To this body
Death does as it should,
Consigns the shell
To the firewood
And sets the spirit free.

Close to the fire
the heat singes me.

I know it's only the prelude
to the fiery furnace
licking my skin with flaming tongues
reducing me to powdered ashes
disappearing and in no time fading
what was me but in an instant
dusts in urns and upon wall
and years after maybe one's
untimely rains of dusty memories.

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'!

** will never write poetry
His senses are too occupied
With his surround’s passing scenery
Holding them in gaze wide eyed!

** has no time to think and write
Letting so much meanwhile pass him
Not counting the sleeping hours of night
Eyes’ plenty to fill him to brim!

** can’t spend whiles typing away
While the sky turns her blue into red
Can’t afford to waste an already short day
Counting words creating riddles in his head!

** is too busy to set his mind
On begetting inky wordy ***** poem
With nature calling him to see and find
The beauty of the morn in sun flame!

Neath the shy January sun
she turns a butterfly
upon the marigold field

Flies now wildly far
amid the yellow and red flower
beyond the bounds of the catcher
in the madness of a child’s dream fulfilled
leaving wind scattered trails of her wings
over the marigold field!

HOPE

always points to

MORROW.

yet we breathe

carrying like medals
tokens of being alive
food clothes
needs more and more
coming in and out of door
sleeping awake
through midlife blues
lost jobs
broken hearts
unkept vows
groping in the dark
dim-lit days
cathartic nights
masked social
torn in the upheaval
tearing within
making poems our ailment's remedy
our ink's flow
a placebo
the poet's might
a myth.

yet we breathe.

Many a company
makes each employee
practice yoga
during recess
to de-stress
cope with distress
endure strain
and be back again
to workplace
with no stress!

a good therapy
for if ever the company
lays off an employee,

he she could absorb the distress
of the resultant long-term recess
its pains many

like a yogi!

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.

Find and fill the less
Always.

It’s not little
So much more
Knock your door.

Do.

Walk by side
Wipe a tear

Grow your wings
For the good things.

Bother not you can’t be great
Being good is far better.

I have heard people say
Only if I had money
Could have done so much good.

The world is in no mood
To be good
with money.

Remember
Without spending a dime
Many a time
You’ve lit up a face
And rewarded
With an inner happiness.

And for this task
You only need to ask
And that’s the essence

Aren’t there enough in this world
That hurt me
That need me
My will
To fill.

Then you would find the answer

More than your need
Is someone waiting out there

Needing you.

What beauty lies within your poem
how they me enlighten
in me burns their undying flame
make me forget own pain!

The moments my eyes on your thoughts pause
my mind rests on your speak
are the ones giving me my life's purpose
your words poet do the magic!

Your poems light a beacon on the way I walk
feed me rains and glorious sunshine
upon my sky when clouds are dark
cheer me your ink's lovely lines!

*Don't ever stop writing my heart
don't ever close mind's door
go on poet once you make a start
vent all that's hidden in your core.

Like a magician’s deft trick
She placed her two in a nook of attic
Winked two eyes from the dusty pile
Cheered not the mind brought not a smile.

One scrap of food one occasional call
You are their friend you are their all
Without your knowing builds up a rapport
They make your home theirs beg your support.

Hidden in her fur you see them asleep
You never made a promise you had to keep
See in her happiness your looming plight
Her calls at the window at odd hours of night!

Two more added and more than you need
Aspiring heartbeats hungry mouth to feed
You didn’t foresee that your unguarded call
Would make your home a nursery and troubles not small!

Quickly they grow up steal your time’s large slice
When eyes open in three weeks demands grow thrice
Then as they crawl around you fluffs of silken ball
You see in the fruiting gains of pleasures no small.

It’s a perfectly golden day
she isn’t loving you less
no obstacle on your way
eating up your space

though fine on surface
you feel inside unrest
of a sighing emptiness
weighing on your chest!

There’s a wind blowing strong
no speck clouds the blue
your ears get birdsong
and you don’t have a clue

what stirs the ache
that finds no easy heal
but for you to break
lose strength of will!

The petals burst in bloom
crowned in sprightly leaves
yet shrouded in gloom
you wonder why heart grieves!

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.

Clouds’ ominous hinting ready set to go
‘You’ the rains drench, most beautifully show!

Your skin a lotus petal, in the drops it glows
‘You’ are a sparkling beauty, in the rains’ flow!

Wet they deep your flesh, brings out the earthen smell
‘You’ look the most gorgeous, a beauty most telltale!

