Sinking low in fathomless misery
The poet seeks an escape vent.
Takes this as an outing into darkness
A free fall in a gliding motion
Into the depth of the ocean
Away from the surface storm
Knowing he can’t be down beneath bottom,
And even there would be swimming
With all the life that make it their abode
Wrapped in blackness yet luminescent
In the filtered glow up from above
Dreaming one day to find their way back
To the warm hug of sunlight.
This affords him a survival, belief-driven,
Alike the last breath that hopes a heaven!

Loyalty is fleeting
Fragile to the touch
I’m scared of being
Trusted too much!

For I too am tempted
To seek new pasture
I’m not exempted
From greeding luster!

Old brew is fine
But thirsts this lip
To taste new wine
A forbidden sip!

So I ventured
As secretly willed
Tried adventure
On greener field!

But lo I returned
A hole in my heart
All fingers burned
Soul ripped apart!

Can’t hide from her
She knows it true
Healing my scar
Needs her old brew!

He left at 67.

No one knew
he caught the first light
through the window glass

smelled dew when autumn came
was joyous at the trills of birds
caught all the blue in his eyes
and smiled the sky was his.

No one knows
if it was too early to go.

He knew
he was briefly happy.

On your poems I linger.

Long after they’re gone

Leave their mark
On my work

Residues of their thread
Buzz in my head

Deep they sink
To color my ink

Your thought
In me wrought

The way you bleed
The way you seed
The way you need

They get into me
Beget more poetry

Your pursuit of joy
Of pain
Of sorrow

I borrow

Fated to be forever indebted

I steal your tune
Like a roadside singer.

On your poems I linger.

I lay on bed waiting for that moment,
The night guard passed on his last round
Mournfully whistling another night was spent,
Though the night was still lulled by weary crickets’ sound.
My windowpane like a ***** lover clung darkness tight
If that would let him hold onto the night
Unwilling to let go the stars out of sight
Fearful his secret would be cracked by daylight.
I waited in bated breath that inevitable moment
Eyeing the glass to catch the transition
A bulbul called to say another night was spent
Other hopeful voices broke out in unison.

On one of city’s endless wires
Above spits venom guttural swears
When the sun tinges an orange red
The lone bird cries a dirge for dead!

The dead footsteps that left the shore
Walked million miles could walk no more
Their joys and pains on earth foothold
Silenced now deep buried in cold!

The bird it knows the stories untold
Hurtful sighs of hearts of gold
Silent fall of molten pain
Left for good here won’t be again!

The lone bird knows how hard it hits
The ones still here forlorn heartbeats
When death maims bonds breaks love’s pairs
Moonless eyes wake through nightmares!

Each bone of you I know

She does this charming rebuke
Such bone warming words
Making no bones about it!

This is her warm assurance
Her ways of bonhomie
That the bond, gelled, *****,
Is now bone-a-fide!

So whenever she says

I know each bone of you*

I bask in the pleasure
Bathe in the sunshine
Sit back and reap fully

The bone-nanza

Of an ever rewarding bone-d-age!

When at roadside stands
I see a little mag of poetry
can't help mutter two words

lapis lazuli

Must have brought it a poet like him
lover of letters dealer of dreams
drunk in the elixir of emotion
added a drop more to the spilling ocean!

In the vastness grew in one nook
bearded youth with poetic look
his words tattered on the canvas a rag
bringing this world one little mag!

There wasn't a reader an eye to see
the poet's journal sold for free
he carried them bagful if could find
ears willing a discerning mind!

Then they shrunk the hopes high soared
wings broken the bard was floored
in the desert sands lay dried poetry
dying unprized lapis lazuli!

No question asked nor rose a frown
a wasted poet was the known verdict
he put his pen forever down
till breathed his last a drug addict!

here’s another cat poem.

When the orphaned black kitten is shrinking
and sinking
and these hands are too inadequate
to stem the slide
and writing poems seem far easier
than filling the gap its mother left
this heart going through another break
another trek
downhill
for an uphill job
and as I lift it
feel its heartbeat
slowing
to a few grams
so putting it down
return to keyboard
feeling a little guilt
a little shame

as you rightly say
to write another cat poem.

Leaving the papyrus for me
she leaves for the river.

