I called him the tin box man.

His smile was sweeter than all his cakes and pastries.

A man left poor after a hard day’s work
Never saw on his face smiles unmarked

Tin box man may I have one
But I have no money

They’re all for you honey

Then in the box would dip his hand
On my palm a cake would land

But I have no money tin box man

Pay it back when you can

Then he would deliver his trademark speech

When you grow up and become rich
I would come with an empty can
Fill that up for the tin box man.

Never saw one passing cloud on his face
Ill clothed unshaved never bereft of grace
In his box holding what deep mysteries
Spreading the sweetness of cakes pastries!

He is long gone but lingers his trace
When I encounter depression’s face
He stands beside me my smiles unlocks
Locks away all sadness in his tin box!

you're no good

A drop of tear fell on his food

earn your meal or go to hell*

in his mouth froze the morsel

the swallowed burned in his pit
wished he could *****

then pouring they came
raindrops of shame
flooding the part eaten meal
crushing his will
ever to live again
in hunger's pain.

In unity should life be spent
Brotherly, sober, benevolent
Making live let live the testament
Remaining ever non-violent!

The lesson above is mine hard learned
Cats in my house their ahimsa be darned
Not exert once in hunting prey
Let roach and mouse grow by each day!

They have too keen a poetic sense
Don’t maul the mice suffer them pains
Believe in peaceful coexistence
Keep from the prey a safe distance!

Mice no more in fear run by
For with such cats no chance to die
They look thankful with cats so good
Making our home a friendly neighborhood!

I find it a wonder it baffles me
How cats find mice cute friendly
Shun bloodshed make idle claw
Keep blissfully wrong side of law!

Love is majorly one sided seeks not a reciprocate
our love may not be returned that's far we can hope to get
though it is thus often destined love knocks the wrong address
don't lose heart for we were right we showed no miserliness.

If one way it's our way we have no other choice
love's fountain when springs listens to no other voice
our call if goes unresponded not touch the heart meant for
we deserved it for we loved never expecting a returned favor.

We may break time and again each time our love is spurned
but our act of loving never goes astray if not once returned
no way can we decide the course have no say in the matter of heart
we have to have the belief in us when we make from our side a start.

A chance acquaintance on that island bus
said he was eighty of age
have fled for some years the city's rush
on the island have rented a cottage.

I live here in peace the place is nice
live life the way I please
four hundred a month is no high price
to pay for the freedom from leash.

No fan in my room I don't need one
make do with a sixty watt light
when my leisured day is fully done
there's a bed for resting out the night.

But one regret my mind still bears
no way now for it to recompense
it took me so long my life's most years
to know having little is big gains.

He got down from the bus one stop before me
waved with his age shriveled hand
he would never know how him I envy
the loner in one remote island!

The crow looks like black hanging rag
The trees blurred blotch of green
Trunks furcating like horns of stag
The sky is shorn of sheen!

The road in haze is dazed in dust
Crossing seems out of bound
Eyes from birth hold distrust
Under feet is slipping ground!

Cars loud honk speeding by
How far is the other side
Though it looked close and nigh
Now seems hands need a guide!

Faces of men look only half done
The letters on the board gone pale
Walking it seems is no longer fun
All sights are without head or tail!

In strangeness appears familiarity
Might fall and break my neck
Ghost like looms a known city
Left behind at home my specs!

Our skins barest bare
in this long awaited retreat
we sit on adirondack chair
waves washing our feet.

We know such times are fragile
like dreams leaving at dawn
are like an imagined mile
before are breaths withdrawn!

We ponder not on what to write
not pour one word from breast
just wait for when seeping night
push the ring of flame to the west!

When one by one they come on the far
two shadows grow on the shore
we string one poem with a silken star
hearts sing in joy encore!

We let our bloods flow to the sea
our souls on sands lay bare
When new tides rise in the morn to be
find two adirondack chair!

