reflects smiles
mirrors pains
its beauty beguiles
entertains

wakes up heart
opens door
transcends art
furthermore

swells in vein
its maddening flow
drops as rain
on parchment glow

once seeded within
grows deep root
makes you come clean
speak only truth

soul's inked beat
pearls dug from deep
in true spirit
have it worshipped.

Moves no more the glass bead eye
lies in a frozen stare
arms thrown up to the sky
it lies in silent prayer.

It's too late for its blood in rot
can't reach the god's smallest thought
the putrid flesh on the road red hot
will soon bring the feasting maggot.

Yet it prays if reaches firmament
moves the god to think of its pain
next time he spares it the bitter time spent
doesn't make it a rodent again.

always had that feel that a poem could be born
when you're doing nothing lazily munching popcorn
because doing nothing is everything, it's not a void
but a streaming popcorn welling inside you can't avoid!
in sunlight and shadows in pricking pinching weather
the nothing that knows no rest doesn't give you a breather
doing nothing is the busiest time it's everything to savour
like your spicy popcorn that lends living a flavour!
doing nothing is the most fertile time for a perfect brew
munching your popcorn thinking wildest things to do
When bored of doing nothing that in His head earth was born
God surely conceived it when He was lazily munching popcorn!

If the night is half lit
and the silence is deafening loud
don't stop on the bridge upon Post Canal.

The shadows are rippling dark
and her water coiling snake
calls you to to take a dip.

It's shallow, says the phosphorent whisper
and the night too warm not to splash,
there's too much pain, the bridge creaks
leave behind, leave behind
you haven't anything to lose.

The winds buzz in your heart
disappear without a sound
nobody will know
nobody will care.

A few feet is not a great fall
and never greater than all the pain
you so silently suffered.

Once I stopped, tempted
almost inviting her to **** me in.

The coils rose and drew me in.

They said I jumped.

They could never know
I made peace with pain.

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!

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!

When everything falls apart

time
age
health
wealth
glory
faith
belief

We hang barely
by a thread of love.

The birds visiting me
Now I don’t feed.

Blame it on my cats’ greed!

Doel, bulbul, myna
All having fallen prey to
These snoopy lurky hyena!

These petty filthy abductors
Prowling pouncing predators
Have everything that takes
To break my feathered friends’ necks!

Now I know it does them no good
Birds coming in lure of my food
And be bitten and eaten!

I no more feed
The cats’ greed.

Pretty Woman

rest your head on my shoulder

you are richer wine

as you grow older!

On my shoulder is a space

that craves much

the spark of happiness

from your loving touch.

Now my shoulders

been imprinted these years

with your joys your tears

there you have not grown older!

Pretty Woman

my shoulders lust your rest

and for as long they can

reap the divine harvest.

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.

On a dewy evening
As the day takes a silent bow,
Gazing at the distant pearls
Appearing on the ethereal wisp,
You feel an elemental oneness
To have your place in this design
Intrinsically woven in the cosmic fabric,
When gathers in your eyes a mist
That rolls down in grateful glory
To blend into the night!

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!

From the window the August rain
stirs a crave to be once with her
stings the heart with an abstract pain
she is home and home isn’t far!

August rain brings me her face
makes me alone in the crowd
I forget all work my mind is a mess
want to reach her riding the cloud!

She would be lonely if it pours all day
her tears would be streams of rain
crying in the thought I have drifted away
she may not ever see me again!

August rain brings me her face
her address though isn't too far
I’m imprisoned in the workplace
dreaming a cloud ride to her!

He taught romance at college
She craved an iota of love from him
He dug her on nights of his choice
She echoed a deep pleasured noise
He had soon enough of her
She thought of ways to retain him
He found an admirer from his romance class
She slowly sank into depression
He pretended she didn't exist
She ceased in his nightly need
He ******* in a new romance
She broke her ties with acid.

I’m a Bengali in sombrero
An Indian from Kolkata
I live at a stone’s throw
From where flows the Ganga.

I speak in Bengalee
For me the sweetest language
Like the Ganga flows freely
Has Sanskrit as lineage.

Rice is my staple food
So are dal and fish
A cup of tea is too good
With two biscuits on a dish.

Around me spreads green countryside
Where grows all the foodgrain
Rivers flow wild and wide
Their banks home joy and pain.

I was born and reared in this riparian land
Where soil is tilled in peasants’ sweat
Sparkles in moon the Bay’s white sand
Weaving dreams for many a poet!

