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.

village girl pillage mind on the first sight
hazel eyes gazelle runs hair dark night

barn’s smell holds tale fathomless deep
flutters heart falls apart resolves fast slip

she knows it my heartbeats quicken for her
in love glow paint rainbow on day sky a star

she can catch as I watch slavish eyes’ plead
more than me it is she can my dreams read

but wouldn’t bend have me lent one little kiss
honor ******* her guard not let me do as please

she soon fades stays in head lives carefree
ever far upon a star sweetest memory.

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.

Raindrops pelted the earth in fiery spill
Clouds drove away the submissive daylight
Warmth tamely surrendered to chill
It was then those eyes came into my sight!

A bare bodied riffraff hardly into his teen
He looked an absurd picture in a silent film
Standing there exposed in streaming skin
One shivering model playing rain’s victim!

But this wasn’t the way I thought like then
Myself a kid returning from school
Rain-coated and knowing no pain
Living secured under parental rule!

I just felt then something was not right
He shouldn’t have been left in such a state
A cold or a rain fever catch he might
The kid who could have been my mate!

Your mom and dad, I asked, where’re they
Leaving you in the rain to roam
Should have been indoors on such a day
And not stray off from home!

The boy it seemed couldn’t surmise
For long deprived of kindness
Filled up his eyes in sheer surprise
But soon grew saddened his face!


*No dad no mom I’ve never known them
Known only to play in the rain
Live in the street without a name
Orphaned too long for any pain!

I spread my wares and wait.
From morn till night
Longing that you would turn up
Love what I show and get it.
The shadows lengthen
The moon rises with the nightjar
The shadows close on me
I sulk in despair.
I am back with the first light
With renewed submission
Longing that you would turn up
Love what I show and get it.
The day spreads wings and departs
Fly away heart's dead embers
I embrace the loneliness.
Once again I cry in pain.

Thus I wait eons for you
That one day you would turn up
Love and get what I have to offer
Never knowing that you were there everyday
Holding me through the night
coming back with sunray!

There’s no love sated
In one man, one woman
It flows unabated
For endless span!

In life she had seven husbands
But love with her is buried where her tomb stands
Many more might have come to her life
The lady she’s known as *the seven husband’s wife.

Empty would seem her heart’s treasure trove
If she had stuck to merely one love
So when tired she banished one for good
Found herself another as her soul’s food.

She searched love towards that end made attempt
But after a while grew familiarity’s contempt
Love is no water that can be held in one jerrycan
When one man was exhausted was time for another man.

Often she fell for them drawn by their exterior
Only to find afterwards their inferiority to her
All their sweet talks were hollow in every bit
Impossible was to endure their annoying habit.

Yet she didn’t cease her search for love true sublime
To bond in a relationship that would stand the test of time
But that she never found remained empty her treasure trove
She passed from one man to the other not found real love.

The seven men that failed her in love she ended their term
For they unbeknownst to them had caused her fatal harm
By not fulfilling her cherished goal not being loving husband
*Leaving her with no choice but with their blood to smear her hand!

wind scatters the fallen leaves

mother roams helpless
child in her arms

fleas merrily peel the stray
and her two pups

girl offers her flower
for a dime

as the clock strikes three
the devout race for a glimpse

the deity’s stone carved face
beams with divine grace.

Where sways in the wind the eucalyptus
with chiming bells rolls the bullock cart
lies the hut of my dream sown in wild grass
lives the girl I have loved and given my heart!

She is the girl not been ever to a city
she isn’t the girl can call clever and witty
a girl without a mirror she’s the most pretty
and I have loved her and given all my heart!

Her skin is dark cloud her lips river’s flow
her eyes are sky deep tinged with rainbow
she isn’t the girl skilled in love’s fine art
she is the girl I have loved and given my heart!

Her hair rusty black makes the winds insane
her smiles streaming brook no artist can paint
a girl without polish yet a beauty on the earth
and I have loved her and given all of my heart!

