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Shashank Virkud Jul 2011
Facing you
through a windowpane,
you were mad
'cause I hadn't
kissed you yet.

When I got there,
you know I didn't care.
You know I wasn't scared.

Slow me down or
spin me sideways,
for I will always
be around.

Racing you
through the rain,
I was glad
'cause you hadn't
had a regret.

When you got there
you were unaware,
you were unprepared.

Slow me down or
spin me sideways,
for I will always
be around.
Shashank Virkud Apr 2011
The transaction is almost complete.
By the time he catches on,
I'll be long gone. Poor Pete.

A keen eye for another
mans' lighter, don't we all?
I'm a thief among thieves.
This is no small time operation.

The deed is done.
Enter six kids with
sick intentions as I
celebrate in a hazy room.

Keep conversation cordial
but don't let down your guard.
This is the hardest part.

I thought victory was
in the pocket of my jeans,
but as they stumbled through
the door, I fumbled for my score.

I wasn't able to hold on.
I don't know what went wrong,
must have left it on the table.
Can't resist a game so playable.
Shashank Virkud Sep 2011
I had never heard
a voice like yours
until I talked to you
from between the door
and I had nothing
to hide so I let you
inside because you
knocked.
We didn't even
need the fire after
our bodies touched.
When I woke
up in the morning
I was in nothing
but my socks,
with the shade of your
lips on my neck.
The same
shade of wine
that stained mine.
We were in a snow city,
well actually, it seemed that
you left; bereft, it got cold
in that dingy motel room.
I clenched the letter in my hand,
unopened, until I had my first
taste.

Ripe with rhyme, I'm
coming down now.

Your words were very clear
but I'm still not sure if you
meant them, and hell, it's
been a few years.
I still haven't sewn
the last stitch, the fists
you abused with.
Your wrists are still
bruised from when
I used you last.
It never got warmer,
I only grew colder
after that day. Or maybe,
the sun was shining
strong after all, and it was
just me that could no longer
accept what it had to offer.
Don't waste the warmth
on something that's already
frozen over.
When you left,
you buried that city of snow
along with my heart,
a long time ago.
Shashank Virkud Feb 2012
You've got a lot
of thoughts in your head,
like rocks in your bed
they keep you up.
Tossing and turning
dreaming about
buses, one that I'm on,
coming to see you.

I know it hurt you
when you hurt me
and I know
you didn't mean
for the apology
to sound so empty.

Kara told me
you aren't eating,
that the color
from your face
is fleeting, and
that the habit is there to stay.

You could
never figure
out
what was more
risky,
getting
lost
or standing
out in the crowd,
and yeah,
it's hard to make
mom proud
with all that *******
around.

I know your
neck is
still
aching
from the accident,
but beautiful,
taking medication
just isn't safe
with your
addictive
personality.
I know because
mine gets the better of me.

I know
you don't want
to hear any of this,
and I know
you don't want
to hear me,
but when you're
out of money
and you've
got
nowhere left
to go,
then I won't
sound so hollow.

Tonight,
I'll come over
tonight,
it'll be
like old times.
I'll bring the
gin
and my
violin
and we can
sing
this bottle dry.

I could
use a drink
right now,
yeah, I think
I could use
a drink right now.
Shashank Virkud Jan 2012
Like the artist
with a shattered heart,
I part with my senses.

what's a heart
without art in it?
A tortured soul
with a hole in its defenses.
Shashank Virkud May 2013
Savor,

don't waste.

develop taste, rather;

sordid.
Shashank Virkud Dec 2012
It would be two thousand and thirteen
it would be a seamless,
dreamless sleep,
I was singing the song with more conviction
than the one who wrote it.
Yeah, you're a believer and I'm
living proof.

From the passive to the partisan
from the advocate to the activist,
oils of mine mix with oils of yours
the spoils of war,
we worship the warship,
now the legion is holin' out
and now the legion has got a hold of you!

There goes the popular children
with their popular wisdom,
music, the solitary thing
flings me around this ****** ring,
where'd you get those lenses you're wearing?
Hey DJ, maestro murdered music today!

That band was brand new,
Brandy gave me a cool tattoo.