Life is but death's glorified twin
a delirious din in the hush
our days a riddle of earthly spin
an illusory maddening rush!

pause a little don't **** in haste
curb the killer in yourself
trample them not as garden's pest
they need your kindness' help.

stop your feet see how they beg
lying on your garden's leaf
call out to you all the tiny egg
don't turn your ears deaf.

when they hatch may not look sweet
still they need you to be fair
not **** them but wait little bit
not be repulsed by stinging hair.

now they must eat more and more food
to grow in pace and quick
if you are patient and act like good
their life can get more week.

once you allow them to grow in strength
give their life the needed lease
they reach their goal of the needed length
turn themselves into chrysalis.

thanks to you it reaches the stage
on flowers as butterfly dance
become airborne beauty on human gaze
for you gave them a little chance!

I love the 'eyes' resting on my poems
But hate the too many ‘I’s
Making their loud presence in my write!

I hate their face though
They are now all over the place
As you find right here before your eyes
If the above six lines you read
Two ‘I’s already on this write feed!

Now a good man that I am...
But am I?

Had I been a good man
When the girl bled from her head
I would have seen her wounds stitched
And not think I had office to reach!

Had I possessed a kind heart
(my simplest measure for being a good man)
Seeing a child crying on his own
I would not have thought
The tears were his alone!

Had this body held a loving man
Not of ideas but of action
I would not have hidden behind the skewed logic

*So many stray lives on the street roam
What’s the use of caring for one
And giving it home!

on the ripples our shadows
the river flows on
this moment they are here
next tide they're gone!

Forty five years it took me to get back to that lane
The street name is changed grown olden men
The girls I flirted moved out to unknown
The ones not born are now ones full grown!

I try to find one window neath a roof of tin shed
Where sat that lovely girl black curls on her head
I wondered why she needed long hours of read
And not glanced once at me cared for my need!

I look for that patch of space where we used to play
Heartbroken returned to studies at end of day
And the girl who nightly returned to haunt me in my dream
But never ever would love me take me in her team!

I search for the red bricked house with green painted door
Beyond which lay all mystery all forbidden was in store
And that cot under which the two of us used to hide
In its darkness took the two minds unfathomed pleasure’s ride!

Not any of them I can find out all have sunk without a trace
Even the house where I stayed the child’s first address
And the girl upstairs don’t know how it crossed her head
She would say when she grows up only me she would wed!

The only redress to all my pain
comes when I reside in my poem.

no matter what I write
buxom thin trivial trite
common rhyme mundane style

in poems I find the escape awhile!

Ask myself where I would be
if the ink never flowed for poetry
this mind never vented even one poem
born for me bear my name!

When my worries burst at the rim
agonies seem an endless stream
I board this carriage for a heavenly ride
reach the dreamland on the other side!

There so long I roam the corridor
tasting the treasured and the abhorred
I forget the measures all earthly yardstick

in the rainbow bubble taste the escape I seek!

Nice to see you are opening the shop.

Saying this
I search for lines of distress on her face
On her widowed eyes a painful strain
For when went her man
The way she wailed
It seemed she would never be sane again!

She smiles *now I run it alone
Sale is low
And I’m weighed down
With his pile of debt!

In her smile are hopes regrown
A telltale sign of grit

The show must go on.

These are the times I hate.

When I remember
I need to tell her
Something very urgent
If not told this moment
Might never be said
But at that hour
I’m at the shower
And my holler can’t breach
To be in her ear’s reach!

It’s still less fun
When they come
Not just one
But three four five
Ready to be told ripe
But in that ******* hour
I’m right at the shower
Needing immediately to tell her
What I might not again remember!

Not one from the to be said I can save
See them washed out to watery grave
No mind hammering could ever retrieve
Their loss that I'm left to bereave!

There’s no second chance for all of them
Terribly important but dying unnamed
With the toweled wetness they too evaporate
My thoughts at the shower at that hour I hate!

Getting out from the waves
She walked away to the rice bran haze
As the summer heat drove the sands mad
I knew what she had gone for.