Clothes hug you tight, they reveal the lows and highs
‘You’ look dreamily alluring, I see you betwixt my sighs!

Don’t put on sale outpour of your soul
Don’t move around with a begging bowl
Just add to this ocean your drops in silence
Without seeking opinions on their excellence.
Be sure they would on the surface rise
Pearls of your thoughts won’t be hidden from eyes
Wait with patience for heart’s joyous sound
When from the ocean your drops are found.
Leave in your mind no trace of doubt
The hunters of poems will surely find you out.

So you say poems don’t sell
ain’t no buyer for your works
arduous hours of a job done well
go down the drain fetch no perks!

You’re right poems do don’t sell
though you fill them with heart’s spice
by the hour growing weary and frail
you surely can’t feel any nice!

A dollar a poem how fine it would be
add a dollar a read to it
but poems are meant to be sold just free
you aren’t to be paid for the feat!

But you’re wrong poems do sell
them the readers do buy
when to their heart your thoughts travel
and their spirit soars up sky high!

I never knew how the roses you grew
the myna flapped again broken wings
soils thirsted for touch of you
longed for your gift of saplings!

I never knew the depth of your eyes
reaching to the densest of bush
I only snapped the mating butterflies
the day end’s scurrying mongoose!

I never knew what hidden key
was in you to unlock the door
to be in a world yours only
with a sky for limitless soar!

I would never know why said you
when at dusk I pointed afar
*your eyes and my eyes together make two
please never show me a lone star!

I never noticed,
turned away my face,
in your eyes
has survived a place.

The rain has dried up,
they are now arid,
love's seed is lost in ****.

But it's there,
in your eyes one last place
holding the relics of the world's loveliness!

I hold up your face in the moon
And see the price you have paid
For loving me!
Bathed in pain
Of years of holding me in your heart,
Your eyes are desires burned out in vain!
I hold up your face in the moon
And see the dried up rivers
Of years of holding me in your heart
Yet never being able to get a start!
I hold up your face in the moon
And see relics of a love
Wasted in a desert of despair!

There are some sufferings
When you witness
You feel like laying down your pen
Throw out as garbage all ***** of paper
Where you penned sufferings
That comes nowhere near
What you witness
The real sufferings
When you wish
You had the might
To open the doors
Set free the caged birds
See them soar in the blue
Then come back once
Write your last poem
Saying you achieved it
The incredible feat
Of doing a little something
Tangibly good
And way better
Than what floods your paper
And there wasn’t anything
Greater to get
From poem
From life
Not anything more
For you delivered
The ultimate poetry
When you bought two birds
Caged cramped suffering
Opened the door
See them soar free
Gave this world

**Your finest poetry!

You have problem with tooth?
The doc is here, her treatment is smooth
First she will put slime in your mouth
Then with a tweezer, she'll take it out
She charges nothing, it's all your gain
Her ways of treating won't cause you pain.

Come running to her, if you've toothache
She has the knowledge of steps to take
For you she'll make everything light
To ensure you can comfortably bite
She's free as her patients are few
But she makes sure you can chew.

Here's the doctor, do come to her
She comes handy, she isn't far
Treats you well, pays you time
But as I said, you don't pay a dime
The cutest dentist call anytime her
She'll treat your problems with just a tweezer.

On the sides of the road
they’re sleeping shutter down
on this cold dead’s abode
alphabets rusty brown!

Some moment time of year
bright minute dark hour
you cannot remember
all the wind blown flower!

You were crying at the time
yet wove a joyous drape
bleeding heart spun a rhyme
found a vent some escape!

Through the ache wrote a yarn
while breaking all the while
played a fiddle on the burn
wore a woeful neon smile!

Walk once more the dead’s abode
show a light dust the page
read the lines on the road
your poems that would never age!

Hurrah for the General
He has won your vote
For the loser a funeral
For the victor a toast!

Celebrations will not be long
The music will not last
Soon will stop the victory's song
Your vote has been cast!

The changes you voted to bring
Will look like never there
No blunting of recession's sting
No ending of daily nightmare!

Life will go on as it had gone
Promises will just be a memory
Then there will be another one
Who you'll vote and repeat the story!

thousands of miles traveled
longing to reach that place
where I would see you
your face
know you
your mind
touch you
your heart

but thought I hadn't found you
had yet to travel many more miles
search you once more from the start...

*I found you too had traveled

with me

in my heart!

Today had you for breakfast
So much for your trust!