Every night on the divan divine
Beside her when I recline
In the comfort of that precious chance
My mind in the sit finds a hidden romance!

It may seem her eyes are glued to TV
But I know they aren’t but riveted on me
In her sensuous silence I don’t fail to notice
The charm of her cheek how they still entice!

I utter not a word love those times’ silence
Like an old lover never out of patience
Stealing from air her old wine fragrance
Just happy to be there clutching the romance!

To him she’s an eyesore.

Early morn she comes to his door
Dog walking!

Not that he hates dog
A bachelor though
He holds no dislike for women
Secretly watches through the window
The leasher and the leashed
Very displeased

For in the evening’s dim-lit road
His shoes often meet soft messy things
Hidden in the undergrowth
and he being a gentleman
is left to curse under his breath
venting in the air his flak
and again next morn
they’re back!

He imagines the woman is alone and free
with only the dog as company
and given a chance
could bud romance
around her neck his arm would loop
and he would live happily ever after

*with her and dog ****!

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.

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.

Your eyes say it all
Says your silent sigh
Through the day and nightfall
The sufferings under the sky!
Reflects your face
The apathy of earthmen
That tests your muteness
Tests limit of your pain!
You are loyal you abide
Break yet never bend
In life's uneven ride
Man's best friend!

They never knew each other
Will never meet in life again
For two hours were brought together
Four men stuck in a rain.

Same shelter they chanced to come to
Strangers all they were
Each with other had nothing to do
No relations of love and care.

They started to talk about weather
How they were halted by the rain
Soon chatted like friends forever
Who had met after a long time again.

The strangers caught in the downpour got so many things to say
Unfamiliar men trapped in common distress
Who would soon disperse on their own way
Never carrying the memory of their face.

But here as the rain fell in ceaseless torrents
The four souls worked up a tenuous bond
Not minding fragility of those absurd moments
A rewarding camaraderie they found.

When the rain stopped for them to depart
They went their way with cheerful smile
There was no sadness nor any aching heart
They were happy to be together awhile.

Seasons have weathered
left footprints passing age
yet something is spared
to draw her in my gaze!

It's not as pink as first crush
nor red as primal yore
but white residue of dried brush
that makes me want not more!

I wonder if she knows it
when hold her in my gaze
not slowed a bit this heartbeat
my eyes don't see her age!

She wonders if I know it
when steals on me her look
the pages left are still sweet
love stays an unclosed book!

Blessed are the poets
who read more and write less!

burn up nights in passion's flame
breathe in breathe out every poem
hours rewarded in busy ingest
no repenting on forsaken rest
a drift a wind a stormy rush
din of mirth a grievous hush
won't forgo once embark
heart's vent in light or dark
like a mission promise to keep
wake they up in a world asleep
read and read till the seeds are sown
in heart sprouts up own poem full grown!

Blessed be their tribe
for them the poemdom thrives!

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!

Creaseless warm bed
Soft pillow under head
Sleep tightening noose
Just then hell broke loose.
Breaking through that spell
A remote warning bell
Prised open the eyes
In streaming rhymes’ disguise!
Day’s stress though immense
Mind strained in patience
To find from maze a clue
For images one or two!
In that poetic trance
Sleep lost all its chance
In an agonizing dingdong
Clock said night was long.
The bed became one of thorn
Sleep died poems were born
Some trapped some were gone
Like night lost at dawn.

can sense her from a distance
when she moves towards me
till it reaches a crescendo
when she is closest as close could be!

but those times her I badly need
when she moves away
her sounds faint as she recedes
can't all the time with me stay!

how she gives my spirits a lift
her closeness makes my day
do feel pang when she shifts
when she has to go away!

the nearer she is she delights
she must be my perfect mate
I can feel it days and nights
what you call Doppler Effect!

