Her hair at noon
Tied in a messy bun
She rides her scooter
with the speedometer
between 35-45kph
She has to pick up her children from school

She rides pillion
Her hair flipping wildly in the wind
As she speaks with her rider
A smile spread across her face
Phone in her right hand
Carefreeness of youth

Draped in a silk saree
Colour scheme, white and gold
She wears a red dot between her brows
Hair worn loose, adorned with a string of jasmine
Riding slow, skilfully skipping potholes
A festival to celebrate back home

Joy and sorrow
In a glass case
In a duel they engaged
A duet they couldn’t play
Coexist in a case
Trapped
In a heart
Divided in equal parts
Each side torn
For joys and sorrows
Unknown

A tough outer shell
Soft inner core, within
In crevices deep
Lies sweet water still

Calm and swift
The duck glides by
The pond
Where predators lurk

Like the powerhouse
Its energy source, profound
When it lights up
Brightens the whole town

An inspiration
Lies in the unlikeliest of places
Manifests itself
In Petals of lotuses

Sometimes in life’s unexpected turns
Time unveils
Solutions right
Hidden
In plain sight

What if I lock all my thoughts in a ziplock

Will they converse with each other
and share their thoughts

Will they clash and trash each other, to be out or just let each other be
and  grow new skin-words as they sprout

Who will survive will it be the wise
the thick skinned, the resilient who has weathered a few storms
or the ones who are  jumpy at the sight of the weevil inside

Each of them with an experience unique, destined to coexist

Some felt confined, the others embraced  their fate with grace, their life in a ziplock
Waiting and wanting to sprout

They sat by the sidewalk  
Their eyes made of steel
Lack of vision
Labelled impaired

Every evening
I pass by at five
I watch them sing
A twinkle in those pair of eyes
As they smile

The little boy
Apple of their eye
Jumps with joy
Not a note missed
A duet performed
The lyrics followed
On the smart phone

A vision for the wise
Lacking in the eyes
The creator’s flaw
Undeterred
Every evening at five
They play live

Too many birds
Metal and clank
None with a feather
So many tanked
None brought cheer
None could chirp
Smoke bellowed
Eyes welled
Of all who were left
Of all who lived
To live the truth
Of devastation
In the skies
Grey

Every drop that falls
Is part of an echo
Distanced by the valley
Surrounded by the mountains
Carried by the winds
Silenced by the rain
Joining the million
On an untraveled path
Into little streams
To make a waterfall

Distanced by the valleys
Carried by the winds
Since ancient times
Absorbed by the roots
Nourishing the soul
Of Mother Earth

A drop into eternity
Journey it takes, joyfully
Joined by a million
To be
A part of the whole
Eternally

You let it slip
Didn’t strive for
The slot is full
Your calendar too

Days passed
New slots were allotted
The busy note
Reads the same

Was it priority
That took all the days
New slots never taken
Empty spots forsaken

What mattered most
And not, lost forgotten
Perforated pages
From the calendar erased
Blurring numbers and days

Bound,
not for an eternity
Transient, this existence

Untethered,
bond with freedom
Know the boundaries

Juice of an orange
Spilled over the dark rain clouds
Last coral sunset

I lingered longer than I had intended
Observing the painting, mesmerised
Trying to understand, what the artist intended to convey in colours abstract
Each a piece, a part of the artist’s heart
Not that I understood, but it was touching, I tried to grasp
The colours blended, swirled
The brushstrokes long and short
Each told a story, apart
A whirlpool in my eyes swelled
I lingered, longer than I had intended, lost

Gently cross over the wooden bridge
You have places to go
The bridge has to be there for every passer-by
Dawn to dusk, weathered, not yet to dust
Into the forest deep,
where the rivers rumble and roar
and sing lullabies

I watch my problems away
Only to add more
I watch my problems away
When I am happy
And I want to watch more
I think I watch my problems away
Only to add more
Until the reel has taken over the real
The real problem is the reel
And I can never ever watch my problems away, once more…
I want to scrub them away
They keep piling on the floor
They know what I like
And want me to subscribe
No I am not a fool
No not twice
I know I can’t watch my problems away

Time when inspiration
Knocked at my door
Its visit always welcome
I would feed it well
All satiated, with a warm heart,
wishing me happiness,
it would gently depart

Now I tend to ignore
As I do the chores,  
Or simply while away
An umpteenth time
A sullen face and dewy eyed
Unrevoked
Inspiration gathers dust
At some wanting door

Limbless
In a vacuum
Swims my mind

Little flower
That blooms
Anonymous

Leaf abound green
Leafless chills
In autumn

Awake the owl
Night sleeps
It preys

Truth is layered
The Sun defies
Lies

Broken
The words
Knew a chain

Sand castle crumbles
A child weeps
By the shore
A wonder created torn

Grains of sand
Held in tiny palms
Lost to the shore
Unsure

Mother’s gentle kiss
And a warm embrace
Rebuilds a mound
Of hope

Waves rise and fall
A dance, fleeting though
The ocean shows
A castle afar in throes