Winds brought her smell on the Broken Hill
it stirred a butterfly somewhere inside me
danced my **** to get her skin’s feel
grab her impale her ride her merrily!

But she looked scared the few times she saw me
kept moving away at quickened pace
in her hazel eyes seemed written boldly
in the stream haven’t you seen your face!

I had no notion of love but a void of pain
that sighed as the winds’ moan on Broken Hill
her laughter with her guy of a clan alien
made my hands itch to go for the ****!

But I refrained for the yawning difference
sensing I could never be her match perfect
the way she walked to me made no sense
she was taller and strangely more *****!

Uncertainty is the name of the game
Putting things in jeopardy God in shame
A particle’s position is immeasurable so its momentum
An imprecise arbitrariness for the Seeker a conundrum!

Drunk in the wine of Creation God had no inkling
Uncertainty would be inherent in his nature of things
Little slips He would make would be a stumbling block one day
One would affect the other's behavior without a remedial way!

It appears such a twisted thing making so little sense
The objects you measure with will themselves influence
The particle to be measured its velocity and speed
Discarding precise determination not yielding a perfect read!

Lovers take heart from this though her heart you may win
There’s no way with precision her love you can determine
She remains as yet unknown in her love’s position and quantum
You the Seeker can do little than to live with the conundrum!

Pleads her mint blue eyes
Thank you for the patting touch
If I crave for a saucer of milk
Would that be asking too much?

Of course you have the right to ignore
And throw my way a vacant stare
Signing me to move away from door
Pretending there’s no milk in Frigidaire!

But I beg you to act humanly
Be ethical and firmly fair
If you got some milk for your tea
Surely you’ve some for me to spare!

Parting a few drops wouldn’t make you poor
My blessings would give you manifold back
You would feel far happier and I’m sure
Sky won’t fall if your brew is more black!

Well if you still ignore I would move away
With dignity I would leave your ground
But don’t blame me when comes the day
You feel a void and I’m not around!

when we see ourselves
as being here
to comfort others.

When over the rail bridge
on the sky autumn blue
clouds floated in cotton pieces

I longed for home.

The port light tower
and the masts of anchored ships
made me keen to reach home
like a sailor long on the sea
disembarking with dreamy eyes
thinking if at all is one home
a tender lip awaiting his sunburned cheek
or if he would retrace to the waves
and someone waiting was only in his head.

I was at Remount Road an old station
with home not really that far
and disproportionately small to my yearning.

I was making a brisk walk
and when at the door
fell into a reverie of
rail bridge
anchored ships on the port
white on the autumn blue
and the small station
Remount Road.

Ten kittens in my home now
Ten little brats
Their mothers never knew how
To catch the cupboard rats!
Their mothers never knew how
To go for hunt and prey
How the kittens would learn now
Anything other than play!
Their mothers never knew how
To pounce on a mouse
The poor kittens are all now
Just idling in my house!
Their mothers never knew how
To make their own food
Why still the kittens now
Making me feel so good?

‘See we aren’t leaving anything out,
check once more to be sure’
she said with a nagging doubt,
‘we’re going to come back no more
once behind us we close the door’.

The hassles had made her tense
Moving out was trouble immense
I said to soothe her nerve ‘be assured dear,
We would leave nothing here’.

Still for her peace I went in
To make sure nothing lay within
And what I got was a jolting shock
On the wall still hung our bedroom clock!

She fumed and blurted on my face
‘I always knew you’re too careless,
thank god I goaded you for another look
precious things might be lying in some nook’.

I went in not to seek anymore things
But for the spent moments still fluttering wings
Smell our joys and sorrows hanging in the air
Of the times living as a tenant here!

Cats galore here in our home
Crawling kittens in their tow
Puppies in our rooms roam
We don’t need anywhere to go.
My wife she proudly hosts
Boasts of her budgies many
Now she has added two parrots
We are in glorious company.
The bulbuls are kind to stay outside
But they too have to be hand fed
The mynas in us lovingly confide
Our rabbits love to be on bed.
She says she needs a few hens
That in the backyard would freely roam
I know you don’t see any gains
In having a zoo in our home!