She would hunt it like a child any day
A few seashells if came her way
My skin burning and eyes dust borne
Moments all to herself she desired alone.

On the distant shoreline when she was a speck
Stirred me a tremor then a rumbling quake
What if so happens she is gone too far
Turned a sea nymph to return never!

The tides were falling weaving a lull
The sun slanted on the wings of gull
I rose up to find sand prints of her trail
She bloomed like a hope in her handful of shell!

It doesn't anymore take
a red petaled rose
I need just a headache
to draw my love close!

Love is such a strange affair
when pain throbs in my head
takes me her hands under care
she flies me quietly to her bed!

Her fingers do passionate caress
play in my hair hide-n-seek
many watts powerful than embrace
unheard words of love do they speak!

My ache her fingers understand
love potion they spread in my hair
when kisses her hand each strand
I wonder if ever a pain was there!

I don't need anymore a red rose
now something else does it take
it entices her to come really close
when I suffer a bout of headache!

Friend* when you pronounce me
the word takes a tongue
licks my mind vigorously
breath takes it to the lung.

How I die for that one word
and would anything spend
just to have it from a voice heard
one breath calling me friend.

Friend once from your tongue rush
pumped out from beat of heart
break the dam rivers out-gush
make me your inseparable part.

Friend once you utter tie me with a lace
tender yet not brittle like glass
remind me in love we belong to one race
break down all barriers of class.

The monk with his disciples was traveling by car
The journey was long and arduous
When with a screech stopped it a flat tyre
Causing them a break from the rush!

The monk was upset with still a long way to go
Halted by this unforeseen obstacle
When caught his eyes the river in calming flow
Upon her an island’s spectacle!

He asked his disciples to find him a boat
For he had some time in his hand
The island beckoned him alluringly remote
With its forest and the silvery sand!

With one of his disciples he took the boat ride
Soon his feet touched the green of the forest
He felt the pleasure of being on the other side
For a stroll and in the green a little rest!

Walking some way they came upon two men
So emaciated their ribcages jutted out
Sitting under a tree couldn’t be said for what gain
The monk thought them mad men no doubt!

He made a coughing sound expecting them to rise
For those men seemed lost in a trance
Their spell thus broken they opened their eyes
And rose to their feet that instance!

They bowed to the monk in the most courteous grace
With folded hands and stooped head
No distress of being famished showed on their face
They stood tall and ***** instead!

The monk asked what the duo was doing there
In that forest wasting out their day
Beneath a tree sitting nakedly bare
It was not meditation’s right way!

A Guru they must get and follow his creed
Must chant the secret hymns taught by him
There are rituals to follow rigid paths to tread
God cannot be reached by mere whim!

To all his words they nodded humble and serene
Not an utterance once escaped from them
Remained bowed in respect their frames frail and lean
In the forest two seekers without name!

It was time for the monk to get back to the car
For remained for him still more mile
The island and its forest would soon recede far
In his lifespan some memories awhile!

While boarding the car he saw an incredible sight
And it broke the hard shell of his pride
Those two men were walking in the sun’s failing light
Across the river without the aid of a boat ride!

Taking Devil's help
I lock my self
in the shelf

At one corner of the subconscious
she waits to land on my dream

this morn too she came

offering my hungry mouth
a piece of guava
part eaten it was laced with her saliva

*stoked my lust from the first bite
she never ages a bit
wished she came to me on each night
bringing youth endlessly sweet!

He was given a notebook
to write whatever on its page
quite some years it took
before it came of age.

All these years he kept writing
he thought it was his everything
to him mattered what really
was no page should be left empty.

When he exhausted the last page
he found he had missed a lot to say
there remained unsaid at each stage
that he put off for another day.

He needed one more page in the notebook
to fill it up with what was till then unsaid
but the rule did not permit a re-look
no provision for a revision was made.

If I could fly back to that strip of life
When showed the church clock three forty five
I held her hand together walked to the green lawn
Baffled how I would ever live without her alone!

