silent is the mourning
when crying seems inadequate
for the hurt.

Intent on shells
she's a girl
where screech the gulls.

Age she kills
makes sandhills
breaks the walls.

Don't be disheartened if you miss the bus
There'll be misses, life is not all plus
Let not your heart despair in one bad weather
Know for sure for each missed bus there'll be another.
Don't be crestfallen if one chance goes past you
There'll be lost chances but you will get your due
Let not your resolves die in one chance gone
Know for sure many more for you will come along.
Don't be heart broken if you fail once and again
Life is not all tenderness without the thorn's pain
Let not your determination evaporate and die
Know for sure beyond failure chance of success is high.
Don't be fed up with life even if your days are dark
There'll be darkness but through it you make your mark
Let not your soul be stopped from seeking out the light
Know for sure the sun is waiting beyond the dark night.

Voice feels spent this day
when death is a quarter away
and life has passed real quick
without a voice worth to speak!

Have I it properly harnessed
raised where most needed
or have it always compromise repressed
its urge for truth kept unheeded!

Did I war to blow it genuine
hushed it when demanded silence
or wore it with a fake coating
to buy peace with vain pretense!

Voice is ever enslaved to me
used as I chose to be
never able to utter its core
and life may only be a quarter more!

Her monstrous tongue
spits fire

before her ire
the demon cowers

his limbs sloth
before her fiery wrath

by her annihilating eyes
no more can he rise.

Returns lull

*when she wears his skull!

On and on and on
In a repeated motion
It goes on revolution
Seeks the ocean!
The ceiling is firmament
Glass is the wall
The trap is permanent
Its life is surely dull!
The box glows bright
It’s all synthetic light
The world in its sight
Has no day and night!
It hears the feeble sound
Of people moving around
Sees their awe-struck face
Envies their happiness!
It knows not the conundrum
Why is snatched its freedom
Yearns lifelong to be free
To go home to the sea!

When she says I’m hanging up
Stop her before she hangs up
For her click of disconnect
Might never again get you
To hear what she couldn’t state
Create a disconnect
Between you and her
When you can only see from far
She’s drifting a deadwood
Receding to a distance
And your cries on this shore
Is merely mouthing a silence
Of a dumb heart within a locked door
That crafted its own fate!

When she says I’m hanging up
Stop her to save a killing
*Disconnect!

Good ten minutes to four
I reached the temple door.

Take your offer for the God
the flower seller was eager
no haste, he smiled
his time for a rest
will soon be over.

I wondered
why I'm never contented
with what God has to offer
and as a rule
my bag of grievances is ever full.

In the faint light
I held his idol in my sight
listening in the quietude
to the temple pigeons.

With great peace
I bought two lotus at fifteen rupees
from the flower seller
dividing our happiness
into equal share.

Clatter clutter on the pave, feet on the run
furrowed brows faces grave, life is no fun
home to work work to home, time is so mean
to and fro on the track, heads in a spin.

Red for the pedestrian, green for the car
quicker may save the day, sights are a blur
conspires the digit light, ticks ever slow
holds up adds to fright, the cruel red glow.

Just on the other side, a few blocks more
you are late again, ears hear the roar
had they only known, the hurdles on the way
the daily mad struggle, to save the day's pay.

The road is clear now, on a quick glance
here's the time to move, grab the prized chance
clatter clutter on the pave, feet on the run
blood spreads on the tar, redder in the sun.

what from my own kind I hide,

in strangers confide!

The smoke hazes the setting sun
as the fire burns remains of the last crop
proffering ashes to the wind.

It's all the wind gets
as the memento of the last harvest.

On the new soil
once again there'll be tilling
and God willing
seeds waiting hope laden
will sprout into corn.

What's dead is to be reborn.

Pay your obeisance to the Lord,
you'll be paid back with prosperity.

The priest towers above the throngs of devotees.

Within the Lord's precinct is a rush for repentance
the arrogant bows down here
the wealthy falls on the ground
the poor renews plea.

The priest preys on their prayer
the Lord's coffer is full.

In that heavenly scene,
all sins are forgotten.

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!

You reflect in befuddled wonder
is it the time to be happy or morose
when is reached that page of calendar
where the year comes to a close.

