life to make it ring true
For living up to it I have tried my best
I avow my efforts are not all gone waste!

A stray cloud pours
in the sun.

Baked in the heat
on my window seat

I crave for more
of the fun.

The ones outdoor
for shelter run.

Buried in time-holed yellow papyrus
of an unread book of poems
lay hidden a card

the token of a gift

inked in skeletal scribbles
indecipherable

but for five words

indelible in dusty piles' ravage

speaking the gifter's voice

time has come
right now
ripened
to read the book of poems
honor my words.

**read when you forget me.

Seasons have weathered
left footprints passing age
yet something is spared
to draw her in my gaze!

It's not as pink as first crush
nor red as primal yore
but white residue of dried brush
that makes me want not more!

I wonder if she knows it
when hold her in my gaze
not slowed a bit this heartbeat
my eyes don't see her age!

She wonders if I know it
when steals on me her look
the pages left are still sweet
love stays an unclosed book!

While I question existence
seek purpose and a god
the dog sniffs the trash bin
in howling hunger

and me bowel driven
trudge home from work
find hope in the neon
where the drongo harvests insects
its black wings cast an irrational night
of drunken refuge...

a home a poem and her.

I know* she says what you aspire,
if I go earlier
not long will you wait
To find a new mate.

Surely not dear I reply
I too will die
and if not,
in that unbearable pain
will go insane.

I know better.

This morn only
saw my male budgie
cosying easily
to his new companion.

Can’t bear to be long

Forlorn!

Dear, it breaks me as much to write this
as I know would do you when you read
but time has come to reveal the secret
to tell you, I love you still,
have loved you all this time
and I doubt if I can love her more
the woman I'm leaving you for
who right now seems to possess something
worth more than all you have given to me
and who the urges inside me tell
would make me happier more than you could
would find me another home different
better, brighter..
and my dream for the time to come is such strong
that I'm ready to commit anything for that
even parting from you seems not high a price
except that I can't imagine how you would look
when you read this and break down
with my hands not beside to hold in comfort
wipe away the torrents
when surrounds you a loneliness
you never knew existed all these years.

*The home is as yet unbroken.
He now loves her more than ever.

The letter was never posted.

Today is 7 7 14

Starting from 1st Jan 2002
Such perfectly summed up dates
To once annually continue
at two yearly intervals
Till 2024
Repeating only again
From Jan 2102
Beyond the lifetime
Of most of us!

If lies in us the mind of God
within us is God’s abode
then why most of the time
of our free will

We act a devil!

When destiny threw them together
for thirty minutes

they heard each other's heartbeats

thirty minutes together
they were pair

he preened her feather
she spread her bare

don't love me
I'll soon go away
he said broken voice

this thirty minutes together
I'll cherish forever
in her voice rejoice

and end of time
they went their way

you love don't mean

you would forever stay.

Serpentine corpuscles trickle to his chin
as they batter him in incensed anger's blow
but couldn't they break the broken man within
the sinner long used to seeing own blood's flow!

**** him the frenzied crowd storms over him
ceaseless punches fall like moribund rain
insane monsters' boiling wrath's steam
would stop only when is numbed all his pain!

His meek hands vainly struggle to defend
cracked bones clang like splintered glass
head bows then curves in crumbled bend
till his frame yields to the merciless mass!

Be scared not he has died thus in the past
repaired revived and released from cell
every time coming back in renewed lust
to walk once again through the fire of hell!

The horses feed on bat-moon meadow
their stone age stable now cobwebbed
hooves long rested from run
gone dusty by the wheels of metal
yet they paleolithic horses
graze in night’s paraffin-lit glow
smelling of stable and the wild run
and in the stillness finding
their world crumbled.

I love you
not because
you're good looking

I love you
not because
you're caring

I love you
not because
you dote on me

I love you
not because
your smiles are sweet

I love you
not in lust
of your crevice
or orifice
or skin

I love you
because
without you
I feel

incomplete within.