Don't follow me
she says
instead
pick up my pages
unread

and with that

she goes with the river wind.

the papyrus
scattered on her trail
before I could pick them all
fly with her

to the river!

I'm sorry if my poems don't bring you happiness
thrills of joys and cheers
to liven up your day.

when that happens
give me my failure's blame
for my mind couldn't tame
the sad-istic urge
to clothe them and dress
the figures in distress
on the bylanes and streets
trodden inglorious
for a poet to regret
he couldn't make his poems the way
they made your day!

On my selling on a day in the blazing May
I was looking for a small place for a light bite
when I noticed through my heat dazed eyes
the signboard "Snack Bite".

Inside was the peaceful coolness of a suburb bylane
and I would have pretty soon dozed off
but for the strong smoke of spice, garlic and onion
that shut out every senses except hunger.

No menu card, sir, the waiter cut the silence,
on our menu at this hour is only fish fingers,
all else sold out.

No problem I said, I have been here for a light bite.
How many pieces come with a plate?

Ten, sir, superbly fried.

By ten minutes the steaming thing was before me
ten red crispy slices of fish fingers
and I immediately got into business
remembering what my ma used to say,
To a hungry mouth every food tastes fine
and so neat and fine the pieces looked
so artfully arranged on the plate like human fingers
I reflected on the pause having finished the fifth.

Human fingers? I froze in terror,
why didn't I notice
leftovers of crunched bones and nails
on my plate?

The only other man at the table, I heard
was ordering for another plate.

The day was a mishap.
Dry and arid
No wind blew
And in the oppressive heat
Nothing seemed to click.
The doors I knocked
Didn’t yield,
The men I tried to reach,
Replied staunch refusals,
The deals so badly needed
Questioned my survival.
Bruised and battered for no gain,
I took refuge in the night.
My sleep returned them all,
The daytime monsters I chased,
Goblins, dybbuks, ghouls,
Specters of my torments –
Taking turns to chase me!
When the soft balm of sun
Opened my eyes,
I was back on the road
With dreams of
Open doors
Smiling faces
And deals with friendly monsters!

She swam in her delirium in an unfamiliar semi-darkness
Around her an ocean in slow motion engulfed her dizzy senses
Voices from a faraway space echoed garbled in her straining ears
She flew past all horizons wings spanning across many light years.

The flight was such thrilling she wished it had never ended
But she was slowing down on an emptiness she descended
Seeing and hearing nothing she fell inside senseless gravity
Lay silent in anaesthesia the patient in Bed 223.

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 sung no carol!

But still its heart flutters as it 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
still hoping it's not far away when the bells would ring
the Lord would carry the Cross on his second coming!

come here beckoned the sea
though I have receded beyond *******
come awhile to be with me
low tide has taken me far.*

my eyes pierced the haze saw beyond her crown
glinted in the tidal greed narrowed in longing frown
the heart pumped and the feet itched it is not that far
her kiss and the saline hug veiled behind *******.

what if it's just a dream and much more is at stake
going there for her embrace gathering wispy flakes
may seem unworthy on waves the wishes' ride
she would reveal none or little she would only hide.

what if it's a trap her feigned bait alluring
the hovering mirage before touch would fly away on wings
the shining buzz of the haloed night drowsily winking stars
they all know I mustn't yield to travel beyond *******.

I could hear the deafening voices coming from shore behind
they chorused *be alert of pitfalls of a tempted drunken mind
too long cocooned in comfort zone can no more go that far
come back pick up the broken pieces this side of *******.

The boulder river almost called
the figure leaning on the bridge.

The height wasn't much
but one touch would crush.

He saw a doll with its blood
floating away with the current.

Thin line, he muttered under his breath,
I never realised
it was this thin.

He snatched himself away from the moment
and headed towards the rest house
thinking
I would give it a try,
some time.

The wind hissed in a queer pitch,
Waves broke with a thunderous roar,
The rapturously melancholic strains
Howled the entire length of land.
You might think I was on seashore
Caught in the swirl of saline winds.
Nay I was dreaming of the sea,
Pausing beneath a sky-etched casuarina!