Figures, I'm right now.
I figure,
I am right now.
Shashank Virkud Feb 2012
She never said she'd stay.


I'll be okay...


...one day.
Shashank Virkud Sep 2011
So you wanna be
PJ Harvey?

Starve me.

I see how thin
you stay for him.
Shashank Virkud Mar 2012
In a golden glow,
while you slept,
I strung together
a few haiku
for you
and sang them
to a sad tune,
the only one I knew.

Your words are like clay
before the kiln,
I try to mold them
into thousands of different shapes,
and it's never right.
But I don't
like to complain
and I'd have to say,
I think I handle pain
pretty well,
wouldn't you agree?

Your explanations
need explanations now.
You speak to me
in worlds,
I only know the smallest words.

Your mouth races my heart,
I always give you a head start.

I will chase you all the way home.
Shashank Virkud Jan 2012
Finding
my identity
as I fumble
through your
laundry,
I'm finding
my identity
as I stumble
through some
palm trees.

Sitting on the sand
where I watch the tide,
I'm sitting on the sand
where I syllogise;
sunshine and sugar pills,
of which I am comprised.

Honey,
if I'm a ***,
it's because you made me one.
Shashank Virkud Apr 2012
Aw, who knows?

who cares?

It's easy to leave.

Shelly is in too deep.

Shelly grabs her
pair of
polarized
and she puts 'em on.
'Cause Shelly can see
what I really
think of me.

Shelly's hair blows
in the breeze
and,

and,

and
Strawberries!

Shellys' Summer's little girl.
Spoiled
by the sun.

Shellys' Sunday's spare,
she got used
by someone.

She tunes her guitar
to English,
Shelly sings to me.

My Sweet little bird, Shelly.
Don't fly away.

Don't fly away,
Shelly,

Don't fly away.

Aw, who knows
who cares?

It's easy to see.

Shelly is in deep
for me.
Shashank Virkud May 2012
Stuck
my
tongue
between
my teeth,
found the
sweet
one
wrapped
up
in
my sheets.
I woke up today.
This paper is on my mind

all of the


sick
people
build
****-
steeples
at dawn,

mow my lawn,
mow my lawn,

lazy boys get laid
on the ground.

Girls that had
never left town-

I  had a pretty cool idea about them.

I woke up today,
that's right,

I woke up.


Give me pleasure (!),
imperatives inserted
inside of you, give me-

your throat
is smoking raw,

take a drag off
something I wrote.

Pre- rhetoric,
pre- histor-
ic,
I'm a
dinosaur
and I
don't
even care
any-
more.
Shashank Virkud Dec 2010
The wind blows hard tonight. The wind takes every bit of warmth from my marrow and doesn't bring any of it back. No, this is not an art that you have mastered exclusively, as much as that may disappoint you.  

Ninety six days culminate and rot within my intestines. The feeling, well, the feeling is like ****, but the images interpreted are more than appealing, beautiful I would say.

I don't stay at home anymore; I go to other people's homes and stay there because it fascinates me. It fascinates me for so many reasons, expressions, to name a few.

Keeping true to the convention of keeping true to the convention, I shed a layer of skin when I threw the old tea box full of photographs from the terrace this morning.

The air smelt of coriander and fresh mud, fresh rain. I took it into my lungs as a restatement of my existence but it felt smug and in vain when winter's wisdom slapped me as I exhaled. The pain was a harsh reminder; I was real. My face was red more from the shame than the sting of it.

The whole occurrence was organic, and the memory makes me laugh. Some say to me that I'm made to laugh easily, that I laugh like a fool. I'm a bad hand out of a deck of cards. I am dealt with. It's all in my stars.

In comparison, sardonicism has never known a friend, but I've had one or two. Most people are hopeless to me; I am unplugged. 
You speak to me, you want me to be connected. You have a longing in your voice, not so much for me, but for the thought of me rejected.

I had stars in my sights the nights you ignored me and made my hands your ******. Time, and time again, you justify keeping me pressed against your window, believing every inclination is adored. 

Time has passed, these creases will stay forever in my corduroys. The fragmented fire wood we never got to burn and those forgotten chapters of childhood still litter my mother's yard.