(1)
English pronunciation
is immense confusion
and often I seek
clarification
from macmillan
but when I try my luck
to earn fast buck
I log on
makemillion.con!

           (2)
Three thousand five hundred
his labor's price
his labored prize
he hands over to his father
his father
who knows better than to spend it
rewards of son's toil
bitter and sweet!

           (3)
I wish I were dead
and not he
now who will look after me?
cries the woman
a heart failure
having robbed his man.

with no hint of tears in her eyes
she doesn't disguise
her plea

*I part her with a hundred rupee.

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!

To hell with it, enough I say
It's time to rise and be ready
With the sword's sweep to go and slay
The dark forces of my enemy!

Madly I go out for the drive
Beware foes you've no retreat
I'll hunt you out wherever you thrive
And will not come back before I do it!

All around I find echoing hollow
Pitying laughter in mocking glee
I move and my own shadows follow
Despairingly crying where is the enemy!

Where is the enemy, taunts my vengeance
Where is the enemy that my wrath seeks
Where is the enemy asks my impatience,
My enemy inside me reigns in bliss!

Hand

A few playful beaking from him
And I remember
Did not soap the dirt off my hand!

Here I stand
Bothered
Praying

My parrot doesn’t get an infection.

Head*

Because it bothers
Low I stoop
To pen about bird ****!

On my way from office
Fell the hit-never-miss.

Finding no dried leaf
I used my handkerchief
And verified from a stranger
There wasn’t a stain!

Bird **** is a bane.

So they said
Is the chance my head
Would soon be bereft of hair

Quite unfair!

Here I stand
Bothered
Praying

The few remaining don’t leave me.

To all music morons
Glued to their earphones
The look-alike clones
Sunk in the dune of tunes
In the crowded buses
In public places
With drooping eyes like a yogi
Cracking heads and bursting ears
Thinking it the only escape
Salvation’s gateway
Balm for boredom
Pleasure’s pinnacle,
Don’t just fritter away
The one chance to be here
For a brief while
And leave with a blind existence
And a blasted hearing,
And before it’s late
Redraw your fate
Take off the headset
Open the yogic eyes
And in the yogi’s spirit
Give the world a good look
Recreate in her beauties
Make her melody your pastime
Her rhythm your heart’s rhyme,
So you don’t regret
When your time comes along
That you never could tell a bird from her song!

To give their face a facelift
on the lip and around eyes
invented was lipstick
extracted from dyes.

Ah a woman’s lips
have held for countless age
her mind’s secret tips
love, hatred, rage!

Her lips parted pursed
speak the subtlest lines
of a relation gone accursed
or one in glowing shines!

It’s not when lips do part
but when she’s tightlipped
the silence breaks man’s heart
the strongest one gets ripped!

But sure her puckered ones
they invite you to a bliss
sparkle like thousand suns
when land on you as kiss!

Wearily reclines the midnight moon
Stars dreamily wait to fade
The nightjars somewhere sleepily croon
My eyes slumber doesn’t invade.
I hear my bloodstream in the canals of vein
The lubdub of my doughnut from deep
Echoes of footsteps, long forgotten pain,
My eyes can’t trace a wink of sleep.
The night ages the moon seeks west
Stars yearn an end to their trek
Inside my head they still abhor rest
Run random my thoughts without break.

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!

moonlight's shadows on bats' wings
in the sky the stars abound
but keep me busy so many things
my eyes are stuck in ground.

my mind is stuck in arithmetic
the end of day accounts
so little time to be romantic
unfelt has lost all count.

croons unheard the unseen nightjar
***** owls' eyes glow
my mind still finds too little to stir
to pause a while go slow.

mystic night is lilting unheard
the moon still hopeful round
I'm busy picking the shards
of a mirage strewn around.