We are living in war times
You can't see the blood though
The air is thick with it.
We are right, we are better
We stand for all that is good
We are in no mood to listen
Tolerance is the last thing in our mind.
People say there's so little war
There's so little bloodshed.
The war now is of terrifying silence
More ominous, more destroying
Cutting through love, endurance
Eliminating relationship, humanity-
Perpetrating a bloodless coup
Where blood is not seen, agonies aren't heard!

We are amidst war each against the other,
Silent, bloodless but more macabre!

i tell them when they come under me
though my shade won't make you cool
love as much wholeheartedly
for love break all the rule.

stay together for years on
for small things part not way
if from life love is gone
it's hell each living day.

it seems they don't hear me
though i say it in high voice
tell them live life willingly
and not once waste the choice.

i tell them live life together
till death do you part
don't just let a bad weather
break your loving heart.

it so seems they don't care
though i always tell to them
let no storm break the pair
extinguish heart's flame.

i tell them it's not that hard
can do it each of you
if can do the two lovebird
you two can easily too.

i doubt it if their ears
lend time for my voice
when it says through joys and tears
stick once you make your choice.

i can't do more from my place
than tell them wisdom's words
i love them and heartily bless
while scaring away the birds.

Monday I swam out of cavern
Tuesday I grew my wing
Wednesday entrenched in tavern
I was jolly perfectly going.
Thursday saw my graying head
My knees weren’t that strong
Lights in my eyes did fade
When Friday came along.
I started missing the bygone
Took refuge in my past
Felt deserted all alone
Friday didn’t long last.
Saturday came clothed in curse
My senses dimmed voice hushed
Sunday arrived on a flowered hearse
Knew not when the week passed.

The house seemed to live on its own
In the silence of a monster waiting prey
Skin peeled off mossed abandoned
In a gloom quite untouched by the day!

It was the house standing last in the lane
Hidden in its dark ominous nook
Locked in closed door windowpane
Holding secret of a never opened book!

Not one sign of some life did it show
Bar a glassed shadow in the candlelight
Flickering for a while and then go
Like a passing phantom of the night!

Never go anywhere near that door
Cautioned us the elders in childhood
It was said weren’t seen anymore
Those ventured had disappeared for good!

We found in that lane a peaceful space
For a winter afternoon’s cricket match
Bowling and batting in low pace
When the ball was in air shouting catch!

It happened one day jumped the fence
A bounce took the ball past the wall
The children were worried and tense
Who would go to fetch it make a call!

None was ready to give the door a knock
Having heard about the house its weirdness
What would reveal once the **** was unlocked
Peeped from it the most macabre face!

They left as I stood there alone
With terror creeping to my core
When the wood creaked with a groan
Stood a woman on the opened door!

On her face shone a smile’s beaming star
As she held out the ball for my reach
While I wondered what made them call her
A ***** and child slaying witch!

The teddy pair lies in the sun,
They scooped the dirt out
And abandoned them here.
Once hugged in the sweetest *****
Fondled by the cutest little hands
Taken to bed for happy dreams,
They seemed inseparables
And not just stuffed toys.
Made as inanimate,
By the magic touch of love,
They turned humans,
Yearning for love, company,
growing hearts in them.
Then as happens to all,
Their fluffs wore out
Colors faded
They were no more attractive.
Stale outdated outcast
To be thrown away out of sight.
As I passed by the garbage vat
For a moment it seemed
Their eyes were moist
With the pain of betrayal.
I prayed,
‘before they turn to cinder,
let them be picked up
by shabby little hands
of some child of lesser god
and given back the love they lost’.
I hope it will be answered.

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!

In the falling light of day
I read the old man a book.

Stories of love, enmity, deceit
Jealousy, betrayal, sacrifice
All from one author’s mind
One penning hand
Some very short some too long
But nowhere do I find
He has taken a stand
On virtue and vice
Right and wrong
Belief faith
Destiny fates
Nowhere asserts
If he is theist atheist agnostic
Nor invokes god
Praise or curse him.

I read and the old man nods

in the falling light of his day!

They come to haunt on an evening as this
when thunders roar fall endless rains
windowpanes moan in frosted kiss
awaken within long lost pains!

They don’t bear me a name or a face
the massless aches ***** like thorn
oozing out from what hidden place
on an evening as this they’re born!