On a mid summer’s day if the north wind blows
The sun goes hiding rain nests on eyebrows
You are madly joyous at this topsy-turvy
Your mind goes cartwheeling you feel carefree!
The weather turns cool blessed by the rain
Freeing your limbs from the summer's pain
The sky loses fierceness wearing the cloud’s tone
You are tempted to run wild in gay abandon!
By some mystic touch the day turns angel
Don’t touch it too hard don’t remove her veil
Drink the day softly go and have your fill
A god-gifted summer’s day with unexpected chill!

The pauper’s bread is his philosophy
The affluent’s philosophy is bread
Though the pauper hasn’t a bread too many
His dog is always well fed!*

The joy of sharing he knows best
His bread he cuts into two
The pauper the vermin the nagging pest
At heart is the most well-to-do!

He knows the joy of togetherness
To divide from his scrap of bread
The pauper a slur on the human race
Sees his dog doesn’t remain unfed!

He knows he can’t do without this help
He is too alone on this ride
The pauper knows better than to live with self
Loves his dog on his side!

Strange
What dream
A man tries to catch
In broad day
As the world busily
Passes by him.

A fleeting glimpse I had of him
seated on a small slab napping.

Was the night harsh on him
as he lay on the floor
stinking with his toils
with no roof overhead
looking at an absurd firmament
hazily spangled with stars.

Was he weighing his life in starlight
counting rusted coins of losses
breathing heavily through the void
as darkness weighed him down.

Was he waiting for a sleep
that would ripen his dreams deep
reaching him to the farthest galaxy
where every objects were made
only for him

objects of riches and success
and then deeper beyond..
love, peace and happiness.

Maybe the night returned him no dream
and trying to make up
he sought the refuge of day.

Was I the man in the glimpse
I thought
with nothing but dreams
as I rode away into the day
to embrace what is destined!

Under the sunburned clay tiles
Her face was a pond.

Sweats’ dewdrops on her almond skin
Keenly waited for the kiss of soil
And in the tree lined coolness of the thatched hut
She paused for me from her rustic toil.

Why do the beauties we deform
Bury the raw under heaps of vain
**** the eyes’ wild glowworms
Plant there a mascara stain!

A girl of toil a girl of soil she’s rustic bred
Never deems never dreams for beauty’s parade!

Her face was a tree lined pond
Her heart’s ocean
I never could delve.

Only know this much
Under the sunburned tiles
Her one fleeting smile
I would carry through the coming miles.

leaves ecstatically ***** on the dollops
totter with the melody of the patter
pass the cascades one upon the other
invite the soil to join in the chorus!

dance in merriment their joyous heart
drink it all up not a drop to go waste
between each thunder while the clouds part
hold the sky's treasure deep in the breast!

sing the note of life buried in the ground
nurture each seed for the unbroken chain
scatter the dreams string them skybound
what's once here would come back again!

when the blue returns tinged with gold
leaves would glisten in pearly necklace
they won't be there when the story is retold
yet veins would throb in the rain's embrace!

Two innocent eyes look up at me
Blue pleading watery eyes
I catch that moment on my cellphone
Before long they would be gone!

Come back cute fluff
I croon in each dark corner
Come back milk bright fur
Come back silk smooth caress
You can’t have gone too far!

Crescent moon hides you in shadow
Covers you the pale ashen star
Come back not wrench my heart
You can’t have gone too far!

Why the ones I love don’t stay long
Like you I carry on my cellphone
A few tunes and part composed song
Hushed into dusty yellow tone!

Why I can’t hold them back
The ones I love disappear at dawn
Go hide in the moon’s shadow
Leaving me bruised forlorn!

My finance is getting no better
Fast is thinning my purse
My pocket is now a deep crater
Where money is growing sparse!

Spending what came was my craze
Bucks pouring in didn’t stay
Blissfully forgot the adage
Keep aside for rainy day!

I spent my earn on what not
Bought everything catching eye
Possessed by the only thought
Should spend last penny fore I die!

It had gone like this for years
I went on a spending spree
Till one fine morn in tears
Bade me goodbye the last penny!

Now in old age and low spirit
With money dimming too faint
I can no more be a spendthrift
With my purse’s meager remnant!