There isn't much you could do about it
there isn't much you could hold
you tried though your every bit
not all pages were written in gold.

It's enough if you remained fit and agile
it's enough if you got a few smiles
it's enough if you could travel all the miles
you stumbled but walked all the while.

It's enough if you hid some of your pain
your bleeding you kept to yourself
it's enough if once without thinking of gain
you offered a stranger your help.

Little you could do to change the events' course
but you tried and it matters no less
it's enough if you've used your little resource
to make this world a better place.

On the stage
is the one
he is not

smiles shakes hands
holds close and tight
he is right on spot.

Hides the real face
speaks and shares
like he is a saint

blamelessly white
open in the light
without a taint.

Busy in the act
to keep away the fact
he is on guard

audience gloats
over crisp anecdotes
any dissent debarred.

From a distance
some in silence
read it in bold

the gore in the glory
the gaps in the story
and all that's untold.

It may seem so dull extraordinarily mundane
Like a movie seen yesterday to be seen again
Frame by frame alike dialogues repetitive
Seen before you go to bed heard before you leave!

But if you stop skimming the surface see it little close
There are magic happening right under your nose
She isn’t playing the same script speaking the same lines
Her colors change each hour so do her smile’s designs!

If you live the bare surface are content to stick there
You miss the subtle changes for you her redone hair
For you a coat of powder on what’s a familiar face
To move though you don’t notice in your pink favorite dress!

If you feel too weary see in changing hours no gain
Your life seems too ordinary and hopelessly mundane
You miss how she reinvents herself with you in her mind
Hoping you would see and not turn your eyes blind!

It may seem so dull extraordinarily mundane
Like a life lived yesterday to be lived today again
It’s only your turned off mind that makes it look all same
Missing out the new movies she’s building frame by frame!

Time to take a break
Pause the rhyme
Shift the eyes to mountain's height
The mind to inner ravine

Take the eyes off the page
Put a stop to flowing ink
Give the mind the peace of sage
The eyes the soothe of green

Time friends to take a break
Pause play of words
Try to rewind and remake
Fragments of heart

But promise you
If all is well
I'll be back

Refreshed by new
Mountain's tale
Jungle's track

This morn lazing in the winter sun
He said for us living is no fun
On the weather beaten roof
His voice was ominously aloof!

Here I’m your unwelcome guest
A nuisance to you your garden’s pest
But one if not for the irony of fate
Would be today your equal primate!

He spoke uneasy on the rough concrete
My home is gone I have no retreat
God there played out to a devilish plan
Lifting one up from the other of his clan!

He paused mournful in contemplative lull
If only I could have been your equal
Would not have come begging on your door
Held captive in cage suffer agonies galore!

He curled his lips showing yellowed tooth
If I’m frank and tell you a bare truth
Right now I feel like slapping your face
To remind it’s for you I made no progress!

Past his bushy brows I saw mirrored in his eyes
A reflection of me clothed in human guise
The one looking at other both ruing their fate
For being down the rung being the superior primate!

push harder, harder, she moans,
drive it a great more in

dig deeper break ya my bones
rupture my last wall of skin.

push harder, the farthest it goes
where pulsates the throb of my core

blooming red petals of rose
are dreaming for limitless soar.

push harder, harder, inside
drive in, inner, far more

fill me in thick rain of ride
till i feel empty no more.

If ever you think religious tolerance is at its nadir
Inter-religion integration or world religion a utopia
Stand before the sunned domes of the Christo Mandir
Where the Christ’s name mingles with Hare Krishna!

Call it anything a temple a church
No different is our walked road
The church’s spire or the temple’s arch
Cannot be God’s encaged abode!

Christo Mandir the Temple of Jesus
In many veins stand out one leaf
Hollows my perceived faith and class
At its door I cast aside my belief!

He was ready when they came to take him
stepped out to the day as in a dream
and with a face unmourningly serene
entered the waiting palanquin!

How quickly passed his seventy years
he felt having spent not a year even
now on a ride on the bearers’ shoulders
his lips moved in prayer to heaven!

His heart was not weighed with grief
but a resignation deep and tranquil
there comes a day one has to leave
preordained by kind God’s will!