I could blow to smithereens
the wealth of the rich
could play a rob-in-hood
**** and steal
to give the poor a fair deal
could hang all the glib talkers
from the highest post
feet up head down
publicly displayed in the town
break the iron walls
bulldoze the palaces
pull them down from the throne
where I sent them
put an end to their dastardly game

but this mind’s wrath
this hand’s gun
can’t pop even one bullet
can only ink
a dawn pink emotion

of Revolution.

In the stillness of the night,
The lake was drinking the moon.
Though shattered, he was not crying,
His eyes just glistened with a mist.
She was his world and bereft her,
It meant nothing to live.
Slowly he got up,
And with a sweep of charcoal,
Wrote in bold on the shabby hoarding,
‘I MISS YOU'.

Then he went into the water.

Drive fast must get outta here
Run back to the city’s lights
Daytime beauty hides the scares
Can fall prey to the swallowing nights!
Still hundred miles time running out
Rush back to the known comfort
With darkness here monsters sprout
Don’t expect with them any rapport!
Day’s golden innocence so alluring
Vast expanse winds’ endless blow
Magpie robins from treetops sing
In praise of the drunken river’s flow!
You feel tempted to fall for it
Crave for a while’s silent pause
To smell in soil a fragrance sweet
Be drowned in the bliss of serene repose!
While in the breeze the cornfields sway
The sun tilts west makes the sky crimson
Your uneasy mind wanna call it a day
Move away from there forget emotion!
When darkness falls it dawns here quick
Monsters loom in shades unknown
Fear gnaws your senses go weak
Your timid mind finds fears grown!
Though stars twinkle on milky way
The crescent moon anchors in sky
You feel you should’ve foregone the stay
And not stayed back for daylight to die!

Drive fast must get outta here
Leave them to fade in the rustic night
The hundred miles you must steer
Reach where you belong the city of light!

She's a beautiful woman.

When age left her side
she grew a bed of marigold
blooming yellow and red
catching sunshine in winter
and as the years tiptoed to her
a fresh bed of love she made
and lay thereupon newly wed.

Bit by bit the monster river
swallows her flesh
her chunks a little quiver
then break in lumpy mess!*

She loves him in high tide moon
bears him children in insane fertility
falls for his sweet lapping croon
loses her in his enormity.

Since he mouthed her his first kiss
she had given him her ego
shrunk with his each bitten piece
washed away with his flow.

In love she never wavers
to offer her to the river
yielding to the monstrous slayer
knowing him her destined lover!

High atop the spire beneath a cloudless sky
the Cross stands forlorn Christmas is nigh
since long in the past time beyond recall
no bells chime here is sung no carol!

But its heart still flutters as hears the Lord's voice
I carried your burden and set for you the choice
to do this world much good and love your fellow men
be happy in others' happiness take share of their pain!

Kind Lord mutters the Cross men still live for gain
act the way it seems your blood was shed in vain
they war and breed hatred between them raise wall
hanker for pelf and power in their loss they squall!

The church lies abandoned starkly white and bare
only the Cross bows to the Lord in silent prayer
hoping it's not far away when the bells would ring
the Lord would carry the Cross on his second coming!

On the low tide marshland I run
to catch the miracle from close
deft splash of colors godly done
river bridging twin gorgeous rainbows!

Now I can leave in peace
without a regret to die
having seen fulfilled my wish
of a double rainbow on the sky!

Between my awes at the centuries old sculptures
She was lost from my sight.

Maybe a minute only I thought
But why she should roam alone?
Against my wish I fought
To call her on the cellphone.

Should I go to track her out
Peeping through windows’ iron bars
But spoke in me a voice of doubt
Unnecessary she couldn’t be gone far.

108 dark holy spires
She could be under any of them
Caught in the winter’s desire
For a round of hide-n-seek game.

Sometimes a minute could be eerily long
For the shadows of fear to haunt you
What if the wait’s end never comes along
And she forever remains out of view.

Didn’t know when she quietly stood behind
Her nudge gave me a start

*I know what now occupies your mind
Those displays of the ****** art!

