Amid the drumbeats and chants of hymns,
Burned bright the gaily cruel festive light,
It pounced on her like the darkest of dreams,
The blazing illumination blinded her sight.
She knew as soon as sense dawned on her
That she belonged to an endless darkness
From where would torment like a distant star
The glittering world she could never embrace.
Yet a craving burrowed her child's heart
To dance to drumbeats and chanting hymns,
Mingle with the light and become a part
Of the illumined world and forbidden dreams!

It sensed
My lens,
Flew away.
Pity
It hates
Captivity!

With the evening
You softly land on my soul.
I don't see or hear you
But know for sure you're there.
In the silence of a day end
When the stars rise in the far universe
And to their nests the birds disperse
You come down to nest in my heart.
Just then from the ocean's bowels
A luminescence rises with a sweet haze
To paint afresh all hopes the day stole.
Softly lands dream of a new day in my soul!

They ravaged her body, her spirit never healed
The day she was abused was the day she was killed.
They probed the incident; it was just another case,
It really mattered little, the shame on her face.
Tongues kept rolling, gossips with spice,
She invited it; she was a woman with vice.
Her looks lured them, the way she dressed,
She was also flirty, reasons to be disgraced.
Her pity was a story, her agony in courtroom
Scattered lay her life, in the darkness of doom.

Don’t lose your smiles
Know you’re walking smooth miles.
You are in peace
There is darker abyss.
Where every moment is a hell,
Where your misery would pale.
You are better off than what’s around
You are on solid ground.
For many there’s only never ending night
Be thankful for having a speck of light.

You do know
To go
Beyond the dark line
To the forever sunshine.
Today
Your playfulness
Brought my face
Awhile happiness.

I wish
It rained fish
Not cats and dogs.
I could fry
This gift from the sky
Burning logs!

Today I didn’t see those ever-so-close couple.
In the lonely forenoons
When you could hear the leaves fall
They were there
Like two devoted doves
Whispering in each other’s ears
The wonderful nonsense
Only lovers can indulge in.
Then they laughed like rustling leaves
Drowned in their own twitting
Without caring a fig for my presence.
But today was the day
When wrapped in my own aloofness
Walking alone in the rain
I sought those two.
Like the empty bench
I missed those tweeting two
Warming up a desolate space,
Scared they’re lost in life’s aridness.

How many are there
That can quietly put up with death
Stoically going through the pain
A stubbornness to make death envious
Of life and the living!
How many are there
That can count up to end
Breathes where others see death
Holds on when there seems nothing to hold onto
As if to tell, ‘life is no pity, it’s dignity’!

The morning gives me a little width
I brush my teeth
Have tea with sugar
A breakfast meager
Pat my back and say
Hey, I’m ready for the day.
On way I am delayed
The birds want to be fed
The dog waits at the street
Expects from me a biscuit
The cats purr and follow
Forcing me to be slow.
I run and I hop
Till I reach the bus stop
I look at the sky and the light
The whole day they will be out of sight.

Race
Prevents erase
A divide
Too wide!
Sad
Humans
Can’t stop
Being mean
With its own kin!

In the balcony where you used to stand
The sun reflects vacantly,
You are in a distant land.
The flowers your hands plucked
Blossom and wilt without your touch,
They miss you so much.
The winds that brought your smell
Now moan dull odorless,
They can't touch your face.
From the grief-laden sky
Drops as tears the morning dew,
With them all I miss you!

Quietly I buried her,
It was only the last,
In life the burial was time and again.
Did she feel the banishment?
I never knew
She held it from me,
Just to keep alive the sunshine
To make it feel like a whole
Hiding the yawning hole
That makes bedmates
Strangers under one roof!
She played it to perfection,
******* was only a ploy,
She knew it was all game.
She did it for the children,
For me, for the family!
With her going to the soil
The banishment was complete.
She held life to be decent,
And got a decent burial!