Promised her,
I would never lose smile,
but she left.

it's easy to give up writing
have done it quite oftentimes
to focus on harder things
and not waste on easy rhymes!

each time i give up the pen
achieve some wonderful feat
i am that man once again
who does for others little bit!

whenever give the keys rest
close the door of poetryland
come upon a chance not to waste
to extend someone a helping hand!

times i clipped the bard's wings
landed my mind on the ground
met these eyes many things
doing which joys knew no bound!

be happy
that you got to be a drop in this ocean

be fulfilled
if one eye scans your pixeled emotion.

No joy is greater than playing with the children
It's then you stoop to be a child
And stop to be an adult.

You must choose to lose
When playing with them
Pretend you know little
About the game.

They win and you heartily clap
You lose yet wear a broad smile
You're almost their age when you play
Giggle and roll and laugh to make their day.

Suddenly you realise it's no pretense
You're truly a child in all its essence
There was always a little one in you
Happy carefree and without a worry.

Grab the rare chances to play with them
Change your mind, take a new name
Patient or doctor or thief or police
Whatever the game, your reward is bliss.

In his own class
His ninety summers’ lens focus
On the fine print
To uncover the hidden tint!

All his peers long gone
He cheerfully carries on
In a way he isn’t mortal anymore
And death would never knock his door!

But for occasional drifts into past’s ember
He needs not much to remember
Except to pour over the thick bound book
Befitting his timeless wizened look!

In his nook on his lonely perch
He still isn’t tired of the search
For chancing upon that ultimate tint
Still baffling him in its blurring print!

I gave the surround a cautious look
To see if any eyes were on me
One quick swoop then I took
Broke my oath of honesty!

How it came on none else’s sight
A while though I wondered
The crisp note winking in sunlight
Gave not much scope to ponder!

In my secret joy I lost no time
To flee fast from the scene
Though I didn't think it a crime
Felt forbidden pleasure of sin!

Then in me spoke the inner voice
You could have merely walked by
And not made such an evil choice
As bad as deceit and lie!

Soon overcome by pangs of conscience
I wasn’t anymore feeling nice
On my forehead grew guilt’s greasy lines
As on a man in the grip of vice!

Came back the words mom used to say
Relieved my tormenting qualms

*If you ever pick up a note on the way
Give it away as alms!

The serpentine queue refused to budge.

It were the grown-ups that were stressed
the children babbled showing no unhappiness
with the pause offering so much more to do
and nothing that useful to look forward to.

Some faces looked as though made no sense
this waiting for mundane taxing patience
but were eyes that peered staunchly keen
as if the wait's end God would be seen.

Though lumps of time allowed break from the run
not one face showed up some feeling of the fun
anxious and jittery they smoked up the place
to my mind the children were only saving grace.

spent the longest day
in the shortest possible time.

slept.

There is no quick heal
for any of life's ordeals!

Thoughts don't keep tormenting my head
I have a job to do to earn my bread
I have hours of dipping my hands in the muck
juggle with the assigns that simply ****!

Poems don't come streaming in my head
let me not lose bread in your mesmeric thread
I have hours of pouring over dead files
wade in the mire in painted smiles!

Dreams don't perch on my stooped eyelids
let me take care of my earthly needs
I have hours of works to pay for the meals
stuck in a rut that slowly kills!

Wishes don't freely on my heart land
let it not be lost in your quicksand
I have hours to cope with the burning
walk the fire on your singed wings!

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.

love that nice girl
skin dark wild
pink lips when curl
look like child.

can't just move eyes
cast them long
feel like hope rise
fill with song.

when runs fawn feet
winds soar wing
hear then love beat
soft tune sing.

she's that girl
core rich wine
hair with dark curl
mind gold mine.

He can’t get any shorter than an alphabet
Breathes mountain air pens mountain-speak
World he might roam but his love’s nest
Rests in his heartland the Stoney Creek!

He finds bliss in that blessed harbor
With his matey crazy Daisy
Walking a moonlight of bone color
In half-sleep star-eyed crazy!

On his journey along river tide
He tells of his joy and loneliness
Takes you on the deck on his side
Sails you with a sailor’s finesse!

He’s a graceful alphabet
A layer of love brick by brick
In him lives a  confiding mate
Whose love lives in Stoney Creek!

Radheshyam

ninety years
and hasn't won one transaction.

He has lost each and every dealing

failed business
lost job
broken family

down in everything

smiled upon only in mocking
looked upon only with pity
befriended only to be exploited

poor in maths
always ended up on the wrong side of measurement

fool in love
her woman bore the child of another

unskilled in societal ways
cursed by one and all

and to top it all
he wasn't clever enough to know
why it were so
he wanted to reach out to everyone
but none could reach out to him.

Radheshyam
named after god
but never someone's god

ninety years of being a loser
he doesn't feel.