Joy of building
And losing, to waves
A castle fragile
Like dreams, unfold

Every day is today
Until it turns into yesterday or tomorrow

Every day I think, I will do the tasks
I had planned
But then, yesterday and tomorrow take over again

Is it ok dear Everyday
If you keep changing attires
Cause new and old
Is what seems to be your fate every day

Everyday yesterday
Today or tomorrow
Each of them forever
From each other do borrow

Leafy boughs
Cradle the sol
Into calm repose

Hello it’s me
Yes that’s right
I am May

I came here
Just after April
Left

She had to
That’s how we make way for each other
I will too, for June

I have days to keep
The Calendar, minds me
But in my mind
I am free

For the days
I have, you can
Do as you like
For as long as you have me

As today I am
In a few days, I won’t be
May you thrive
Be it me, or
May not
That’s how it is

Unbeknownst to the human eye
The tiny frog, lived in the forest, anonymously free
Dewy, evergreen its home
Its existence it knew
In its ecosystem
It grew

Caught unaware
It landed onto the palm
No not the leaf
And that’s when the discovery
Made news
Until then it lived
And so did its ancestors
Free
Of speculations
Unbothered
By its size
Until it was
Branded
A new specie
The human
Classified

🥀

Why
And For how long
Why can’t beauty, just be admired
Why does it attract hatred
Why does one want to own it
Why can’t it be set free
Free as it can be
Mother Earth
Births

Why do we hold hostage

Boundaries are set
Why can’t they be respected
Why
A sheet of white, admired
Cold and clean
Struck and sprayed
Unawares, the innocent not spared
Scarlet, cries everywhere
Why
And for how long
🥀

Blooming
In the darkest of hue
Brightest of colours
Vibrant orange, magenta and red
Summer’s at its peak
The flowers speak

Gulmohar’s orange glow
Like a sweet memory
Of summer retreat
A bouquet one can never hold

Bougainvilleas
Sigh on the lattice
Like cascading rills
Of magenta pinks

Beauteous reds
Roses and Hibiscus
In the garden grow
Tempestuous

I have always had an aversion to it
I would blurt out the worst
If you would show me pretence
Of care
Of love
Of togetherness
Of being one
No no don’t do that
I am old now
Enough to understand
Pretence
I won’t blurt out things
I wouldn’t put up to it
My duties fulfilled
There I am done
Now I know
Pretence

Too lost
To find
Words, far behind

Bridges everywhere
No destination
Destined

Spaces built
Indoors empty
Felt

Don’t look deep
The end‘s nowhere
To find

Flowers simmer
In summer, a relief
April showers

I know it’s you
Can see the similarities
Even though masked

I know it’s you
I have an instinct and I know
That’s true

But who is to say
Masks protect, so we wear
A sight, not rare

He walked in the fields alone
The clouds above big and heavy
Dark grey, filled with gloom
Every other noon

There was no road
Unsettling music was played in the sky
Orchestrated by the clouds

He walked unafraid
Not knowing his fate
Desirous of the rains

He had tilled the land
Until it grew green
Prosperity rained

He stumbled upon the gold
In the ancestral remains
Deserted by the predecessors
He thanked every grain

A colony raised
In a box, elixir gold
Bonded Bees toil

Experiences
Vicarious or the ones lived
Leave a mark, indelible

The teacher said
Stretch your limits to the maximum
It might surprise you

Little surprises
Bring a delight
Some are off limits

Wayward fedora
Shimmies in the breeze
Treetops

We strive to manage, what we can control
And control
what we manage

Why do we feel sad
When good things come to an end
Difficult to accept
Everything is transient
The sense of loss
Sinks in fast
Forgetting the happiness it brought

Why is it said
Everything that happens is for good
When
None of the experiences lasts
New avenues, do await
But
How do you move on

Like a sweet fragrance
It lingers, the memories of your childhood and youth
Vague, some lost to the years
A few remain, un-erasable
Like a mark
An impression on your heart

A part of you that you forgot
A part of you erased
Relived again, even if for a few moments
As you meet friends from school
Recalling the times and some incidents  about each other
Even though fragmented, these memories and moments, like a treasure remain

Breathing light through stained glass, from the school Chappel that we visited
Felt divine and the memory transcends
Even closer to the heart, lest the present buries the past
A promise made to keep in touch
Until we meet again

We celebrate freedom in words
In verse and in literary gaze
In languages unknown
Connecting through
Chords and notes
Musically bound