He’s the odd bird out I tell my wife
His time is up full spent his life
Bereft of feathers peeps out his skin
He doesn’t deserve anymore caged in.

He could now the others infect
For the ones healthy him must reject
Once he is gone we would have the good four
Let us be practical and show him the door.

My wife a kind lady looks at me askance
Is this the same man or someone else by chance
Then bringing herself together says with a stern face
How could you be so cruel and horribly pitiless!

I reason with her time is closing for him to die
We would do it better if we let him taste the sky
His life is already wasted enslaved in your cage
Why not give it the wind to fly turn over a new page!

She isn’t convinced an iota from what I clearly spell
Get in her eyes the clouds impending rains well
It’s too late now she says not to let him end his life
In the world he knows his own with a family of the five!

To all poets writing hourly poem
I offer my unqualified admiration
Place them with honor in my hall of fame
For truly glorifying our poetic nation.*

They keep the windows open never shut the mind’s door
Can’t suppress them schedules of work hectic daily chore
For who knows when the sky passes by stops dead the falling rain
Uncared a feeling rolls by goes unaddressed angst of pain!

Isn’t a rainbow painted out there on doorstep waiting the season
A bird is chirping the song of hope giving life a compelling reason
Isn’t a face waiting to be seen love pining to be released from a heart
Who knows when dies a river midstream each moment’s scenes depart!

The farther these poets go they dream for a farther reach
To hunt out the dark demons blind alley’s fearsome witch
Who knows when the light goes out burns out the fiery sun
This body turns to trails in dust with so much little yet done!

Ma has eloped with her lover
soon a wife Baba will get
I'm left only dumber
don't know what's in my fate!

Not all men are poets

some come home to play cards
banter with wife
ask what's for dinner made
head for bed.

they don't bother to think deep
don't string emotions into written words
are ever joyful with a game of cards
nights lend them quite good sleep.

they don't dabble in poetry
going beyond is not their cup of tea.

Not all men are poets
they need not be
without it they have enough to keep

gift of a day night's peaceful sleep!

countless love poems devoured

why am I hungry for more!

When the city gallops
Uncomprehendingly fast in his slowness
Wearying his blood wrinkling his face

He watches it go by at the bus stop.

No bus stops here anymore
Get in get out then closed door
But the shade homes wayfarer’s wait
If one sits broods on fate.

Contemplates mind how they’re redundant
Left and right all movers’ want
Sunset mellows in the time brewed find
The redeeming way is the one left behind.

The city races in a maddening buzz
The wayfarer only needs to trudge
Back to the road now sunk in dust
Retracing footsteps of love and trust!

Truth is evil
when it crushes
our will to live!

The venue looked like a haunted mansion
at the sight of it crept my fear's ascension
I remember having dimly asked

it starts at what hour
in this house of horror
I write what paper

There was no answer got
to my silent questioning thought
once I entered the hall of doom
swallowed me a pall of gloom

I wondered for me what was in store
regretted not having prepared more
the papers were given darkly random
the king's story territory kingdom

One look at the paper dealt me a blow
a blankness glared dried ink's flow
wrong I shouted it shouldn't be
not one answer is known to me

She pulled the blanket from over my face
alarmed by my agony's stress
they still haunt me give ugly chase

exam fears and failure's disgrace!

be firm i tell him
bear with the sorrow
knowing i would be broken
if it happens to me tomorrow

for i can only sympathize
can offer two sweet words
can act so long wise
till a loss firmly hurts

i would be telling a lie
if i say i fully feel
your grieving cry
can provide you a heal

for i know when it happens
like you afflicts me sorrow
no solace could heal the pains
i would be broken tomorrow

On the wayside / she was dancing so free
The sparrow legged girl / beneath the bullet wood tree
Her face was blooming / in the night’s passing light
My eyes noticed her / heart stuck at her sight!

She was the dancer / heavens blessed that I chanced
The pirouetting svelte / held me dazed and entranced
A small village girl / oozing ocean of delight
From the crowd I could see / the flower most bright!