The stray animals and birds love him much.

He feeds them,
they repay with love.

When powers she wields
river she breaks homes
floods paddy fields

Swords of rains
swells her hurt pride
boils her veins

Vengeful she brims
breaks the lock gate
cultivator's dreams

Gone is sweet flow
in the moonlight
soft silver glow

Simmers her soul
raging red hot
she burns like coal

With inflamed tides
she devours the crop
growing on her sides

River now a curse
she wouldn't recede
without leaving scars

She can't be blamed at all
men have only ravaged her
taken her all.

Lovely boy
Please understand me
And be as patient as to
Let me understand you.
I may sound gibberish
But what I say
Is to make a bridge
And reach your heart.
Lovely boy
Let’s together
Build the rainbow bridge
Where I find you colors
Missing from your life
And you find me
What I missed on my way.
Lovely boy
Shut not your door on me
For my years
May show you the way
And your youthfulness
May recreate my lost dreams!

She bobs like a gull on the breaking waves
to go far out in the sea is what she craves
on her hair froths the spray of saline sand
she's the woman on the edge of rainbow land.

On the sea she isn't the woman I know too well
she rises to touch the sky with the waves swell
a stronger stranger girl keen to break the chain
fly away unshackled in her freedom's gain.

She isn't the same woman in the tidal brace
sheds the veil rides her will to be sea's empress
when the waves lave her face in its magic roar
in her dream touches rim of a distant shore.

I don't know why I love her high on the sea
where her eyes are far unfamiliar alien to me
she rides the waves within craves the rainbow land
dreams to go with the flow from clutching hand.

To shield ourselves from rain
That gustily needled the skin
We were together once again
Me and my canine kin.
Don’t think it’s one I call pet
It’s just that I couldn’t be aloof
Drawn together in one ill fate
I was with the creature under one roof.
Thoroughly drenched its bones shook
Its flesh the fleas feasted free
Its eyes were moist with a pleading look
Apologetic for forcing me its company.
Has ever love showered on it or a little caress
Does it pine for the heart’s glowing fire?
There was no trace of them carved on its face
The street pariah was forbidden to aspire.
Suddenly I wished the rain would go on
In a frenzied kindness I would hold it tight
Whisper in its ear ‘you aren’t alone,
we together can tide over the night’.

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.

When dark clouds diminished the day
and rain carved moon craters on the river
we were drenched beneath a tree.

Her hand upon mine was more than words could say
but made me once more a hardened believer
in love's miracle of bridging hearts quietly.

The parched earth echoed the wails for the dead
as flames devoured the crowd of corpses
mouth agape with unquenched thirst.

The sky had mercilessly looked away
having spit fire on them down below
sparing not one waterhole on its way
and the mother if only she could
use her tears for the baby to drink
but her eyes had turned dry as the earth.

Yet dark as the depth of love
the King's pond mirrored the princess' face
and would still beam the moon in her eyes
strangely hiding from the wrath of the drought.

One night sleeping on her ivory bed
her silken skin cooled with rosewater
the princess heard a voice:

When the fury of God
blinds him to the pains of men
an angel rises to break his heart
stakes her life to rend heaven apart
so his tears on earth fall as rain.

The windless night was deadly quiet
watched by moon in awe wide eyed
the trees sparkled in firefly's light
when the princess stood by the pond's side.

For awhile her eyes roamed around
resting on the marble's gleam
the sleeping grass her sweet playground
a home smelling all earthly dream.

She felt like swimming through the air
love glowing warm in her peaceful eyes
till she reached the end of stairs
that bore her frame with deep sighs.

The heaven broke down with thunderous rain
the seeds sprouted filled field with green
upon that land wasn't a drought again
never before had such harvest been seen.

In the depth of night if you hear a cry
from the clouds pearly by dawn's embrace
know God's tears will fall from the sky
as dewdrops mourning the rain princess.

On the parched land fall drops of rain
Sky mourns the loss soil drinks the gain
When in soil pores summer fires burn
They live the agony dream rain’s return.

You may wonder why cries the sky
Her rain is needed for soil gone dry
It’s because is nurtured a love in her breast
For the tender drops awhile her guest.

Soil doesn’t mind opens up in smile
In the profound knowledge that it’s a while
Before the fruits are reaped to be left again dry
Till new seeds of hopes come down from sky.

When the prospect of food is slim
Hunger is no more a dream
No more the philosopher’s pastime
Or a poet’s subject for rhyme.
And they only know hunger
That starves for lack of food
With empty bowels suffer
A hunger raw and rude.
We must’ve seen them
Emaciated half-dead from famine
We must have seen them
The stray dogs of our city
Chance alive by scraps of pity,
But we, assured of the next meal,
Can’t ever feel
The pangs of hunger
With no food to heal.