That way he had wanted it to be
when death came to knock on the door
would hear him say I am ready
won’t keep you waiting a moment more.

Through the hush when rang last bell
and to the wind his breath was free
echoed through the mourners’ wail
the untamed refrain *I am ready.

Something I would tell you son
that's only known to me
a burden it is knowing alone
it's time I share with thee.

Shocking was what he revealed to me
tragic too was the tale
of a woman's loss of dignity
her passing thru fire of hell.

Her I have held in high esteem
her sanctity locked in trust
never knew she was a sad victim
of a man's monstrous lust.

My father felt it would only be fair
it needed him just to be brave
with son the secret he must share
not carry alone to the grave.

I hold it now that grave secret
father left his job was done
burdened with a heavy weight
that I can't share with son.

The woman she is still alive
knocking on ninety's door
her skin a shade of dried beehive
she remembers not anymore.

Mud on her cheek
she catches crab
by the narrow creek

her frame is sleek
skin saline drab
bone rickety weak.

She makes no show
tides only know
taste of her knee

her hair's knotty lock
makes the wind to talk
feel her slowly.

Why I can't tell
on the mind's sail
she stirs a song

I find her so fair
upon a moment there
then she's gone.

A soul is all you needed to be human,
I tell the ape,
that God blessed us with upon divergence
when he made us lose our tails
but forked us into different routes
in his flash of magnificence
morphing us into a super entity
but pitifully
depriving you of that edge.

A soul, I assert with satisfaction,
would've kept you out of this cage.

You might not have even noticed it,
I hated the grin on its face,
yours has only some wider space
by God's will,
so you wouldn't easily feel
your soul's losing the way in the maze.

But a cage, is a cage, is a cage..

i feel uneasy when i act good
feel upon shoulder a weight
what if next time i ain't that good
and your expectations are not met.

there's a liability in acting good
for it easily makes you a brand
if next time you ain't that good
you invite a strong reprimand.

tempts me easy to act ever good
be the pleasantest man in the town
but lurks the fear if ain't always good
in all eyes i would soon go down.

it extracts a price trying to act good
as your image in no time shines bright
but for each instance you ain't that good
you walk the sharp edge of spite.

The world I did roam
Sea bottom to mountaintop
But close to me near home
I didn't see on leaves the dewdrop!

How she glows
when she paints
doors and windows

her coloring skills
create magic windowgrills
trap me in her crush!

Smudges on her face
prints on her dress
does marvel her brush

she goes all the way
to make me lovely day
tempts to cuddle her!

It's how it goes
I move ever close
not wanting to be loser

she gets the naughty whiff
says don't play mischief
come not any closer!

What she whispers to the deity

in her daily evening prayer
from her lips' quiver
I try to hear

I try to understand
what she asks of her god
with folded hands

is it her own welfare she prays
begs from the deity
well being of her family
wealth and safety

or her prayer is not that small
she asks god for the good of all

I am not sure
but deep within feel
her prayer is pure

through years of asking
but never receiving
she has quit
praying for any specific thing

she prays as a need
as an inseparable thought
whether god heeds her
or not.

Heavy hammers are pounding my courtyard
Have to reach thousand liters deep
Each blow is hitting my mind hard
Demolishing what I thought forever’s keep!

What was built up over years of toil
Now dug out as mossy broken dumps
Lie debauched the dragged out soil
As the dark hole to the gaping depth slumps!

I look down it with a sense of hurt
And down the years I ride
Sniffing to catch smell of a lost part
The times that in this cavern hide!

How I looked as these were built
How youthful she surely was then
Fossil moments embedded in the silt
If only I had them regained!

The peephole into past is now bare
Paving the time traveler one chance
To swim with the memory and be there
Give the living remnants last glance!

Lost years are never dead I believe
They all live what we think we demolish
It’s only us that are forced to leave
Leaving them breathing in buried bliss!

Two dogs
On the street
Locked in mating heat.

On the street
Two dogs
Haven’t cover of sheet.

Two dogs
Messy
Need no privacy.