The room reeks of medicine,
Crumpled, *****, dark, unclean
A burden is lying on the bed
Once youthful and now almost dead!
The ritual of attending on him
Is an aberration of life's rhythm
Except letting the time go by
Waiting for the man to die!
His relations he so cared for
Now find him the one to abhor
His time is out, why he still goes on?
Wonders the people he thought his own!
Still alive he's sinking in bed
Just an alien as good as dead
They're counting time, the ones his own
When death is on door, everyone is alone!

On my canvas white
The characters spill
At free will.
They roll
Without control
Way they feel.

The unveiling of a grey liquid dawn
Sleepily I welcomed with a cheerful yawn
The eyes slowly opened to forms unfolding
Hopes soaring once more on fluttered wing!
I’m alive, a day older though, with all my sense
Exist at this moment and emotively dense
A day stretching out its red carpet
Saying, ‘come running and don’t wait’!
It may not be shaped the way I want
With pitfalls enough to draw my grunt
Yet, like all birth, the most precious gift
It has held back death, giving life a lift!

Through the window of my cubicle
I see the day graying into night
And a world I can’t reach.
I yearn to come out
If only to see the corpses of the day
That passed by me unnoticed
Turning my world old
Unlived, stale and cold!
I see the birds fossilized
The trees bare and wizened
Songs are stifled moans
People as aloof and distant as dead!
I was born in a warm cubicle
And destined for a life in it
To dream of day from the dark
And long for a world I can’t reach!

The sky winked with stars
Fragrance of moonlight wafted through air
Passionately crooned a nightjar…
It was all in vain
They couldn’t penetrate my pain
Begot by a life not taking me far…
Slowly fell mute the cosmic theater.

None can
Help
Bring you peace
Other than yourself.

I don’t believe in god
But still thank him
That I’m better off
Than so many others.
I have a bed
A roof on my head
And something to
Look forward to
Tomorrow!

No verbal duel
No war of words
I prefer to be a poet.
In freedom I dwell
Free as the birds
Poetry is my fate.

Longing for just one look
Pining for a touch
For love no text book
About love can’t know much.

The mother and child
In strength with us no match
Fading remnants of the wild
Struggling on the last green patch.
Eat baby you have to grow fast
Sometime more in the marsh roam
Before you fall prey to our lust
Before fast disappears your home.
Vanishing sure and quick their green
From god each day they borrow
For fighting a battle they can’t win
For a space that won’t be there tomorrow.
When they take the last bow
These birds from their shy nook
Them our children would know
From the pages of history book.

A torn shirt smeared in red
On the table calmly sleeps the dead
Strewn around are organs and the heart
Incredible to imagine them as the departed’s part!
Useless as they are now experimental blocks
Drained of life heedless to the clocks
No love no emotion in the cold dim room
Is living natural or more so is doom?
Reeking of the dead eerie scissors sweep
One by one they cut strong and deep
Dismembering the lover cutting through the brave
But no show of courage when the abode is grave!
Drying bloods of passion drip from the dead
The once living corpse on the table goes fade
With no words or voice feelings blown away
He could at last make the coroner’s day!

The prelude is a dark cloud
On the soil the drop’s din
Overcoming the arid shroud
The earth is once again green.
From the soil the earthworm burrows
Will pour out heart’s hidden streams
Burying the slumber of the morose
Reviving the dormant dreams!

Just as I had penned the day’s last thought
I heard a pleading very faint
‘Would you leave us here in the dark to rot
Your palette’s leftover color and paint?
We ran the day out stealing for your sight
Whatever stokes your passion
Colored your dreams painted them bright
Molded each of them to perfection.
But you close the door on us once your job is done
Discard us in your mind with disdain
Instead of taking us out to spread on everyone
For us to be alive in your palette once again’.

A porter dies in accident
Reported a reporter
Little knowing
The porter
A poet
Unmindful
Of traffic rule
In spite of his load
Hadn’t his eyes on road.