Across the globe
Gallivanting
Through time and space
Crossing boundaries

Colours of Holi
Unites us like a rainbow
One in spirit

Every shade illuminates
Under the big warm sun

Left alone on the highway
Close to the high rise
Two Banyan trees
Alone, yet side by side
Branches stretched upwards, towards the sky
The birds make nests
Birthing sweet melodies
Every morning as the sun crests

Dusty in summer
Their life spared
Reminiscing times
Of the forest  
That was thriving green

Missing the younger ones
And many a comrades
Deemed unimportant
As trees
Who lost the battle
To the concrete

With my interests in tow
And my feelings bottled in an anti spill jar
I set out for places afar

Marinating emotions
By the ocean

Consumed by the sea

To sink in the view
From the ocean’s blue

If only I could express
If only there were words enough
To say
How I feel about you
When you sway, in your red flowy dress
Dear hibiscus
I miss you everyday
I wander off on the streets
In search
Someday
I will find
Where you once lived,
Was loved, spread the same

When she nurtured you
As a sapling, with all the tenderness
You grew in the garden
Where love was supreme
Free flowing, the best
Today, she misses you
In a rocky place
She fetched some dry twigs
Wandered off the streets
Desperate in her search
Of her precious, ever flowering
Red Hibiscus

Worn on a T-shirt
In line with the heart
Why do you need it
Cause opinions
Limit you
Limitless possibilities
Await, unburdened
Being limitless
Can bring limitations
Cause you are bound
Gravitationally

The sun rose up to a woken slumber
On the west side of the sky
Not realising it was afternoon
For the people on the earth
Surprised they didn’t know which way to go
On a winter’s day, when not many are outdoors
Was it rise or to set, that the sun chose today
To see if it was alright to go other way

I knew the world
The world that I knew
Kept me spinning
On its axis
Still my feet firmly planted
Scented flowers, whirled down
Free, fresh off the tree
They fell on the lawn
Did they know, the cycle of renewals
Further they flew, blown away by the wind
Each spinning like a pinwheel
The paper flowers
Planted on the railings
Colours abloom

I have been inspired
Not yet, to write
Happy thoughts begin
But  don’t end in words

Shimmy and shimmer
A wedding in the family
Reasons to smile, asunder
All that brings us together

Band Bajaa Baraat, and the celebrations unfold
Rituals followed through the midnight
Vows taken around the sacrosanct fire
Rose petals and blessings showered on the newly weds

Our boy, brings home his pretty wife
Happy thoughts
And new beginnings
Words don’t justify

I had been waiting for so long
For the singer and her songs
And the day arrived for me to watch her perform live
On a Saturday night

She has been on my playlist for more than a year
Her voice so unique, every morning a joy to hear

The stars twinkled in the sky  
The stage a spectacle, alive
She walked in her glittering costume, all glam
Her troupe, by her side, electrifying

In her deep and mesmerising voice
All heart and soul, she sang
The audience entranced, danced

To the pulsating music and strobing lights
Colourful confetti,  rained down on the ground

We lounged, spellbound
As Fireworks illuminated the sky
Culminating in a crescendo of fire and sound
A night to remember, divine

A day, a week
Months on a row
Unburdened by the show
They go

Dates to keep
To pass, and sweep
The crumbs, away

In the moment, and for
The quiet, in the humdrum
Forever stays
In absolute state

Pitchers and plants  
Watering and nurturance,
Symbiotically thrive
no pitcher plants
In place

Sunshine yellow
Or perhaps
Mustard hued
The suede jacket
Like an old fading memory
Worn on the outside
Cozy and warm
Reminiscent of a place and time
Long gone
Like the jacket
Once worn
Now frayed

Mural on the wall
Tiny footprints on the lawn
Joyous, kitten sprints

I am afraid to share my thoughts
I am scared to lose them all
I am afraid to think, as that will make me want to write
I am scared to write
In anticipation of loss
Why do they, these thoughts, bother me
I know, not right

But I think, I will listen to my thoughts
As they have helped me write
And lighten my heart
Even if no one listens
Never Reads
Forgotten
Hidden from light
I know I have a place to keep them safe
In drafts
For another time

Freedom sought
Without knowing how and what it looked like and was
Every breath visibly free
Yet never owned
In the distance
Grew a voice bold
You knew
You knew
With your every breath
And chose it well
Yet lost
Freedom is sought
Never free
On a waitlist
It rides rent free

Times to reminisce
Promises deceased
A new born hope
In its wishful steps
Frolicked to future
No time to rest

Dreams to seek
Promises to keep
Wishes unfulfilled
Uncertainty is a treat

Each day unveils
The calendar’s fate
Charming or tedious
Never to know
A delight,  it can be

Unkept promises
Tug at the heartstrings
Wishes and dreams
Have no expiration dates
Timeless unbound
Like the eternal springs