Laments soul my unheard muse
If only you had paid me heed
Put all those money to better use
And not just cared for own need!

She lives a petaled hope of summer’s bloom.

drinking droplets of dew
catching the wind in each breath
sunning by the window
holding in her eyes the sky
where clouds bring no rain
its blue no dream
yet she unaware of times passing by
exists in lifelong amnesia
without a why
where and when
but live and die
in her unmindful giving

and *unfathomed pain!

There’s a man on the ice-cream van.
Choices galore, one can’t want more,
vanilla, strawberry, chocolate…
But on the hot day his fate
is to lie in stupor,
he can’t have one!
The poor man is sleeping on his ice-cream van.
Though dazed with the heat
he can’t retreat
with a cup or a bar,
He sells the cold
all pieces must be sold
he mustn’t have one!
The guy dreams on the ice-cream van.
Flavors galore, as he opens the door,
vanilla, strawberry, chocolate…
He mustn’t lust
must overcome thirst
let others have fun,
he mustn’t even have one!

sun when slips down west
sky is pink-a-blush
day makes merry-home haste
dies in sullen hush

my eyes dreamily follow
not the meridian star
but in the dusky glow
the flock's flying far!

how they rush together
in twos of clinging pair
ahoy a home is there
waiting in all weather!

the ones roaming on south
run home way down north
leaving their hopes to sprout
on the sunrise coming forth!

the northerners fly to south
end of day's toiled roam
hoping surely no doubt
finding there a cozy home!

Tell me their chirping words
as they fly over head faraway
it's time to pick up the shards
piece them to build another day!

Before the east glows in the sun
Run boy run.
Only they who run
Know the fun
Of leaving the bed
And going ahead.
5 chimes the bell
And off you sail
Sniffing the smell of grass
Past you the winds rush.
Run along as if on wing
To reach where the larks sing
Up down down up the feet
Lub-dub goes up heartbeat
Like invincible one you run
To feel the morn so sweet!

My house seemed unusually quiet
As I rang the hoarse calling bell
Quickly it passed my thought
Did I come to the wrong address?

The bell’s hoarseness shattered the peace
Something my house never did grace
The trademark noise one can never miss
So had I come at the wrong address?

She slowly came and opened the gate
The house was dark but for one room
I wondered if she slept till late
So there still hung a pall of gloom.

I sniffed the air to find what was amiss
Shook my head a little to shrug off the fears
Reigned everywhere a distraught-ing peace
In the house I’ve been returning for years.

I tiptoed on the floor lest it broke the silence
The hush appeared so incredible and fragile
The thought that peace even could make one tense
I couldn’t repress the inward flowing smile.

‘Why the house is so quiet dear what’s the mystery?’
I saw a flirting smile prancing on her face
‘For a change I have switched off the TV

*So you think you’ve come to the wrong address'!

If ever the sun shines like gold
air smells of unknown happiness
tightly them in a bottle hold
secure in your safest place.

When hits you the roughest wave
a patch of shore you badly need
bring them out from where you saved
take off the lid for a spoonful feed.

If ever shines a passing light
forget not to store it well
in times of living through darkest night
take off the lid in it revel.

When hits you life's toughest phase
in the raging storm can't find your way
delve within to reach that place
where the bottled sun you stored away.

My sweetest times were spent with them
They brought me here gave me a name
The only ones to be called my own
Now shadowy reflections in my moments alone!

His voice blurs faint as the years go by
Her face is a haze in the distant sky
I found from them an unmatched love
Living to this day in my treasure trove!

They gave me here a place to claim
Brought me here gave me a name
On this day of blessing and wish
I feel them within find a soothing peace.

Brownish grey yellow billed
Babbling beaks joyous filled
With them around silence is gone
Have never seen them coming alone.

To pep up the world sent by heaven
They forage in flock of six seven
Never they break the brotherly band
Hence seven brothers called in my land.

In my surround they sprinkle joys
Prance and dance make cheery noise
When spring comes these feathered guests
In mango tree build chaotic nests.