She was all smiles / soothed smooth all the mile
Her carefree swing / her jaunty bouncy style
Ten minutes I stopped / wished it was lifetime
To sink in her grace / in her charm sublime!

Not a bit bothered / if she had an audience
She skimmed the air a fairy / dropped like rains
In her joy mattered not / if her show was a flop
If an eye discerned her / a passerby made a stop!

Such moments outlast / eons of travel’s tales
Beneath the bullet wood tree / the winds she sails
In an ecstasy unbound / sparrow legged butterfly
She would never know / loved her a stranger guy!

Hey girl
(you boy too)
before the thumbs gnarl
use for sweeter things to do.

There's a sky awaiting you
a cloud paused from sail
a poem in your heart overdue
fetus of one tale.

Hey girl
(you boy too)
leave the shell to find the pearl
before times flew.

There's a grass still growing green
in wind love's whisper
a birdsong to catch from din
before years stray too far.

Hey girl
(you boy too)
the hidden is for you to unfurl
color them in your hue.

Piece together each dormant word
on scrap of leaf in ink
pour out within's flutter unheard
before runs out time in a wink.

The wasp lands on my chest.

I know love comes not a whirlwind
but a quiet whir of the wasp's wings

not knocks the door but melts through it
pierce the skin and reach heartbeat.

I love love's noiseless waspy wing
sweet and bitter sting
its agonizing harvest.

I would never brush it in haste

when lands the wasp on my chest.

Summers ago when he was ten
his first blush was born from her glance
on his yard fell the first rain
he had but met her only once.

Most precious gift gave her tiny hand
one that he kept in a matchbox
no ring it was a red rubber band
long lost still at his heart knocks.

How can stop time by a girl's whim
stales never a moment of closeness
when love was an unripened dream
lust was an unknown address.

The boy soon grew to become a man
the girl went to some faraway land
they come but once in one lifespan
his first blush her hand's rubber band.

my woman I possess you in what way
what way I have owned you up to this day
are you just my need's flesh my hunger's food
are you only a play doll that must suit my mood!

my woman I own you in what way
what way I have dealt you up to this day
are you just my resting perch my end of day nest
are you only the banyan's shed beneath what I rest!

my woman I claim you in what perceptible way
what way I have famed you living up to this day
are you just my showcased pride on my finger a ring
are you only the need to be back home at evening!

my woman I say you are mine but how you do I own
what way I have nurtured you on you affection shown
are you just my desire's skin anchorage of my lust
what I have done to possess you your love and your trust!

From morn are at work the grass cutters
Clearing the weeds to make way for men
In the wind I catch their mumbled chatters
Of lives deemed wasted in no gain.

*Had my parents had enough money
I would not have been here cutting grass
But worked at some big company
Earn enough to live with full purse.

But you know I can’t blame them
They had to spend last bit on food
Fended for years gave me a name
Saw that I grew up to manhood.

As soon was born some sense in me
The feel to realize my debt
I searched for way to earn some money
And here I am with my fate.

But now I know must do my best
In the hope that only matters
To see his life doesn’t go waste
My son becomes never a grass cutter.

Full is my treasure trove,

I have but one love!

That’s when he gave up his pen.

its reach didn’t save the dog
dying on the melting pitch

didn’t reach vent of his pen
deep enough
to save the vanishing water hen

they all were going
easy game
in the minutes
he was busy writing a poem
in the seconds
he spent naming them
in the hours
his thoughts’ idle wings
mourned their goings

he was never fair
he was never there
as they went one by one
and all his works came undone
with their blood stain!

That’s when he gave up his pen.

I gave the surround a cautious look
To see if any eyes were on me
One quick swoop then I took
Broke my oath of honesty!

How it came on none else’s sight
A while though I wondered
The crisp note winking in sunlight
Gave not much scope to ponder!

In my secret joy I lost no time
To flee fast from the scene
Though I didn't think it a crime
Felt forbidden pleasure of sin!

