I'm just a little apostrophe
So won't you please be nice to me
Use me when there's a letter missed out
Or when it's possession you're talking about
But when you write plurals just leave me out!

step this side..
no, you.. that side!
in a line, in a line.. quiet now – get ready for fire.. no miss!
please line up the children in neat rows, get them ready…………………..


1.
eyes are misted over – something happened in the gap
hooking-up strangely with estranged sons lost in custodial-wrangles
alienated values;
family-core defunct like a super-shiny apple with putrescent-flesh
long-beard wants a son after so many daughters, sits unwashed in the smoke
gender-penalty –  sorry, sister.. you chose the wrong straw
you remain in that cage till we say come out


2.
bread-basket filled with stealth-grenades
rights and benefits squirm in slick-oil of rules
peasant skirting the limits of the city; even rats fare better
cloak of goat-skin, the shield hides serpents beneath
the hunter will aim for the head, land in the centre..
                           yet an inch or two too high
sentry, close the gates and bar the window-frames!


3.
inadvertent greed and control; aggressive power
news-man dies for feed that’s untrue, anyway
picture-man twists an image to suit the viewer
all kinds of lines disappear so quick – ******, jokes, theatre, life, even poems
and if you’ve never had the sad combo of sick and homeless,
                                                                ­           famished and cold,
                                                                ­           tired with sores
oh, war will be courteous enough to bring you all these, *on a platter
and more..



there is no border when we all roam in hunger and in fear
like the orphans in crowded-camps
high-rankers sit far away.. ominously "well-off"
                                               chew on hard-cheese
                                               gulp down red wine
but the throat still feels parched, and that bayonet is too short
its fear will kick in.. on a day least anticipated
would you be shocked if it is a child who will drive that wedge-stick home?






st – 14 march 2014

I think I'm coming down
with the spring sillies
My dafty thoughts are feverish,
budding, blossoming,
Impulsive, daffodilly

My thigh muscles are stronger
And start to twitch,
As if they now prepare
To bound and leap in meadows
Like the mad march hare.

A cheeky imp is glinting
In my left eyeball
Calling me to frolic
With the April fool

There's happy hope in spring growth
Nature's clever ploy
And I'll not let any April showers
Dampen down my joy!

I made you swear
We’d share
Everything.
Smiling, you came calling me to see
The imitation of honesty that you had painted.

My trust in you fainted.

Self sainted,
You showed me your holy creation
(filled with holes, rotting in mould; rank with deception)
In the anticipation
That I’d buy it

That ****?
Really.

Boasting that you never talked to her
                       anymore.
Sure.
Like you said, I could have checked your messages
Myself; for added validation.

I am no fool.

That night there was just something
Small
You deleted from our discussion
Just like you how you deleted your most recent conversation
With her.

I’m sorry that she couldn’t make it to the mall that Saturday.
I hope she made it up to you the following Friday.
You really know how to play.

I can read people like books
But you are a magazine.

Well it looks like we’re even.
We both have something we never showed each other.
You never showed me the entire conversation


and I never showed you this poem.

the sky looks like cheap wine
mixed with water
that was always my uncles favorite drink
he said he couldn't risk dying
on his two sons
just for a party
and I respected him for that
if I was ever to drink
it would be cheap wine
mixed with water
as a tribute to his solace
he just needed a hint
of what he was missing
he used to drink when he was married
and I'm still not sure what happened behind those closed doors
but he came out divorced
with a liver problem