Know to seed
The need to breed
In ecstasy.

slosh slumber river noon
dumber life behind
skim fishing gull's croon
poetry far from mind!

flirty wave tosses boat
why a dream no clue
script for day someone wrote
only for us two!

winds too know cavort blow
land as dusted kiss
dizzy lips drink it slow
doze in lover's bliss!

stakes are high hours short
must grab hold it tight
'fore it melts on the port
dims the river light!

Best poems are lost in the warmth of blanket.

Lured away by sleep
they could be precious keep
if I could hold them through night.

Best poems surrender to warm bed’s comfort.

Lulled into stupor quietly abort
before I could take them on a sleepless ride,
they seek a dark corner find it and hide.

Best poems brew though in the stillness of night.

I cannot birth them show them daylight
but let them die in abject disgrace
on warm bed beneath blanket

sunk without a trace!

Amid the rustles of leaves,
he strains his ears
to hear the footsteps
gone before him.
Through the web of mist
that rises from under his feet,
his eyes probe intensely
for the trail of the traveller
he walked with yesterday.
The jungle stiffly silent
hides the secret deep within
veiling it in dark shrubs.
The man feels a smoke
rise in his eyes,
‘where is the traveller,
who just the day before,
walked with me? ’
His questions
more like wailings
rend the unresponding wind.
Before him as far as the eyes go
stretches the unending path.
He begins the search once again
not knowing
the next traveller is on his trail.

Clammy creepy freaky fright
virulent vermin scary sight
tell me what is that.

Crawling craving webbing prey
frightens her when eats her whey
saved when pounces cat.

Ominous is its wicked lull
saintly sitting on the wall
mischief within skull.

Meditate in a stupored trance
quickly clinches preying chance
victory's joyous dance.

Brutish brownish bitter brat
worse than hornet bees and gnat
tell me what is that.

**** if you can in one slap
break its sticky ******* trap
hear hands' roaring clap.

As she serves the food
the smell permeates the air
ah, food's aroma is so good
and I've of it a fair share.

I don't know what hunger is
how many on earth go unfed
I get whenever I please
I bother about the quality instead.

I talk of freedom and free will
care about health and hygiene
I have my assured meal
hunger's face I haven't seen.

I'm a man well fed
live in the fullness of good meals
I don't have to take it in my head

in this world hunger still kills.

Grinning wide by the riverside
two bubbly girls click shots
between them whisper confide
share the secret thoughts!

The giggly cutes they walk like dance
caught in a sunlit pause
not mind the boys stealing glance
seems not worth a cause!

Their cells follow where they go
the lens beamed right on face
one more please and then one more
frames add up happiness!

I was watching the sun go down
pretty much in a fix
light was getting dullish brown
would turn darkish by six!

The urge was great surged the will
it grabbed the whole of mind
to have a photo me standing still
with the river flowing behind!

The butterfly girls in the sun's last kiss
they readily said o yes
each of them took a shot apiece
my joy you can easily guess!

Words are worn out
till we repolish
to repeat anew.

Not everything I can make into a poem
like the sky just after rain
her embroidered smile its minutest hem
in her shade of cornea a grain of pain!

Not everything I can make into a poem
like wind eddies from wings of bird
her amorous veil that stokes my flame
in her lips’ quiver the unuttered word!

Not everything I can make into a poem
like the heron’s swoosh on the moon of marsh
her endless aroma without a name
in her eyes the million stars!

Not everything I can make into a poem
like when perches the bird on nest
her flushed cheeks in love game
in her kiss the sea salt’s taste!

they get into your pant
sting the fleshiest part
concerns they've scant
if the bitten is hurt
no sooner than dangers they read
quickly inject formic acid.

easily irritable they're venomous
the pain they inflict can't be quietly nursed
don't they ever bother size of victim
elephantine fat or grasshopper slim
just one bite and the crisis is dire
body is engulfed in eruptive fire.

they grip quite strong before they bite
crawl on from left catch you from right
not a fair deal was it deserved to be earned
thrown in the fire thousand times burned
they spread everywhere trees and clothesline
upon this earth they're livid landmine.

fear them you might curse them abhor
can't stop them they're mighty predator
one small sting is sparks of whiplash
leaving on skin swollen red rash
the more you scratch the more leaps the flame
be wary of these creatures fire ant by name.