When you're cloaked in a pall of gloom
Life seems bland with colours gone
The little flower in her humble bloom
Will say she's there you aren't alone.

He was for long on the river sailing since sunrise
When under afternoon clouds the hamlet caught his eyes
Wearied by the sojourn to that land a faraway call
The green beckoned to rest his oars for a leisurely stroll.

He sat under a banyan to heal his limbs of pain
Darker grew the clouds the winds hinted rain
His heart too was aching the heart of a lonely man
For he had left behind his sweetheart his beloved woman.

It’s not known if clouds swelled in his dreamy eyes
His mind was too obsessed for the Empire’s rise
There he stood on the riverbank an alien on another’s soil
That he must till to build a kingdom paying with sweat of toil.

He remembered his three children their skin’s blended tan
Their rustic eyes reflecting their mother the one his woman
He reminisced under banyan shade how he fell in love with her
Only if he were a little late she would’ve been burned at the pyre.

*The man loved that sleepy hamlet built there a factory
The trade post became a city earned place in history
The river still meanders laden with the tears of pity
That swelled in his eyes for the woman he saved from suttee.

It was bothering him the noise that came at night from outhouse
He didn’t give it much notice in the barn was a lot of mouse
Just wondered why in the day he would hear none of the sound
But it all started with him on the bed and the lunar path westbound.

As the grandfather clock chimed past twelve he kept counting the gong
It was about time to ***** up his ears the music would soon play along
The glass windowpane brought him the sky with stars all over firmament
Shaken out of wits he would tell himself it couldn’t be done by rodent.

Night after night it went on happening he couldn’t wish away with a laugh
It reached him one night to his patience’s end he said enough is enough
With his gun and torch he left the bed the truth for once he must learn
Who played the music regular midnight was somebody there in the barn?

He made his way through the shrub laden path under a half-lit moon
To find what it was that robbed his peace the source of the pestering croon
The outhouse loomed eerily in semidarkness a magic of night’s artistry
The man wondered what was hidden within what piece of baffling mystery.

Just as his shadow fell on the door floating in the crescent moon
The wind hushed off descended a lull stopped abruptly the tune
Nerves frayed in the nightly trudge his brows furrowed in doubt
He shrugged it off unlocked the door the fact must be found out.

A yawning black swallowed him with the smell of years’ dust
It took a while to see past it for his strained eyes to adjust
Then he remembered the torch in his hand his only aid for light
He pressed it on in the beamed circle caught the piano’s sight.

*Lying un-strummed for ages the piano had stood the time’s test
Playing host to its squeaking mates turning itself to their nest
They gaily treaded on the undead keys the notes were sheer fun
Their plot was uncovered on that night without the use of a gun.

being the topper in the class, he developed certain pride
that the envious derided, ignored flatterers on his side.

the first bench was his permanent place
from where shone his haloed face
when the teachers spoke seemed it thus
there was only him in the whole class.

all questions he took the answers he knew
solved hardest sums others had no clue
not once an intruder could invade his space
he shined in glory of his flawlessness.

from him was never unfinished homework
ruthlessly made on exams his mark
was taken for granted he would win first place
the rest of the herd would just run the race.

the teachers indulged him the pride of the class
but you know all fame are fragile like glass
it so happened a new teacher joined the school
unbiased he was not to blindly toe the rule.

he asked the first boy if he had ever flown a kite
played marbles on road picked up a fight
if ever he had walked barefooted on the grass
stole a look at sky bunked even one class.

if he had ever chosen to close the book
hid him alone in the scariest of nook
scanned the horizon to catch first moonrise
counted the stars bamboo grove's fireflies.

he looked nonplussed didn't utter a word
anything than studies he hardly bothered
had he answered it would all have been *no
to him most precious was his place at front row.

he bowed his head down with ashen face
for the first time in class he failed to impress
what happened next was no riddle to guess
that teacher was gone without a trace.

You can call it reliance
You can call it faith
When two souls span the distance
Stick as lifelong mate!