I love to see their mock war game
Two males fighting for winning dame
I welcome them so long they stay
Give me good times a brighter day.

He had to get it anyhow
But the sleepy Sunday afternoon
Found all the shutters down

He had to get it anyhow
But a sad figure on the empty street
His sighs in himself drowned

He needed to get it anyhow
But it seemed fortune didn’t care
It couldn’t be ever found

He needed to get it anyhow
But his tries ended in despair
A life could bow out

If only he could get it anyhow
That small thing now priceless
He would forever treasure

If only he could get it anyhow
It would prolong a heartbeat
Reviving drops he could measure

On the sleepy Sunday afternoon
In search of a one penny dropper
A man a poet a philosopher
Was thwarted came a cropper!

A B C D E F G
for my own comfort I’m busy
H I J K L M N
I give a **** for others’ pain
O P Q R S T U
‘I’ is more valuable than ‘YOU’
V W X Y Z
but the world is not just for me made
A C E G I K M
if I a little differently aim
B D F H J L N
not just live for my own gain
C E G I K M O
but care for the other fellow
D F H J L N P
feel good when the other is happy
E G I K M O Q
not just mind ‘I’ but mind ‘YOU’
F H J L N P R
know how precious also you are
G I K M O Q S
and love to see your smiling face
H J L N P R T
share this world you and me
I K M O Q S U
its wealth and beauty ‘I’ and ‘YOU’
J L N P R T V
love all life as I love me
K M O Q S U W
give each one what is its due
L N P R T V X
thus save me from the ‘I’ complex
M O Q S U W Y
to take my life to a new high
N P R T V X Z
where I can hold high my head
in a world that’s not just for me made.

I ask the price before buying.

There's a price tag for everything
upon the breakeven a levied charge
for life has not one bit
bought sans the urge to profit
taken home void of bargain
friend, lover, companion
at a price not to be alone
without a fallout of gain or pain
of sweet or bitter taste
lifelong joy or sooner regret.

Do I have a price?

As for my own
I feel always underpaid..

the woman I took to the bed
the child I raised
friends and companions
seem all miserly in paying the dues..

maybe they rue too
I haven't paid theirs.

I held her in my gaze on the iron rail of summer noon.

This moment of humid silence wetting her heat burn cheeks

I knew would melt pretty soon.

Like moisture droplets on her lips and her palm’s sweat

This heavenly moment would retreat

With its phantoms of fancy it’s never too late!

Then sobered and in saner head

We would find our place under the banyan’s cool shade.

Pen the archaic writer, once mightier than the sword
Suffers ignominy of disuse, since man succumbed to keyboard
Pen on paper is now derelict, broken is the pair’s link
With penning of thoughts long gone, dried up the once flowing ink.
I still crave for a smooth pen to take me on an inky write
Form words on paper neatly lined, dancing on crispy white
Jot in blue random rumblings, what mind wants to craft
A piece of thought the heart designs, a poem or love’s first draft,
To dip the nib in the *** of ink and feel the throb of quill,
Go once more on a rolling ride, get back yesteryears’ thrill.

Inspector Jim was clueless about the case
The sniffer dog followed quite a long trail
Leading to everything but the criminal’s trace
Ending finally in an abandoned well!

He had second thought about the animal’s skill
Panting from the run to keep with its pace
At end of hunt not deriving a little
Left to ***** in the muddled mess!

The track was a meadow the season was spring
So much were laid for the eyes to feast
Birds and trees and all the best things
But Jim was enveloped in the riddle’s mist!

He was still stranded on the same ground
Fearing once again he might fail
This is where the body was found
The darned beast had led him back to the well!

The humankind was never kind to them.

From their peaceful Pliocene graves
they were dug out, doggedly read,
their skulls and bones laid bare
gorged upon every finest details
all the apparent lunacy
directed to determine a link
always close yet too far.

Roaming that placid basin
they could not dream
to be a mystery past two million years
crazily pursued to be cracked open.