‘How much more can one bear?’
Her words almost emerged from the rain
And echoed in the droplets’ din on the soil,
‘How much and how much more?’
Her voice rose above the thunder.
She was looking weird in the lightning’s flash.
‘The first man in my life left before I was a woman,
Let woe befall him I don’t remember his face.
He left me for the feasting vultures and wolves
And the devourers spared nothing but my bones.
God, I’ve no faith in him, played a greater devil,
From that lust of rain, a drop planted in me a seed
That birthed in this debauched heart a seed of greed
Of hope, of life, of a love of my flesh and blood,
One that I could bring and nurture with pride.
But my womb infested with the rivers of poison
Couldn’t ripen it enough to drop on earth
And there I was alone on the rough wild sea
With no land on sight, no shore to anchor,
Floating aimlessly where no light would ever shine’.

‘You write so much about loneliness and suffering,
Make it up having seen so little of the real face of it.
But I’ve lived them, each day sinking evermore
Into pits from where my agony’s cry couldn’t be heard.
How much more can one bear, how much more I still have to?’
Her words fell like thunder as the rain lashed the earth.

I knew the vainness of all the pictures I painted!

From the moment you’re born
You get a lollipop
You **** on
Till it *****!
For sometime you lick the stick
Before turning to Him,
the ultimate candy of sweetness!

Your paths shouldn’t lead astray

Heard it since childhood day
Heard it along all the way
What it means don’t know to this day.

It doesn’t show the way nor lifts the haze
Of a delusional journey the morality’s maze
Just a vague notion planted from the birth
Astray a wrong way is not a travel’s worth.

And that’s the dilemma all the trouble’s root
Astray the wrong way should not be one’s route
But each path has on offer its own unique view
Sublime obnoxious but stretched out for you.

Don’t I need to break shackles and explore
The way called astray what it has in store
How bad are its tracks uncouth unclean
If they are laden with only vices and sin.

Why not one day break out of shell
See if astray leads only to hell
Take chance of a choice to get away from the pain
Of the ways thought right but ashtray like vain.

last night's weary traveler
i was washing the car
under the blue skies..

suddenly the rains came
flooding my eyes!

below the golden flame
my hands were wiping metal frame
washing tyre's rolling pains
under the blue skies..

suddenly the rains came
flooding my eyes!

trickling sweats licked my skin
the car was turning shining clean
under the blue skies..

suddenly the rains came
flooding my eyes!

didn't know why couldn't name
sky was blue sun golden flame
smoked the glass deep sighs..

when suddenly filled the rains
fell noiseless from eyes!

Sun does tickle his dreams on the blazing pave
when pass by him countless feet honking cars
fires don’t burn him nor do elements make him slave
upon him the street dirt is powdered stars.

In the luxurious cushions bed is a veritable thorn
sleep defers or visits not eyes’ awakened nightmare
men burn power to being breathing to the morn
while his eyelids at dreams’ wonder gapingly stare.

There’s a kingdom carved by him where gods don’t reign
a few picked crumbs magically brew metabolic bliss
fairies stir laughter misty angels wipe out pain
the moment his head the concretes kiss.

It isn’t hunger that in his deepest bowel gnaws
but a gratitude not battered by existential flaws
for being gifted a mind broke free sanity’s laws
be just there amid rush an island of pause.

I too will go to you, says the son
to the face of the father.

He broadens his smile
thin and gathering dust for long
as if to acknowledge
he always knew
one day his son would stand before him
resigned and weary
willing to join on his route.

The son sees his father's lips
move in the briefest prayer..

Welcome.

O Devi, awaken the good in all,
there's no demon, nor devil
but in our mind, our will.

Raise our spirit, O Devi,
to the mountain's height
so we can use our might
to leave narrowness and rise above,
learn to live in amity and love!

In the chill of the mist
we walk on the almost deserted way.

I have little to say
being filled with her beside me
and she breathes the wind in
as our lonely world spins.

Sometimes we touch as we walk
prompting her to look at me
with a veiled smile across her face
when the walk seems sweeter than happiness.

The date trees are brimming with juice, she says
the pots will be filled in no time, I affirm,
some farther and we will be there.

Something akin to love
brews with the nectar.