In the temples we built in our parallel hearts
Furthest away in two inverse Universes
With zillions of blackholes and white-holes
With no wormholes or radiant light rays,

On the altars, reside our muted tenderness (2020)

Don’t erase the picture
You may feel like drawing it
Again, and again

Don’t draw the picture
You may feel like erasing it
Again, and again

Just keep watching,
Then you will see that
There was never a picture.

You broke into my heart
Like a violent storm

Then you moved in my heart
Like a violent storm

When you left my heart
Still like a violent storm
It stilled my heard
Like a deep calm blue sea

In a corner of the dark sky of heart
The only shining star is you

While Sun is fulgent in the sky
The darkness that dulls my heart
Is also you

The only poem that electrifies
My mind, day after day is you

While I enjoy that poem
The poison that burns my heart
Is also you.

In darkness, the lamp that brings
Light is you

When that lamp lights my heart
The wind that extinguishes it
Is also you

In a ragingly burning desert
The soothing cool breeze is you

While I relish in that cool breeze
The dust storm that suffocates me
Is also you

From my shoes,
Nature:

Joy and anguish
Death and birth
Patterns and laws

From nature’s shoes:

A random flow
With no labels

What!

Dreaming to be really in my shoes,
Buried deeply inside your self-made shallow shoes
Raged with delirious brain fits
You stamp on me your favourite sole prints

If you must know, listen and forget not
I wear no shoes at all

A heavenly fragrance
Smelt while in a coma,

An exquisite place
Seen in a hallucination,

A profundity
Grasped in a cognitive void

Enchanting memories
Gained in an imaginary world:

You!

Being inside the room
I looked outside

The outside was of
Little little squares

Being outside
I looked inside

The inside was of
Little, little squares

To dream is
A holy right

Even holier is
Dreams’ right
To die

Even more holier is
To find newer dreams

Even though
The bent is U shape,
The journey is
Just forward

No handcuffs
No sentry to watch
Still no freedom

Thus, for freedom,
Essentials must be
Handcuffs and a sentry

Even though
You aren’t chasing me

By any means,

Why am I trying to
Flee from you,

By all means

Just by drawing
A few pencil-lines
I can fool human eye
To make them see
A water-drop,
The painter boasted

Just by mixing
A few vibrations
I can fool human ear
To make them hear
Beautiful music
The musician gloated

Just by crafting
A few words together
I can fool human mind
To make them feel
Deep meanings,
The poet joined in

You, plagiarisers,
Stole my non-copyrighted
Tricks of illusions,
Reality groaned
With a nod of approval

Never was any relationship
Between us, she uttered
With great pride

That’s also a
Certain kind of relationship
I replied with great humility

My dear lord,
Since everyone
Solemnly professes
Their complete innocence
There is absolutely no way
That I cannot be guilty

Our gift
Our torments

Our fortune
Our predicament

Our joy
Our agony

Our Mind!

I kept avoiding faithfully
Any route you might take

Why then
My heart got gloomy
When I heard that
You had left the town

Being in close embrace
With unspoken affection
Our snow coats
Keep an eye on us
Giving a stern look

In the wall-painting
The water appears real
But I cannot wash
My hands with it

A mind-boggling illusion

On the TV screen
The water is moving
And Making sound
But I cannot bath in it

A superior illusion

In the river,
There is water
I can drink and
Bath in

The ultimate illusion?!

The honored author
Of some of these books!
Why the erudite Pundit,
Burn this huge mountain of books

I sopped up all these books;
So, they filled up my head
And voided my mind;
If you so like
All these books are yours.

If they emptied you, Sir,
What use they are to me then?

No, my dear young lad
Fill up your head with the books
And scribe your own books too
Only then you can really see
The emptiness of books

Nearby my feet,
Ants are busy
Minding
Their own business

They are too tiny
Even to worry about
Giganticness of my feet

Surely,
We are children
Of Mother Earth
Isn’t it because of her DNA,
We spin so much

Maybe not;
Mother has a fixed
Axis of spin
And we?

Moon,
You are so cheerful

Looks like
You hate to go back
To the city

If so, then stay
The lake bund is
All yours

The eyes lived in
Darkness for a while
Apprehensive of
The light rays
Suddenly come in;
But only for a moment

A piano
On your mind-fingertips:

My heart.

A canvas
To my heart-paint brush:

Your mind.