Maintaining a reserved tone, tensing those muscles in your face, for what? Try dying twice and then you will see that there is no magic, no mystery behind the way things are happening, especially here.

Happy to be hurt, ironic, the pain in my neck reminds me of you.
Shashank Virkud Feb 2012
I tested her water.

She was almost frozen over.

Had I tried to dive right in,
she could have stopped my heart cold.

She said

*some are more shallow
than others,
so
don't dive here,
or you'll hurt
yourself.
Shashank Virkud Feb 2013
Coffee coffee coffee
coffee coffee coffee
coffee coffuck
off *******
*******

*******.
Shashank Virkud Jul 2011
You knew for some time that I
was the trouble child.
I always told you the best dogs
were brought up wild.
Shashank Virkud Oct 2011
We would need a ton of luck, and maybe
half that weight in dynamite and guns and such.

We took some photographs,
hiding behind the tall grass
on the knoll. You had never
stolen a thing, but I wasn't going
in alone, so I told you to grow some stones.

They were staring at the clock
when the bank blew up.

It didn't happen over night,
weeks of planning, a couple conflicts
of interest. Nothing that a few hundred
dollars couldn't solve. We'd be in the
money soon enough anyways.

Keep bleeding, its a great distraction.
Lock and load, time for action.

Hell, if we pull this off,
we'll be living easy,
maybe even acquire a little fame.
Honey, I've got one in the chamber
because danger is my middle name.
Shashank Virkud Mar 2011
Take my hand,
don't trip trip trip,
don't trip
over my bare feet.
Take my can,
and sip sip sip,
sip sip
where land meets sea.

Take me there all wrapped in sunshine,
the weather's fine when your heart is close to mine.
We've got more time than the rest of them,
and anyhow, we're not going anywhere right now.

You put the fight back in me.
You laced up the old gloves for me.
Like flint to fire, your love
sparked and inspired,
like flint to fire, your love
sparked and inspired me.

Sharing small spaces,
we are rare, rare cases.
Just a shack or a roof of thatch
is all we need when we have the waves
and flowers in our faces.
Shashank Virkud Mar 2012
Notes in ink
jump between
the black, they
jump between
the white, and

there are lines being repeated here.

Sit in libraries,
pretend to read,
grid out fantasies
on a globe,
there are lines being repeated here.

Never did
have **** to say,
I admit it,
and so

there are lines being repeated here.
Shashank Virkud Nov 2011
There are more interesting things than your phone.
Look up, look up and you'll see.

There are more colors and tones
Surrounding you than you will ever find in that glossy screen.
Look up, look up and you'll see.

There are more interesting things than your phone.
Look up, look up *******, and you'll see.
Shashank Virkud Dec 2011
There was a ransom for a queen,
a shining glimpse of hope.
There was a sick and dying scene,
a message for the pope.
The disparity made us desperate
and so we decided to occupy
a building of the public sector
until they met our demands.
What a plan, what a plan!
We were comfortably clinging
to the safety net of fashion,
we were terribly in order.
There were things less trivial
than the status quo, you knew that
I knew that you didn't know.
We were perfectly defined
in the terms of academia,
hey,
        can I follow ya?
Shashank Virkud May 2014
It's eleven o'clock,
my socks are wet.
You pull a silver spoon
from your pocket and say
I'm not finished yet.

Steal the links to our chains
golden fences
never looked
so flimsy.
Go hungry for the holidays,

how do I die again?

I heal better at home.

So come on over.

My ears are ringing,
I'm singing songs
of yesterday.
My ears are ringing,
you don't think
things will ever be the same.

Collect all the garbage,
put a ribbon on your prize.
My ears are ringing,
and I'm singing
how do I die again?
Shashank Virkud Jan 2011
Something about the vibe.
Something I can see is true,
something electric in the wire,
you're the medium it's running through.

First the surface,
then the inside of your mind.
Our own world, kept intact,
now we're falling back.

Something about the vibe,
something I can't see in light so slight.
Something I can't describe.
you can wake me in the afterlife.