Then in me spoke the inner voice
You could have merely walked by
And not made such an evil choice
As bad as deceit and lie!

Soon overcome by pangs of conscience
I wasn’t anymore feeling nice
On my forehead grew guilt’s greasy lines
As on a man in the grip of vice!

Came back the words mom used to say
Relieved my tormenting qualms

*If you ever pick up a note on the way
Give it away as alms!

A time was when
Nothing short of my deepest ******
Once and then many times more
Would satiate me

Then quietly crept between us
The hiatus

When I learned new ways to play
Chanced on a week a golden day
Then over a month or more

I had found the key to the secret door.

Now at the most heightened end of the affair
Satiates me a strand of her hair!

Each morn
awakening's first breath
recreates the myth
today would be born
a new kind of poem

Mind in the heavens sail
seeking kind of a tale
never unearthed

travels the whole length
the *****'s renewed strength
digging deeper
evermore
foraging space time
for one rhyme
that in its first breath
would reinforce the myth

on this earth
a new poem can still take birth!

When the day is out
we know it's one myth
we can't live without.

Now for years I haven’t seen him
nor know if he is alive or dead
the shadowy man who floated like dream
each moonlight on the roof surfaced!

When from my window his silhouette I caught
saw him on his voyage embark
the moon stalker day’s small-time clerk
wove a magic spell on my thought!

As the moon came over the eastern edge
silver orbed in her glorious rebirth
he would be there lost in his gaze
like a moonman stuck on the earth!

Madly his eyes riveted on the sky
in pursuit of gain unknown
as if once unmoored to her he would fly
leaving this world disowned!

Hours passed by his wonder not ebbed
eased not the moon stalker's trance
it seemed to me moon's waning he grieved
mourned dimming of her silvery dance!

Each full moon saw this unfailing zeal
on the roof two lovers' meet
his eyes sky bound till he had his fill
the moonman on earthly transit!

When you narrow your focus for wayside picks
can see a couple of sparrow prancing on bricks
they are still not gone out of town
the lady whitish her male red brown!

They are fast fading leaving no trace
love human home for building nest
but where are nooks for them warm space
a cool inlet for summer's rest!

But still they seek would go last length
with all their hearts gathered strength
to find an address can call their own
these cutest birds need kindness shown!

Their chirping weaves what magic spell
the pretty lady and her brownish male
let's spare for the couple one smallest nook
not leave them be fable in storybook!

Wilts beauty of flower.

Take heart from her seed's power!

Our pause is momentary.

What for we pause is eternal.

Had I been a poet river born
Flowed at ebbs to the sea
Fed on her shores fields of corn
On her face etched the sky gaily!

Had I been a poet river bred
Rode her waves of lunar tide
Kissed her bank in cool summer shade
And never ever left her side!

I would have grown a love riverine
For all lives feeding on her breast
Fishes shrimps the dolly dolphin
***** turtles and the rest!

One moonlit night when she rose high
Drowned me in her beauteous wine
In a feathery drop on her bed I would lie
Breathing river poet’s one last line!

on my nose
a cold pin *****
I wonder what's the reason

cloud tiptoes
part and leak
falls first rain of the season!

No ifs and buts and frets on time gone astray
We were exactly where supposed to be each day.

We were exactly at the right place with right face
Not drifting around but knocking the right address.

No ifs and buts and frets deeming years as waste
We were exactly on the right track doing our best.

We were exactly picking of all the choices the choice
Not straying but staying to listen to our inner voice.

I wish I could be like the street urchin
Unpampered uncared but not sad
Wear daylong a cloudless grin
Be in manners and etiquette bad!

I want to be bad
I need to be bad
Am too shackled by the good

I want to be like him
The street urchin
Carelessly capriciously crude!

Too long I have been by the good enslaved
Hold captive in its pretentious cask
Too long for good I have naggingly craved
Let it cut out for me all my task!

*I want to be bad
I need to be bad
Am dying for the untasted brew

I want to be like him
The street urchin
Treating good too good to be true!