Let me move slowly through the street,
  Filled with an ever-shifting train,
Amid the sound of steps that beat
  The murmuring walks like autumn rain.

How fast the flitting figures come!
  The mild, the fierce, the stony face;
Some bright with thoughtless smiles, and some
  Where secret tears have left their trace.

They pass--to toil, to strife, to rest;
  To halls in which the feast is spread;
To chambers where the funeral guest
  In silence sits beside the dead.

And some to happy homes repair,
  Where children, pressing cheek to cheek,
With mute caresses shall declare
  The tenderness they cannot speak.

And some, who walk in calmness here,
  Shall shudder as they reach the door
Where one who made their dwelling dear,
  Its flower, its light, is seen no more.

Youth, with pale cheek and slender frame,
  And dreams of greatness in thine eye!
Goest thou to build an early name,
  Or early in the task to die?

Keen son of trade, with eager brow!
  Who is now fluttering in thy snare?
Thy golden fortunes, tower they now,
  Or melt the glittering spires in air?

Who of this crowd to-night shall tread
  The dance till daylight gleam again?
Who sorrow o'er the untimely dead?
  Who writhe in throes of mortal pain?

Some, famine-struck, shall think how long
  The cold dark hours, how slow the light,
And some, who flaunt amid the throng,
  Shall hide in dens of shame to-night.

Each, where his tasks or pleasures call,
  They pass, and heed each other not.
There is who heeds, who holds them all,
  In his large love and boundless thought.

These struggling tides of life that seem
  In wayward, aimless course to tend,
Are eddies of the mighty stream
  That rolls to its appointed end.

yes i smoke

i smoke to put something in my hand

to replace the same place your hand used to rest

so maybe its a force of habit

yes i smoke

just to keep something warm near me

because most things are painfully cold lately.

The Child in Me

There is a child that lives behind my house, a beautiful pure soul,
He crawls around here and there, hides and peeps every now and then through his keyhole;
His sounds swarm from his window to mine, making me restless to call him inside,
his laughs and chirps call me and by evening he is in my home,
I see his curious eyes look around the surroundings not so unknown,
He likes the biscuits I offer him, but he gets bored nibbling it pretty soon;
He'd rather have the spicy namkeen, and water from my own glass and spoon,
He falls but never cries, I play around and obstruct him, but it never makes him quit trying,
He's playful when he wants, silent when he asks for love, from under my mom’s shawl always shyly spying;
The child's actions are reactions to my own, I feel he responds without speaking a word,
he's a small kid I think,  but with an intelligence untold, he's just 6 months old;
he makes his knees *****, crawling around all the time I can see,
I catch him make him sit, clean him, while he's in a hurry to flee;
he tries to walk, holding the table, along with it he progresses towards me,
grabs my legs looking up, his eyes take hold of me, they plead please lift me;
It is difficult to hold back, with all the love I am overflowed,
I love to take him in my arms, and he too is overjoyed to be towed;
playing with my face he's happy and all smiles,
he then gets bored and tries to get down, poking me in the eyes;
For those few hours, I am far off from this real world of mine,
playing with a newborn, sets me free, I feel almost alive;
He teaches me many a lessons I feel, as he can always have his way,
live along happily, with all the loving and crying, he can play all day;
He can never make me angry, hits me whenever he wants,
Whenever he misses me a kiss on my cheeks he plants;
A child I see will always be loved and cared for,
because his feelings are inborn and the words not taught before;
He always has me whenever he wants but I am never content,
cause I just can't help asking for such blissful moments more and more.....

Sometimes,
The waves are so silent, only white tips are seen,
The moon is a lighthouse, and amidst the fog,
The man is alone except, yes!! Ah, there's a dog;

But..
Time, time is removed from the equation,
And space, the sense of space is just.... Just Lost!!

To even gulp down, that inexplicable omnipresence, to even breathe,
Feels like a sin, like betrayal,

And in that picturesque, she rises.. Like a piece puckered from heavens,
In your mind, her face,
Expressionless, her eyes,
Infinite,            

and there....

Like dew on a fresh leaf, leaks a drop, rolling into a mudball,
Just as they give away, and them knees hit the sand..