Button is pressed
It spins

Button is released
It stops

So,
Does the Fan
Know it

Being inside the room
I looked outside

The outside was of
Little little squares

Being outside
I looked inside

The inside was of
Little, little squares

The table is 3-D, and
So is the orange on it

The canvas is 2-D, but
The orange in it is 3-D

If not for mind’s multi-D syndromes
What sanity in this swirl of deliriums (2019)

Blue
Purple
Red
?
Different, different
Soap bubbles
Looking like
Angels’ homes
Descended
From heaven

Popped one
At the ceiling

Blue
Purple
Red
?
Another one
One by one
Each one

Garden
      .
Living-room’s flower vase
          .
Kitchen’s ******* bin
          .
Town’s ******* tip

⋮
       ⋮
       ⋮
Four legs
        ⋮
       ⋮
Two legs
       ⋮
       ⋮
Two legs
Palanquin
       ⋮
Two legs
Palanquin
wheels  
       ⋮
Two legs
Palanquin
wheels  
Horse cart
Boat
       ⋮
Two legs
Automobile
   Train
    Plane
    Ship
        ⋮
Two legs
Automobile
   Train
    Plane
    Ship
Spaceship
       ⋮
  Two legs    
        ⋮
        ⋮
   ?!?!
       ⋮
       ⋮

Whatever happens
God is happy
That’s why many things happen
In the same instant

Well, I am no God, but
Whatever happens
I am happy too
That is why I survive

Whatever happens
God is calm
That is why everything
Comes to stability so quick

Whatever happens
I am calm too
That is how I keep
My sanity, but
I am no God

Whatever happens
God is shrewd
That is why
The Universe
Keeps running

Well, I am no God, but
Whatever happens
I too find a way forward
That is why I still
Keep marching

I know that I think
Therefore, I believe I exist
But, I cannot say whether God does

Where does this path lead to
Inquired one who has lost his path

This also leads to another path
Replied another path searcher

Me
Not me
Not, not me

When you flow
Dancing rhythmically
On the top of the mountain
Nobody is rallying to see you

When you fall
Suffering turbulently,
Down here in the valley
Many are saluting you
With standing ovation

BOOKS

Author, pundit,
Why, burn this
Mountain of books?

They filled my head
And blanked my mind;
Take them, if you so like.

What good is it in there for me
In this plenty of emptiness.

Enquirer, my dear young fellow,
Let emptiness fill your mind well
Then scribe your own tomes too
It’s only then you see in real trueness
The emptiness lies in all wisdoms (2020)

I did not see,
My Lord.

Why?

Because of Sun.

Does the Earth know
That it spins
If so, does it spin
To give us day and night

Does the sky know
That there is no sky
If so, does it mirage itself
Just to reassure us

Does the rainbow know
It exists only in our retinas
If so does it conjure itself
Just to mesmerise us

If anything,
What does this
Little Inquiry suggest
My existence, or
My non-existence

Bill Gate’s Empire
Is a  church
In my eyes

My only brother’s
Roomy house
Is a thorn to
The same eyes

The bunch of roses you offered
I brought home cuddling them
To my blossom softly and closely

When I arrived home, I saw
The flowers were withered
The Petals were no more;

Remained were only the
Thorns of the long stems
Buried deeply in my heart
Promising never to leave ever

The tormentor of time
Has tattooed
Abstract Statues
On his face
Using clay of wrinkles

His eyelids were sagging  
For the weight of excessive skin,
And almost hid his pupils.

I gave him food,
But he really needed
Was happiness-
Which I never had enough.

His image
Stages dramas
In my mind

Was his outer self  
A portrait of my inner self?

While Sun
burns my Face,

Your smiles
Sprinkle.

Sunflower,
Why mutiny

Waiting
For a drop of Sun
To float in: me

Waiting
For the window
To be opened: Sun

Where does this path lead to
Inquired one who has lost his path

This also leads to another path
Replied another path searcher

A crow pecks on its reflection
Thinking that what it sees is a rival

A man smiles with the mirror
Thinking that what he sees is himself (2015)

Earth turns;

I cannot see, but
I can comprehend

You turn;
I can see, but
I cannot comprehend

A fake!

The sky-moon
Called the lake-moon

To prove it
The sky-moon hid
Behind the clouds

When it came back
Triumphantly,

The lake-moon asked
Hey, sky-guy,
What happened to you
When I hid behind
The lake-clouds

You floated into my heart
Like a cool tiny breeze

Then you moved in my heart
Like a cool tiny breeze

When you left my heart
Still like a tiny little breeze
It took my heart by a storm.

In the wilderness
Of mountains
I barked at Nature,

Why calamity
Not just beauty?

Nature
Barked back at me,
Why me?

Who teaches us
How to share a place
Even by ten,
On which even
Two cannot stand,

         Is the rain

In my wall-painting
The water appears real
But I cannot wash
My hands in it

A mind-boggling illusion

On my TV screen
The water is moving
And Making sound

But I cannot bath in it

A superior illusion

Water in the nearby river,
I can drink and even bath in

The ultimate illusion?! (2019)