It's where I want to be, this is where I want to be.
Shashank Virkud Jun 2011
Like the dirt we swept
away with our broom
when we let it
accumulate in June,
the warmer months
will make me new,
and soothe the snake in you.

We prune our roses
to make them bloom,
the warmer months bring
the birds that sing their tunes,
and the lilies and the lilacs
and the ladybugs too.

Like the fawn will
feed on the hay,
the dawn will
lead to the day,
and I'll wear my
hands away
to bring you what I grew.

Like a yellow harvest moon
our hearts will glow
together, unfettered by
stars that swoon.
Like the butter you
churned and poured
from the urn, gently,
melt me into you.
Shashank Virkud Jul 2010
I can smell your agony,
watch you suffer,
catch you for supper.
I can tell you're onto me.
I am the wolf.

I've walked countless trails
to the same slaughter,
she ran but they caught her.
My happiness is frail.
I am the wool.
By Shashank Virkud- From Miracle/Whimsical
Shashank Virkud Oct 2011
Tears are flowing like the riverside
we're sitting by. I won't ask why
but I'll dry your eyes tonight.

I'll stay with you 'till
the day breaks.
This is honey for
your heartache.

I won't hate you
for your mistakes.
This is honey for
your heartache.

Face is glowing, all starry eyed,
bluer than sky. I know that I
don't want to see you cry tonight.

I'll run with you
when you can't wait.
This is honey for
your heartache.

I'll stay with you 'till
the sun breaks.
This is honey for
your heartache.
Shashank Virkud Feb 2012
Maybe,
if you crush
up just the
right grapes,
and put
them on
the highest
shelf,
in an airtight
jar,
maybe,
in a hundred
years,
someone will
drink them and
think,

wow,
that kid was
pretty *******
smart.
Shashank Virkud Dec 2012
We were both still quite sleepy.
She laid her head in my lap in
fetal position for most of the ride
and I nodded off as the thunder
rumbled, and rocked me to sleep,
my head lolling to one side.
It was miserable out.
The sky was a toxic, smoky gray,
swollen and bruised purple
like rotting flesh, and the rain,
so incessant, berated the windshield
of the cab the whole ride to the theater
and all the while after we had handed
a couple crumpled dollars to the driver
and gotten in the cue.

We had our backstage passes
tucked away into our coats,
we didn't want any of the
regulars to see. She huddled
closer to me to guard her
ashen lips from the needle ******
of the wind, that would bring a tear
to her eye when they scraped against
the tip of her nose. She was thinking,
as she fingered the strap of the shiny,
clean, new camera
she bought to photograph us doing
***** things, the lens
reflecting all of her good intentions,
warm feelings onto me.

As a vendor strode by I snagged
up two cups of coffee, and handed one to her
and then we sank back into the shivering,
shuddering mass. She took a few sips, as I drew
the flame to my cigarette, ducking behind her
and cupping the tip in order to get it lit,
I could see the steam dissipating into the cold,
wet air. She smiled with amusement and
after a few moments looked up and whispered to me
"I want him at his best. I hope he's super depressed."
I said
"Yeah",
as I exhaled the smoke and simultaneously, in one heave,
cleared my throat,
"I hope he ******* hates us."
Shashank Virkud Aug 2013
It's been one boring, restless, ***** of a drive through this sunken state. I click the windshield wipers off as they smear verdigris across my polarized vision, the FM stereo crackles and hisses in dissonance
with moaning, squealing brakes. My four cylinder fishtails ever so slightly as tattered tires nick and skid through puddles of *** the cumulus left behind after ******* the sun, which is crying now as it falls to sleep. Driving mechanically, I let my thoughts wander as I meander along I-4.

*You and I, we've never known what it means to perfect our chapters, to get into each little cavity, or between two immaculate ribs. We'd like to simplify all of that to one line, to reduce the dimensions rather than revel in their story. To see with six eyes or live as a termite within the wood grain is really all the same. But you know, we haven't finished yet simply because we are not finished yet. Some of us yet insist they hold on to the rotting shreds of a dying breed, a generation gone gangrene, their fingers in their feces.

But we know how we want it to be. Humanity will be different for you kids, we promise.
Shashank Virkud Jun 2011
What was
your question,
what is
this quest
you're on?