In the blowing gust rain’s beelike drones
shatter my heart’s all gathered peace
mess the mind feed upon bones
leave me broken on an evening as this!

The pains don’t bear me a name or a face
don’t tell what hurts for what I miss
but ***** out all gathered happiness
rain my eyes on an evening as this!

Over the years I stop at that point
only to board a vessel
to the other side of the river
for further journey to the sea
but for the brief period of waiting
I keep pondering about the name of the place

Harwood Point.

Who was this Harwood?
what was he doing here?
what good deed made him deserving
to name the place after him?

I am still baffled
after a quarter of a century.

Googling throws up many Harwoods
dead and distinguished
but there's no clue to connect any of them with
Harwood Point.

I imagine he was one of the administrators
who left the shore of England
to be stationed at this place a century or two ago
then a tract of almost inaccessible jungle
for surveying the prospects of trade
for the East India Company
but that leads me to further questions.

Was he a noble soul that loved the place
and came to like the people there
so much so that the natives after his departure
made his name permanently etched there?

Or was he among those typical British Officers
who vented their wrath for having been interned
to a god forsaken mangrove wilderness
treated the natives with extreme disdain
proving himself worthy of his position
and duly rewarded by his masters
by making him a part of history
ironically undefined and unrecorded.

I love to think though
on a night when the moon
made the tide rebellious
he walked into the river
and was lost for good
and to this day none knows for sure
what happened to Mr. Harwood.

Knowing it hasn’t a cure,
My madness
She lovingly endures.

Dusted off a yellow scrap
From the depth of time,
A line scribbled,
Each letter dipped in raw blood,
That's when I was mad.
Infatuation, they call it,
Feelings that pass of
When maturity beheads emotions,
Foolishness of youth
Flies away on wings of calculations!
After caressing the parchment,
I put it back to its own time,
Because it doesn't belong to now,
The first flutter of heart,
A flimsy fragile impractical thing,
A wound I still carry,
Falling and failing in first love!

There's a poem on your window
one on the door
another in the wind's blow
welling up more.

There's a poem in your heartbreak
one on your tears
another on a long trek
walking for years.

There's a poem on the girl's eye
one on her skin
another in her silent cry
wearing out thin.

There's a poem in the hope's hue
one in your whim
another on the morning dew
waiting light's gleam.

There's a poem in the mirrored face
one in the season
another in your happiness
without a reason.

I met that man in a coastal town
over his face beards flowed wild
his eyes they knew only to look down
his years didn’t count he was a child!

He smelled of bile feces and phlegm
his skin was a thick layer of tar
from his **** hung loose his shame
they said he was a castaway who came from far!

Sun and rain found him a barren rock
a sculpture that birds could err to perch
standing unmindful of the passing flock
as if he was lost in a deep search!

He just stood there holding his ground
eyes cast down on the paved road
none had heard him utter a sound
muttered neath breath even one word!

To the townsfolk he was a statue on the square
that losing his way hovered on the brink
but I had a feel within him somewhere
was a man looking for a long lost link!

If ever you find my face
Shadowed in clouds of glooms
My lips bereft of smile’s grace
In my eyes despair looms,
Rest your hands upon mine
Keep them there awhile
To see once more the sunshine
Once more a beaming smile!
There’s no pain so strong
Your hands cannot heal
No chasm so long
Your touch cannot fill!

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

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

I know better.

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

Can’t bear to be long

Forlorn!

You made that corner about it only you know
Where in the light and shadow strange things grow
That though with you in placental bond breaks in the faintest touch
You own them you breed them about them you don’t know much.
When storms rage fires burn and the world outside turns grim
You find in that corner hope’s beacon healing rains of glorious dream
There you retreat from the day’s cauldron to rest in peace and muse
Find in that corner a moonlit shade from the night’s dark abuse.
You made that corner it’s only yours for anchoring the weary ship
From rolling waves and breaking froths in a voyage in marine deep
Your ravaged heart finds a berth when the ship runs aground
In that corner awaits a sunset place when it’s time to turn homebound.

i cant name that pain
when i see a human foraging food
beneath a large hoarding of a restaurant

i cant express that feeling of helplessness
when i see a human feasting on leftovers
thrown by a mouth too full to gorge more

i cant put in words that paralytic numbness
when i see a human and an animal together
pouring on the roadside bin for something

i cant give all these pains a name

or tell you about them in a rhymed poem.