Thank God
to be with
there's someone
and a warm bed
when the day is done
with a roof over head!

A poem walks with me
he knows me

when feeling alone
he gives me company

Like the dog at his walk
precedes his master
pulls the leash
faster…faster

keep pace with me
find peace in poetry

the two
side by side
break in sweats
the dog and his master
the two poets
forget

who runs who

merge into one

making a poem
fully done.

For the dear wife is worn one face
it's another that's seen by the son
try all the faces to strongly impress
as have been doing all along!

It's all in the face rightly they say
keep changing like unending task
roll they transforming throughout the day
not hold onto only one mask!

Changed with the hour, day and season
shown as do fit the occasion
worn the way deemed right reason
to display the needed emotion!

Each one sees us in different face
like six blind men of Indostan
mistake they all to rightly assess
the unmasked within lying man!

No park is ever named Lover’s Park
But in every city there’s one,
Where shadows coalesce to shadows dark
Fingers delve buttons undone.*

There ain’t no lover not grazed its grass
Bunked classes to warm its bench
Whispered sweet nothings in adolescent crush
Suffered failed love’s heart wrench!

They only know how precious the gain
To walk the patch of green turf
Holding the hands leaving the pain
Finding for love a safe wharf!

Bloom there the petals of budding romance
Ripened and raw and all class
Souls spellbound eyes in trance
Leave tears and joys on the grass!

I too had walked on the lover’s park
Drowned in a teen’s happiness
Found within love’s first spark
Carry to this day her face!

For long she hasn’t found an empty home.

Not that she loves empty home
But craves for her some loneliness
A little time and space all to herself
Where she wouldn’t have to wear a face
But bite her mind any what way she likes
Nibbling at memories chewing on dreams
That with no eyes around her
She would take out like a stolen artifact
Cherishing their display like forbidden
Crying laughing and then putting them back
To where they belong.

Not that she loves empty home.

But sometimes she needs
To have one her own.

Uncle Benu preferred his evenings alone
When sun touched the western horizon
He would make himself a cup of tepid milk
And without showing a sign of worldly care
Would retire to his easy chair.

Then he was the most difficult man to approach
Occasionally swiping at the flying cockroach
And microbat intruding into the room
Accompanying him in that night-lamp gloom.

What he brooded was never known to me
To me he was a ghost and as scary
Quietly waiting in that darkened zone
If ever a living soul stepped in alone!

The only time I called him I would ever recall
As he moved his head towards me
And it still haunts me on lonely-bed nights
The eyes were all white!

Nobody believed me
None in my family
Not even mum

She only said

*Do you too like him take *****?

Woman I live for thee
You ******* away completely.

Woman I live for thee
You complete me wholesomely.

Woman I live for thee
You complement me perfectly.

Woman I live for thee
You enslave me lovingly.

Woman I live for thee

I live for thee

with you in me.

For* you I don't write verse.

With you I con-verse.

Buoys up she from the sea I sail
What poetry can’t address
She serves me well.

The sailor’s misery she knows
His journey’s perilous waves
A rope for me she throws
Dragging to shore she saves.

Watches over her caring face
Suffers the navigator what distress
Resuscitating with her sweet breath
The mariner dying from illusive myth!

This way she rebirths me
Down on earth from the high sea
And till is regrown the sailor’s wings

We talk animated of life’s small things.

In that blindest lane
I had gone in search of a door
When on the glass pane saw written
Cadaver Store!

Stood there awhile awed
Rubbed eyes if seen it right
My sight wasn’t a bit flawed
In that hour of perfect light!

Don’t my mind fervently pleaded
Walk through that ominous door
My curiosity left it unheeded
Pushed me in Cadaver Store!

Luminous lights reflecting on mirrors
Caught me in my own stare
Bar my fear’s pulsing tremors
There wasn’t a living soul there!

Haven’t for long been needing this help?
Spoke from the glasses an unseen voice
A deserted place to meet your self
See what have made it of your own choice!