What she’s doing there the whole day
Sitting in the same posture on a chair
By the window that brings in no wind
Nor any floral perfume
Though the window opens into a garden
That’s there without a reason
For endless time without a season
And keep you guessing if out there
It’s eternal summer or spring
And if it’s so the lady eternal
Why she isn’t in the garden
Instead of sitting the day out
In the same posture on the same chair
Static and timeless
In her expressionless face
That holds neither joy nor sadness.

Bayonet and helmet, go may get killed
Waiting for your blood the baying battlefield
The day is hot the sun a smoky ball
Blazing guns boom bodies freely fall.
It's only might, all about power
You hope just once you could smell a flower
Loved ones are gone, home far away
You could do little, you didn't have a say.
Till you came here you wore a hero's smile
Ready to go on combat with an enemy so vile
Your courage is now pierced needled with fears
Your throat is lumpy dry, eyes fill with tears.
Bayonet and helmet, go ruin your dream
You may not come alive, chances are slim
The devils that have fired youthful imagination
Will call you martyr, you died for the nation.

A crumpled layer on the evening tea
Says of a fate long awaited
We find ourselves alone you and me
Without knowing when the daylights fade!
The smell of seasons is still around
The mystic brushes in the sky
The glorious world its beauties abound
We never know when the years pass by!
Still a little place is there warm and bright
That throbs with the colors of night
Without the strength of senses and sights
It pulsates beyond fading daylights!

I can’t get it back, never again
The fantasyland, the windowpane rain
The azure patch, a shrub of green
I’ve lost them all, you know what I mean!
Taken away, my mid days alone
Living my whims, in a world of my own
The galloping horse, looming monsters
Braving it all, the witch’s dark curse!
The dimple cheeked girl with little red curl
She was a fairy with a heart of pearl
By a magic wand she turned to angel
It was no dream, no fairytale!
I rode the horse, the one that rocks
Time flew by, old grew the clocks
Beckoned by the sky, I wish I could soar
Just to get the child back, and live it once more!

Tempts jackdaws
A raven, because,
Ravenous jackdaws
Crave its gloss.

I steal a look at you,
And I steal the blue
of your eyes.
For a moment,
Your frame is mine
Your lips shine
The moment is spent.
I steal a look at you,
For a moment
Your wheatish hue
Is all mine,
Your warm smell,
Eyes of gazelle,
Seem so divine.
Thus my eyes dart
To catch your frame
In a game
That makes you my part.
But I can't steal your heart!

The winds couldn't blow it
The storm couldn't uproot it
Rain couldn't drench it
Sun couldn't bake it
Fire couldn't burn it
Despair couldn't strike it.
It remained on the wall
Little faded but neat
Unruffled by the rolling years-
January 1961…
The Road starts here!

In the evening darkness they roam
Long after others have gone home
Their plaintive calls rending the stillness
Lull my soul into a soothing happiness.
The day gatherers intrude into the night
Still energetic not losing their sight
Making one after another quick foray
As a last ditch effort for a bowl of prey.
I wonder at them and their strange deed
Their act of extra filling they so badly need
I see their funny flights as a bronzed patch
Furtively swooping for a prized catch.
Then suddenly they're gone leaving behind a trail
Of a flutter in the wind and the sunned wings' smell
I wish I could follow them to see where they go
Those passing guests of night the bronzed drongo!

Just as I was folding it,
Facing temple his lips did pray.
I made a hasty retreat
So that my umbrella
Didn’t come in the way!

Rise high
Their eyes
Scan the ground,
Spend in toil
If on the soil
A cadaver is found.

Nirvana was half awake
When broke into his stupor
A dove’s plaintive coo,
Still a little rattled from a dream
Where an elephant chased him,
He kept his eyes closed
To send his languor back to sleep,
But then the dove didn’t sound as plaintive
And his baggage of worries from the day gone
Tugged his eyelids against gravity,
He was so bothered that
Bestowed with one more choice
He couldn’t rejoice
In the chance to live
The simple way he could.
He got up to make himself a cup of tea
And start once more
The arduous task of finding himself!