Under the canopy of trees
Spots of sunlight,
Figures cuddling like bees
A surrealistic sight!
An apparition like reality enacting a mime
As if they would be there and not move with time
I have been through it like forever
Holding onto it, scared to lose it ever
This winter morning I’m part of their game
Happy to be there frozen in the frame!

Relations are hard to maintain often with the best you do
still do spare even a stranger sweet words one or two
there is no levy on sweet dealings no price heavy to pay
when you greet the unfamiliar you only make your day.

There's no meekness in being good
all strangers we are at this place
blessed are those who wish they could
make each face manifest happiness.

You may have seen rise of many a wall
gaping void in seeming closeness
you would do well not to turn cynical
but try to make the world a better place.

Even your best efforts would not ensure
no blood leaves a stain on your hand
but if you can bring even one ache a cure
you justify your place on this land.

Unseasonal* harvest priced too high
Just the right time to tell her a lie
Not one in the market not even a seed
What she wanted I thought for her own need!

But plump and large they were on show
Their vigor luring me calling me their glow
Fresh from the soil glistening green and cute
Jeered me mockingly the unseasonal fruit!

What anguish breeds the unseasonal fruit
Its pompous arrogance uncivilly brute
You dream of its savor yearn for a slice
Wish could bargain its unreachable price!

It argues with you it’s only the poor’s reason
They don’t taste as good as they do in the season
The excuse for not having them when the price is high
Reason enough to move away in failure’s depressed sigh!

It’s not the right time of year in the market is not even a seed
Come season you would have them plentier than your need
I told her to see the radiance come back onto her face
As she found not in my carry bag her requisitioned fruit’s trace!

It’s not for me I want them the birds they love the seed
Oh dear after so many years my need you couldn’t read
Sorry dear* I hold her and as the clouds leave her face

See there the fruit and seed of her love **seasonless!

On a y-shaped twig hanging on the stream
The kingfisher was absorbed in fishy dream
Move close I told myself move as close
To make sure you shoot its meditative pose.

Instinctively manifold alert and smart
It didn’t oblige me as an object of art
But flew away with the thought in its mind

**No luck now with a ******* creeping behind!

On a dead dull night
When the moon goes hiding
And the barn owl hoots for its love
The fireflies romance the darkness.
The glowing beads dance to celebrate
The nights of long past buried for good
With the treasures of lost happiness,
Wind sings a dirge for transience.

I bow down before you God
Not because I'm servile
Or seek your favour,
It's not an unquestioning surrender.
I bow down before you God
Not because I sense
That before your omnipotence
I must succumb as a dumb.
I bow down before you God
Not to seek your blessing
Nor to please or appease you,
It's no fear of an unseen power.

I bow down before you God
Not seeking heaven or other abode
But knowing all the world's goodness
I can see in my heart as your face.

I lost my way
The day I was taught to grab and not share
I was filled with knowledge
That brought no wisdom
But only pride devoid humility
I was given a religion by birth
I had a God Almighty and was told
It was the only true God!
I lost my way
The day I was sent to an institution
To cram a structured knowledge
Endless information was heaped on me
To make me clever and ready for life
A knowledge that taught me to mind my worth
Only in terms of material success
Drove me in pursuit of an elusive happiness!
I lost my way
The day I learnt alphabets
And poured on volumes of books
That shaped a mind of rigid dogmas
But no tolerance for others' thoughts
I was given an education
That taught me to be patriotic
And wall the world with boundaries!

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.

Her feet dancing on the white sands
Her hairs toyed with by the breeze
Waving in joy her sea-drenched hands
Her olive skin forgot their crease.
How ageless she became under mid-noon sky
Turning feverishly playful and wild
Matching the seagull in its hunting cry
Turning once again into a child!
Not someone’s mother somebody’s wife
A pretty little girl she was once again
Unshackled from a mundane life
Gushing out like a revived fountain!
I didn’t want these magical moments to rush
Became a part of her romantic whims
Found once more a long forgotten crush
Dreamt lost yet timeless dreams!