Looked back at me corpses of seasons
Laughing mocking hating on my face
For always finding enough reasons
To let them die in silent distress!

Heed your need

curbing where it turns to greed.

bloodstains on my hands say
countless times have wounded her
yet she loves me to this day
weeps on my shoulder!*

You don't remind me woman
each time I stroke your hair
of the times I act a hurting man
of all the times I've been unfair.

Rather you hide all past scars
cover up my stinging bite
pretend things could be worse
thank god it turned all right.

You don't remind me woman
when I hug you tight
of the times I act a hurting man
bare to you unmanly might.

Rather you hide the flicker of pain
smile away my sins of past
pretend things would be same again
thank god in me you trust.

One night for a whole hour
I stayed awake for meteor shower
A good night’s sleep tho’ I badly need
Beckoned me the fireworks of Geminid.

I imagined sky in dazzling light
Shooting stars in lunatic flight
And me this splendor viewing alone
With moon at west close to dawn.

On my hairs dripped dews noiseless
Eyes caught Jupiter’s shining face
I stood the hour in awesome stupor
Seeking in Gemini the bright Castor.

Lo not flowed the faintest streak
Winter’s chill dug and pricked
Smell of morn when was airborne
I left for bed displeased and worn.

when anger speaks
her glowing hot rose cheeks

i turn not so mean
as to lose my grin.

when her efforts fall flat
she smiles back
at this Cheshire cat.

Riveted to the grass in frozen alertness
Limbs ache from hours of wait
It may be a day of their not being impressed
Fooled not once by tempting bait!

It’s high time the liner shook
The trap lured the willing catch
There’s a pull at end of hook
Rewarded is all the hard watch!

In darned breeze the heart grieves
The quietude isn’t getting to grow
The noise from the rustling leaves
Incessant caws of the lone crow!

Are the eyes too weary from watch
Hands are not fully motionless
Or the clever prey feels not worth touch
And rather survive in hunger’s distress!

Eyelids feel heavy and this’s such prose
To be awake amid the wind’s lullaby
Till the day closes with picking morose
The empty bucket in melancholy!

trudging hooves throw up dust
crumbles day's hardened crust
crimson hues fade from sky
painful weighs mournful sigh!

while in classroom they were with the bell
his mind some place else dwelled
where rafts of white on blue set sail
nimbus grew in mountain swell.

let them all be in that room
pursue wisdom in blackboard gloom
he won't go in that pursuit
when world outside called his feet.

he would breathe the endless sky
chase rainbow and butterfly
in shade of tree find sweetest dream
more than it was not for him.

he would sit by that placid lake
in its ripples' lullaby half awake
hug the wind run wild sunburned
leave classroom lessons remain unlearned.

poems flow from sheer habit.

we're halved

when broken.

Monday only I arrived at the inn
Got a room there ***** and span
I wondered at the place’s awful din
And the joy in welcoming new man!

Till then I had lived in dark gloom
Half awake in a quiet warm stream
In delirious urge to leave the catacomb
Reach the light I had all along dreamt!

Cramped in that alley in somber stupor
Passed months how I didn’t know
Only could sense freedom wasn’t far
Wouldn’t be forever in that burrow!

The kindly innkeeper fed me the best
And wouldn’t take anything for the give
Spent I two days on her breast loveliest
It hurt me when came the time to leave!

On a Wednesday found my new love
Made a nest on a space on this earth
A fairy she was love’s precious trove
She gave me warm home and a hearth!

Can’t tell how passed the days so fast
New travelers coming on our way
Our wishes were ashes hopes were dust
Were left with only faith on Friday!

Have tided on this inn waves low and high
Seeking from the clouds the north star
Live now with memories of the days gone by
Waiting for the Sunday that’s not far!

It gave me a **** and an emotional stir
surely I hadn't seen it earlier
in a fleeting moment in my eyes' mirror
saw the glimpse of an old woman in her!

Alarmed I was and didn't savor
surely I hadn't seen it ever
always said god do me this favor
make not an old woman of her!