You can call it miracle
You can call it a chance
When four eyes joyous sparkle
Beginning with first glance!

You can call it fate
You can call it nuts
Only they know the secret
In love united hearts!

Call it by any name
Its reach is boundaryless
When touched by its warm flame
Springs fountain of happiness!

In the ill-lit room singed with ovens’ heat
Swift hands deftly turn wheat ***** sweet
The air exudes a smell of pulpy soft taste
Blended with the odd fragrance of sweat!
Here reigns under the tin shed eternal night
As if by some design is forbidden daylight
Roll out confectionaries crisp and light
To fill the mouths with salivary delight!
Bread, cake, cookie and cherry bun
Kneading them in the heat is no fun
The bakers’ faces glow warm and red
Faster they must go before they rest their head!
The delicious stuff are relished by kids and grownups
They savor the flavor with their hot morning cups
Do they ever pause or give it a thought
How those laboring bodies in the heat rot!

For some days
placed you on the pedestal
of goddess.

Today
mere straw and clay
with the ganga

your skeleton flows away.

Woman,

hands that worship

immerse thee!

I want to erase that ugly line.
It’s not seen but it’s there
Between you and me
Day and night
Deep down
Eating
Thru
Us!
You
And I
Created
And allowed
That line to grow
And build between us
A rift that makes us enemies
Drifting away as two islands!

As the day dies sun to west slants
my hands water the few potted plants
an evening dawns in melancholic hush
pesters my mood the cawing corvus!

The nose in the air polished jackdaw
can’t fathom why men break nature’s law
wipe out forests root out the green
then on the roof try to grow seedling!

Why at all shrink the men so smart
stretches of wood to build habitat
all the clever brains profound and wise
destroy wastelands to madly urbanize!

The corvus his eyes speak of dark scare
frightened beak caws how is unfair
denuding of trees in insane haste
leaving scarce space to build him a nest!

Hurrying to my work in the untimely shower
Caught my ears the mews but it was rush hour
Must be another kitten born with no luck
Abandoned in the shrub dying on sidewalk!

The day soon rubbed off the mews from my mind
Till my feet trudged home leaving the drudge behind
Once upon that sidewalk in twilight’s grayish hues
I heard it from neath of grass pain’s plaintive mews!

Must be an angel possessed me I did find it out
Picked up took home put warm milk into its mouth
My lady unpleased said our hands are already full
Here you bring another like you isn’t another fool!

But she was the first one to make it a cosy bed
She was the one worrying how it to be properly fed
Yet filled the air its agony’s mews all day and night
She said your taking it here wasn’t all that right!

Its ma must have left the baby in the bush safely hiding
Picking up and taking it home was quite a wrong thing
She must be now crying wild searching everywhere
The baby wouldn’t stop crying till getting back mother!

So the cute kitten I placed back in the hideout on sidewalk
With the prayer it gets back ma wishing it good luck
Leaving it with heavy heart I walked away for day’s work
Sighed the silent sidewalk on my way home after dark!

Whole day I carry a burden of load in mind
A way out of this maze I desperately try to find
Rewinds it like a flashback in a slow moving film
Was he at fault or wasn’t I unfair to him?

Then there’re words that I would rather not have said
They raised some eyebrows a few enemies made
In course of the day they make me sulk and fret
Agonizing mishaps breeding gallons of regret!

Add to that my actions that might have caused a hurt
Sweet bonds loosening relationships coming apart
I’m tormented by these diurnal horrors the recurrent day-mares
Be sure they’re much scarier than any of your nightmares.

‘The coffee is getting cold’.

The sweet retold
From her
Waiting with the winter’s brew!

No ambition I harbor
For here my woman
The best way she can
Makes steaming brew
Worth my savor!

She knows too
In the wintry nights
With her I crave to be
Sipping her hot coffee
With it drowning the winter’s pain
My only reward, best bargain
A sweet story retold!

‘The coffee is getting cold’
From her
Creating for me summer’s brew!