I watch her picking shells
Drifting to faraway beach
It’s bad that I only remember
When she’s out of reach!

I could tell her when she was close
Could whisper in her ears
Could tell her with a bud of rose
Anytime all these years!

But why it seems the only time
When she’s out of reach
I shout it in sea’s din a mime
She’s busy picking shells on the beach!

I could tell her when she was beside me
I could tell her in the car
But why now when she seems busy
Straying on the beach afar!

Why it seems the best moment
A time most opportune
Though went years together spent
Holding hands in the moon!

I raise my voice today is the day
Her my thought must reach
But she’s gone far in the bay
She’s out of reach!

*She has drifted up the bay
Where I pine to reach
Tell her what I die to say
She’s busy picking shells on the beach!

It took me only a moment to like her face
just some while to marvel at her skin
some more time to be charmed by her grace
but a lifetime and haven't reached her heart within!

Some days only it took to ride her cave
explore all her gorges mount her hill
when were reached all the places there to crave
found myself was searching her heart still!

Never thought would it need all my strength
for came easy harvesting her crust
and after having walked the years' length
can't say I have fully reached her heart!

I keep wondering to this day
if I had gone somewhere wrong from the start
as all that seemed precious didn't stay
and I am still madly trying to reach her heart!

Keep your eyes on the road* she says at the door
But he knows better it nibbles at his core
There isn’t no real dangers lurking beneath
They’re looming high up to ***** out his breath!

He nods his head and bows out of the house
It isn’t worth a heed the caution of his spouse
For he knows the real dangers lie above his head
Waiting the pull of gravity hanging in thinnest thread!

With each step he stops to take a look at the sky
Down here is quite safe high up the perils lie
It’s a wonder human minds are still stuck to the myth
That eye must look down when walking upon the street!

As he looks at the high rises inside he shivers tense
They are too eerily tall to hold for long balance
Can come down any moment by itself or if hit
Throw down chunks of debris crush lives on the street!

What if of all those signboards grown weary of bearing load
One crashes down on someone whose eyes are on the road
Down here is no real dangers up there are fearsome ghosts
In the form of cell phone towers sky hugging light posts!

Once more the thought shivers him how in an instant one can die
By a blow coming from high up hitting unseen from the sky
He thanks god that he doesn’t heed what his spouse has to say
But keep his eye riveted to the sky so he survives another day!

‘Nothing is impossible under the sun’
impressed the father on his son,
‘can go haywire all stability,
everything is in the realm of possibility’.

The son grew up and duly had his chance
To go on a date of youthful romance,
That soon matured to a relation of heart
There was no looking back once he made the start.

But fate so often bares its cruelty
The girl left him for another,
Leaving him a note scribbled on paper
‘everything is in the realm of possibility’.

The son was so shattered by his lover’s deceit
Living seemed not worth anymore,
He was found hanging tied to a bed sheet
Behind his room’s closed door.

A note he left bearing his last words
From a son to his father a cruel levity,
In endorsement of what his father had once said,
It read ‘everything is in the realm of possibility’!

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

Doctor, tell me, what's good or bad for me
give me guiding tips, health's recipe
what I should eat, and foods to be shunned
I find my years wasted, with most things unlearned!

Doctor, please tell me, do I eat more or less
show me the way, to a healthy happiness
chart for me, the most balanced diet
I find my years wasted, and little learned yet!

Doctor, tell me the secret, of staying healthy in strife
to remain in glowing health, for a rewarding marital life
prescribe me one potent pill, to make my groin burn
I find my potence wasted, with still many things to learn!

Doctor, now I seek your advice, in the matter of heart
tell me, how I keep it broad, before I depart
tell me if it's a broader heart, that's more easily burned
I find my years all wasted, with so many things unlearned!

I gathered the finest things for it,
Put them together, polished them neat,
I shaped it the best way I could
Wanting it to be there for good!
Just when it was in perfect form,
Winds rose, blew thunderstorm,
I clung onto it with all my heart,
It broke into pieces, lay tattered in dust.

After a while's despair, a momentary pain,
I gathered back the fragments for making it again!

Windows were once green
bricks fabulous red
upon the wall daylight
glowed like newlywed!

So lovely did it stand
the toy house in the moon
did it ever happen
didn't it end too soon?

Words were fewer then
wild thoughts ran galore
of mysteries now boxed up
behind tightly shut door!

Who stole the girl cutest
was it time or a man
that left her robed whitest
spinning the widow's yarn!

What really it yields
the house that once was red
with love and bricks was built
then broke and never remade!