Old she would grow I thought never
hoped age would give her waiver
dreamed her skin would glow forever
till I saw an old woman in her!

I thought my river would ever meander
her tides would reach the yonder
but all my wishes were torn asunder
when emerged an old woman from her!

The birds visiting me
Now I don’t feed.

Blame it on my cats’ greed!

Doel, bulbul, myna
All having fallen prey to
These snoopy lurky hyena!

These petty filthy abductors
Prowling pouncing predators
Have everything that takes
To break my feathered friends’ necks!

Now I know it does them no good
Birds coming in lure of my food
And be bitten and eaten!

I no more feed
The cats’ greed.

Pariah dogs pain me.

I feel for those mute sufferers
But can’t fill their life.

Many a times I have dreamed of
A doggery in my backyard
For those giver only friends.

Do for them something tangible

Send appeals to kind souls for charity
Creating a kind of NGO for these bravehearts
Giving them something from the more
They deserve.

I haven’t done anything of these.

Under twinkling stars
I feed them scraps
And mourn

When one is less.

Precariously perched on crossed log
Around his neck tightening noose
Did once repent the most lovable ****
Why only wealth did he choose?

For the time gone we pine
To once there be back again
Drink that plane’s nectarous wine
Under the sky of powdered rain!

Still isn’t ripe under blackberry tree
The child’s innocence its dreams starry
Lies there dormant the unserved need
In morning dew buried in ****!

Where has gone that lived in space
Shining bright in summers’ recess
The doleful noons in imagined voyage
On painted seas sans anchorage!

Why it’s so we live in past
With it obsessed in longing lust
The mind of now feels painful numb
Present seems void yawning vacuum!

Write not hoping a receptive audience.

Write what's not nonsense.

when time constrains

thoughts unshackle
in small bursts.

burning fire's longing glow
awakes the night dies so slow!

loving the manifested
without guessing the hidden.

I thank Beryl Lew
HP's numero uno
for being among the few
to appreciate my sombrero.

bother not.

he is too cocooned
in his cosy abode.

Handsome girl
You charge two rupees for your service
And it’s too small for all your distress
Being for sometime my mistress!

But I love those silken cheese
That charge me five rupees
Wet in oiled black curls
Handsomest dark skin girls!

Can’t get me all the white
What I get from her all night
Turn me a slave her power
Aroma of her hair’s flower!

Are you free of shame
O girl what’s your name
Else how you give freely
Yourself for a sum measly!

Someone’s wife or mother
Tell me why I bother
And not pay you in my pity
When you sell you for poverty!

Had I not
thought it right
when I left her.

A seasoned lover
Clever
I praise her tea’s flavor

Thank her for the gift
Of morn’s spirit lift
My adoration she savors.

We sit with the brew
Talk a word or two
As each morning we do

For something more who cares
With a table and two chairs
Four hands and cups two.

A small time but enough
To make things less tough
Brave the day hereafter

A small space yet deep
Spent in blissful sip
In banter and some laughter.

when love takes wings
dances your heart strings
you feel stretched
miserable wretched
reborn as Cupid's avatar
tense like strings of guitar
find the world way too small
where she is the one and all
all of time and space
occupies only her face
you become too excited
to be farsighted
every word of hers
is music to your ears
blind in love with her
you're everything but clever
losing life's fun
jealous of everyone
till she says goodbye
and leave for another guy!

On that harbour town she was to wait for me
by the sea.

I would travel from the city
and at the jetty
she would be sharp at ten.

A few hours' bus ride
to be by her side
come sun or rain.

A girl from coastal sands
she had to take a ferry
from another island.

Boats came and went
I lost count
dreaming that heavenly moment.

With two hours and an empty jetty
I headed back for the city
mad with sadness
for her act of treason
never ever asking her the reason
why she couldn't be with me
by the sea.

That day I was to make a vow
she would be my wife.

That day I barred her for life.

out there are ones
who haven't lost faith
in you.