They have been branded Nutcracker Man.

These Holocene men are truly nuts.

In the stillness of night
The chiming clock sings the hours.
Eyes in deep sleep don’t hear them anymore
Care not in the clock’s rhymes what’s in store,
But it knows its chimes are songs of dirge
For life’s harvest and then the down surge,
And it’s a mere witness in this open-n-shut game,
Its chimes a reminder of time it can’t tame.

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

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

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

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

Boom boom boom
I’m in the firing range
But how I love this doom!
She’s saying I’m blind
I’m deaf and mute
Her tantrums I don’t mind
I know her heart is cute!
Her words I don’t take
Pretty sure on my part
Her anger is a fake
She loves me from her heart.
She curse me day and night
Says can’t stand my sight
But I can vouch it true
Without me she can’t do.
Whatever she says
She isn’t parting ways
I know it she can’t disguise
Love for me in her eyes.

not behind everything is my hand
not everything even I understand
I try to craft from chaos some order
leave some unfinished some on the border.

my home though cosmos I reside within
without being choosy about skin and sin
the good and the bad I have to take along
like I take in my stride all right and wrong.

if you have faith I make some sense
to the faithless I'm just nonsense
so made I'm no grudge can harbor
satan and angel find my favor.

I feel burdened when see the mankind
finding in everything my hidden hand
not realizing if only I had a magic wand
would have made this world an unblemished land.

For some days they talk about the dead
he was a good man even his enemies say
kind friendly and very well bred
may his soul have peace they pray!

By some magic death bares goodness
hitherto unseen come to the view
you wonder the man made so much place
that when he was living you hardly knew!

All his deeds get a paint of shine
it is said he was a soul to emulate
his manners is seen as highly refined
more than the living turns dead man’s weight!

The ones who had journeyed his life
lived close to his bone and flesh
they wouldn’t know children and wife
how weighed on him his loneliness!

bloodstains on my hands say
countless times have wounded her
yet she loves me to this day
weeps on my shoulder!*

You don't remind me woman
each time I stroke your hair
of the times I act a hurting man
of all the times I've been unfair.

Rather you hide all past scars
cover up my stinging bite
pretend things could be worse
thank god it turned all right.

You don't remind me woman
when I hug you tight
of the times I act a hurting man
bare to you unmanly might.

Rather you hide the flicker of pain
smile away my sins of past
pretend things would be same again
thank god in me you trust.

When I asked him how old was he
Giving a mischievous wink
Said won’t tell you straightly
But in a riddle to think!

If you add up the digits of that year
Multiply it by three
You would be almost there
But not there exactly!

Three more to it you’ve to add
And that’s my age no doubt
You would make me really glad
If can figure that out!

The two digits that make my age
Have a difference of one
You’ve enough clues to the maze
To work out my age with fun!

The digits added is short of ten
But from one too far
Would you now take the pain
To make my age clear?

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

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

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

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

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

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

Four years and his room is untouched.

I would love it that way

For years!

Stays ***** and span
The memory of my old man.

The southern window side of the bed
Where he laid his head

The eastern window that broke his sleep
With the sun’s first peep

His snapped photos on the wall of west
That ache my chest

On the northern wall the clock
That still of his time talks

His divan forlorn
Resting cold from his last morn

In each bric-a-brac
His touch his track

In ticks and creaks
His memory speaks.

Witty
Finds humor
In self-pity.

Like the sandgrains on the stretched palm
with the wind have flown the years
the tides rolled back the sea is now calm
It's biding time on this heavenly sphere!

Yet I've started loving this life more
more than all that spent up before
with a growing desire to have it fullest
sowing hope's seeds to reap its harvest!

Inevitable frailness though makes it hard
more than the yore I dream step forward
still seek the way to get through the dark
explore the mist on unknown embark!

I stretch my hands for the farthest shore
roam mind's cavern for still unlocked door
churn up the residues of time on this side
ride on the comeback of sea's one last tide!

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

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

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

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

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