A memoria, a reminiscence, of her touch..
As if pixie dust brought a message, travelling through a whole universe,
Which he.. I..  I almost got, or.. almost missed!!

Choking.. Smiling at not knowing..
Reality from love, imagination from hurt.
The defiance in me, the innocence in her!!

Loveless is thy life, for they all pray to make you stay,
Lonely you must be, for just their worship you grant them their way,

If it were me I'd rather they bleed and starve,
Cause I'd love em just enough to see them learn through hardship,
It's like you never knew their pain,  misery or remorse,
It's so cats in the cradle, they grew up while you were away.

Thou Kingdom has its people, but oh what a price you have to pay,
You feed em, cloth em and give them shelter,
But from their withering souls, you must look away,

If it were her, she'd adore em all the same,
But never spoil her own children, for only their wounds she'd caress,
But she'd teach em to walk by themselves,
Only holding their hand so they won't sway.

But you, you are proud and you are vain,
They are but your Symphony, what a morose tune there you play..

If it were they themselves, Truly!!  Masters of their own lives,
Even they'd understand their loneliness, can be traded for ego and pride,
Even they would know that our lives are useless anyway,
Compassion they'd learn to help each other along the way!!

Heartless is thy nature, and so it must stay,
For we are mortal and not you, and therein lies the crux,
Six feet under we'll be buried someday,
And you bear the pain of seeing us go away..
How strong at all times you must stay..

Loveless is thy life, for they all pray to make you stay,
Lonely you must be, for just their worship you grant them their way,

(fading..)
Loveless is thy life, for they all pray to make you stay,
Lonely you must be, for just their worship you grant them their way!!

The emotion called emotion set out to look at the world one day,
He thought he’d take the day off to make some merry and gay,
Strolling by he entered a village farm and the animals all jumped,
They’d never seen an emotion like him; they couldn’t understand what they felt,
Emotion ran away from there, leaving the animals feeling nothing but bummed,
The emotion called emotion went to unwind at the bar nearby,
He guessed at least his fast friend alcohol would love to have him drop by,
As soon as the pub’s door opened and he set foot inside,
All heads turned, and colour drained from their hides,
Alcohol shouted to his pal ‘run from here o emotion; the people in here I beguile’,
‘I keep them away from all emotion; all I told you about happiness around me was a lie’,
The emotion was confused, it was something he’d never felt before,
He was a straight thinker, he’d always been so sure,
As he was strutting down the road, all lost in thought and head in cloud,
The emotion stumbled upon a great saint; busy in meditation, wrapped in a saffron shroud,
He considered talking advice and expressed desire to enter the saint’s psyche,
Then quietly he was shown to the saint’s wisdom, through a secret passage deep deep inside,
There he sought answers to his quest; he asked the wise one in all earnest:
‘Why do people fear me? I never let them to sorrow or pain...’
‘I am a simple emotion; I never put them under any strain....’
The wisdom replied: ‘why do I meet you in here old friend? Why this secrecy you must wonder...’
‘Herein lies the answer to all your queries, I keep away from you so I can think and ponder.’
“I am free of you so am known as the wise one, if I let you in it’ll spoil all the fun.
Although I know you’re right, you are the simplest and so you beget happiness on a platter.
But to comprehend you, one must be free of you and that’s how you complicate matters,
If one were to always listen to you I would be lost, I would become secondary and I can’t bear that cost.
That is why we don’t meet old’ friend, it is for my significance that you must disappear,
But in search of happiness people get confused between you and me and then it is you they have to fear...”
The emotion called emotion was not satisfied with this response,
Seeing this, the wisdom went back to his own trance.
“You seem troubled my dear, but there is no need to be;
Go back home, get to work and let me get to mine,
Be the guy you were, frolicking, wandering and always carefree,
It’s almost dawn now, go rise and shine.”
The emotion called emotion quietly took the saint’s advice,
He went off home to being who he always was in a trice.
Things went back to normal, no work was stalled,
The only lesson he learned was:
That “an emotion never thinks at all”
That “An emotion never thinks at all......”