No salvation
From salivation
When hunger
Sees food

Today I’ll not look at them
Though the sky beckons
To fire my passion’s flame,
The flowers sway in wind
To stir something within
The sun paints it bright
For my thoughts to take a flight
The day in my ears hums
When the night comes
Won’t your eyes turn
And in the moon burn
To set your dreams free
In the form of poetry?
Though I’ve taken a vow
I really don’t know how
To close my eyes to them
To douse my passion’s flame!

He gave it up one day.
Closed his pen
Pushed away the keyboard
With a tired smile said
Enough is enough.
He almost wept in his lament
For the time clicked away
In a mad pursuit
Pouring out words upon words
But never getting anywhere near it,
The lost time spent inside his head
When he could instead
Go there out
Bathe in the moonlight
Get filled and drunk
Not wasting words on papers,
Nor let moon pass
Without casting her shadow in his eyes,
Be there watching sunrise
And not spinning words
Paint them in strange colors
Of his imagination,
Stare at the endless blue
Instead of shrinking it
To the smallness of his words!
He regretted the lost time,
When bottled in his rhyme
He got sunk in his words
Letting the earthly beauties
Pass away unseen!
From that day
He retreated from poetry
And was set free
From words in his head
That only mess
The real loveliness!

Know as you depart
You are breaking a heart.
You may think it little
Love is awhile brittle
But I am coming apart
You are breaking a heart.
Maybe you don't care
Feelings you don't share
But I cry I am hurt
You are breaking my heart.
You are going your way
For you an end of play
Not again I can start
I am coming apart.
Know as you go your way
It hurts and I wanted you to stay
But things are falling apart
You are breaking a heart.

In the star spangled darkness
There is a hint of a beginning,
The night's permeating silence
Testifies a temporary lull
Before the earth delivers…
Another rebirth!

The earth has its fill
When the moon melts on the hill
Pours down its side
To flow in wild tide.
Finding it silvery sweet
Our hearts ravage it.
Its beauty milked dry,
Moon can no more return to the sky.

I blew bubbles in the air.
They weren’t robust
Pretty soon they burst
And were no more there.
I blew them thinking
That those pearly bubbles
Would go build a link
Betwixt me and the sky
And would fly high
To trap the clouds’ rumbles!
But they never really flew
Could never reach the blue
Of them so unfair,
To be soon not there
Fast disappear
Without showing my dreams the slightest care.

The old woman not rues loss of yesteryears
Crumbled though her wrinkles still break in cheers
Her lips parched long dried up her eyes
But if you look close they hold residues of sunrise.
In festive times her folks light her peeling skin
Burn on her candles ornate her within
Revived she feels in the glow of a cobwebbed blush
She turns a petite feminine splendid gorgeous.
But like her past glory they soon in time fade
She grows still older more in years decayed
Staunchly holds ground with the memory of bygone
Knowing when the end comes nobody would mourn.

The southwind kisses my face
Beckons the blue sky
And Nature’s all loveliness.
On leaftop
Golden drop
Each other they chase
The clouds race!
I delve deep into these
For undefined bliss!

Shoot me through the heart
Let me pay for blasphemy
If your heart says that
And you believe you achieve by killing me!
If you believe in having it your way
Killing people to usher a new day
Bloodshed can take you to your goal
You are nearer God when bodies roll!

Shoot me through the heart
Let me pay for blasphemy
Coz even as I depart
You have made God your Enemy!

The woodpecker whistles ttt,
Coucals call cluk clu,
The drongo tweets twit tt,
The night is out but we don't rue.
The crow caws ka ka ka,
Sparrows chirp chik chik,
Waterhens sing wa wa wa,
It's time to go for the day's pick.
They all announce its glory,
As the sky is painted with light,
To script for them a new story
That was brewing in the night.

I have it in my dreams
The shadowy bus stop
On a nowhere zone
Where nobody waits ever for a bus,
To get off there and wait
For the shadows to gather
And take strange shapes
To turn into a phantom bus
That would vanish with me on board!