Driving,
with the
ocean on
either side
of me,

to reach
you,

reach
for you,

     it's
dividing
    me,

      the charm
   and the
harm in it.

Restless,
when time
takes too long
to move me along,
who can I call upon?
Shashank Virkud Oct 2011
Massage the soft tissue between
my thumb and fore finger
to bring the feeling back.
My hands are half numb
from the way I got cuffed.

The sun was glaring up at me
from the pavement,
like a dog that didn't know it's master.
I just wanted to ask her
when I could go home,
and I meant it.

A barrage on the issue at
hand, my palms are hard
and scarred from the attack-
my hands went half numb
from the way I got ******.
Shashank Virkud Mar 2012
She's more of a poet
'cause she went to school for it,
and she tastes sweet in the morning,

and in the evening,

sunlight filters through her
and lights up that slice of lemon
that I love so much.
I think I'll have a writer -

on the rocks.

Every time I come home,
my room smells like *** in the summer,
and it sounds like the vinyl is still under the needle.
Best album of two thousand and nine.

Best album of all time.

Sand between our toes,
we wrote prose
on a filthy mattress but
roses never grew here.

And they never will.

There was something about us though,
something that had a feverish pulse
behind it.  I'd say it was something to
do with the way we have of never putting
a cheap laugh below us. I think it has
something to do with resilience but I'm not sure.
Humming trite voicings of things we'd heard
in the backseat of our fathers' cars, radios on,
you use to tell me to flash the turn signal,
in the black of night, just so you could make sure
we were alive. Dry, but at least alive.
A little beacon to justify us,
and just defy them.


Whiskey,
come over
here and
kiss me.

C'mon
Corinthian,
keep me
company!

Set this manuscript
to music and dance for me!
Shashank Virkud Aug 2010
Dance
in rain,
France and Spain,
insane colors,
lovers who blame their other lives, disguise.

I pace hallways, racing my wall shadow.
Another pill
I cannot
swallow
whole.

Hats
and trains,
masks and planes,
inane covers
for lovers with no shame in their wild eyes.

While I'm wide awake all night, tally off sheep,
sleep? No, I don't
get that and
it shows
now.
shashank virkud- From As the Distance Grows
Shashank Virkud May 2014
A strand of dna against a starry sky, there are reasons they look strange to me. You know partly why I will never want you. It's cause I'm used to me being me and you being...

you.
Shashank Virkud Jan 2013
Ideas, our egos;

stroke that genius,

*******.

Because nothing compares to the real thing,

because nothing compares to a brain freeze.
Shashank Virkud Nov 2014
Dismissive and incredulous,
could something be so ridiculous?

Solitary, eight armed octopus.
I look at you with bulging eyes-
nothing stranger could exist.
I sulk back into the abyss.
Shashank Virkud Oct 2011
These are the flowers I picked for you,
remember to keep the blackest two.

These are the songs I'll sing for you.
Remember, I hope you remember
the saddest tune.

These are the lungs I blackened for you,
remember, always inhale those fumes.

These are the lies I spread for you.
Remember, you better remember
what's really true.
Shashank Virkud Jul 2011
Your
pitiful
pain,
I dont know
when you
became
so *******
vain.

No shame.

Would you be happy
to see me small?

Would you be happy
to see me fall?

Would you be happy
if you had a god?

Would you be happy
if you weren't a dog?
Shashank Virkud Jul 2011
Gotta work on
the way
you've
been turning
the wheel lately,
at this rate
you'll never escape,
you'll never escape me.

Whats this,
I hear
you hate me,
all this talk
is making me crazy,
at this rate
you'll never save,
you'll never save me.

I'm lonely and you owe me,
I'm lonely and you owe me,
I'm lonely and you owe me one.

I wanna fall
into your arms
and say
"just for tonight,
let me pretend",
but you
won't even
let me in.

I'm lonely and you owe me,
I'm lonely and you owe me,
I'm lonely and you owe me one.
Shashank Virkud Feb 2012
I swear,

   your
imagery

  taps
  the
acid
in my
spine.

— The End —