So easy to tug and shrug
Sacred ties have no meaning
Have I changed or have you?
Us both you think? No clue!

Memory lane, boy, it’s a beautiful street
Lined with the trees of the times gone by
With cobbled stone just like the one in my grandmum’s porch
And scattered dried leaves for the times we cried

There is a distinct smell in the air
Just like the pickle in the jar that sat on that windowsill
The wind is warm like that tight embrace,
That helped heal me when I was ill

There are some flowers at a distance I see
They look happy, like the ones in my grandmum’s garden
There is that familiar holy basil too
That she plucked each morning for veneration

The lane fades away at a distance,
Dissolving into a mist of oblivion
The porcelain teacups and that pickle jar remain
But only till I am gone

Disruptive, obstructive, elusive
Change is what it is
Change is inevitable
Change is abusive!

There’s a lull in the air, a calm before the storm
Like, something is peeping around the corner
a boogeyman ready to pounce
The heart is settled, but there’s white noise
Something is yet to happen

My steps are heavy, my breaths are slow
The languid strides have viscous blood flowing through the veins
The midsummer sun stares deep, punching holes through my flesh
I am not sure of what to expect
Something is yet to happen

A tsunami rises in the distance, the froth brews, the venom spews
A monstrous fatality that’s unseen sits patiently and waits
Life moves in a dazzling nonchalant flash
While I keep treading, unbeknownst; I feel it in my bones
Something is yet to happen

Five dandelions bloomed in a terracotta ***, all sharing the same sun and water
Their roots were branched, and they danced, all together, like one

They swayed in unison with the wind and held to each other in rain
In winters they shivered, and sweated in summers, but stood together like one

But then came a fall when one of the dandelions, wilted away and died
They were broken, melancholy loomed, all remained but one.

They were never the same again, but time healed, and they revived
But there were no chortles, and no guffaws, just dull smiles…seldom

The smiles were transient too, and catastrophe struck yet again,
Another beautiful dandelion lost, oh what a fate destiny had spun

Three remained, but not for long, they all soon were plucked and pulled
Two went to woo a dame, while a glass vase homed the solitary one

The broken terracotta *** now bleeds, rotting away and forsaken
It’s nothing but clay and earth they said, it’s nothing without the dandelions

So, suppose you could split into two
Two souls, two bodies made of the same flesh
Two distinct beings leading two lives
Two of everything…two

You ask who is who?
Not sure, no clue
But one is worldly fit
While the other rose and flew

One melts and gently sits into candle casts, that’s true
While the other melted the brims, and flowed brazenly through
They are too different, too apart, they are but two
So who is who? No clue, for no one could know, but you

Walk in a file, they said,
In a line that is straight
What is straight, I wondered
But followed, dismayed

I didn’t know better then,
But do I today?
Do I still listen to my own voice?
Or those that lead astray?

Wear this and that, speak no more and less
Say this, say that, if you want a morsel of respect
Where’s the key to the lock that you have sealed my lips with?
Where is the me I knew of had once existed?

Was I really ever me? the thought confounds
A ‘person’, a ‘human’ with freedom abound?
Or was I always a shadow lurking around?
Merely the silhouette of those who buried me in the ground?

Sit here, stand here, walk this way and obey
You made me, carved me, broke me you say?
Commands are simple, up, down, turn around please, now walk away
Disappear into nothingness; ‘hide your hideousness’, they bray

For ages; years, months and days I followed
My pride, my being, myself you swallowed
I believed you and shrouded my ugliness forever
Carrying with contempt the crippled soul that you, in jest, hollowed.

No more, I cried, no more will I
No more will I not lift my eye
No more will I walk in a file
For my straight and yours can never be aligned

You are different and so am I
But why is yours superior and mine a lie?

Your feet are adorned in gold, you might **** gold too
I eat barley paste out of hand, but that’s my life, that’s true

The scorn on your face, your eyebrows raised, your nose crinkled in disdain
My face, my clothes are all you see, but there…you missed the pain

Built by the same flesh and heartbeat we are
Yet I am the **** in the soil, while you reach for stars

Do you know my name? I would be surprised if you do
Nameless, faceless, clueless ****, are they allowed names too?

As I dissolve, dissipate and crumble into none
You too will powder and grind, as our fates are in fact one

Kick him in the stomach, he won’t feel a thing
Tug, pull and stomp on him, he won’t bat an eye
Hurl a sucker punch and I dare you he cries,
dump it away once done, it’s just a thing

It won’t wince one claimed; I also hear he sings?
I hear nothing come out, maybe just kick him hard
Oh, what a useless toy, one gasped, such a lard
Trash him away once done, it’s just a thing

I hear he can smell, breathe and even think?
Why not cut him open and tromp on his heart?
His heart beats for real? Sigh, such a façade!
Let’s bury it away once done, it’s just a thing

Let’s ****** and torture and a bit of smothering
Is he dead? Oh no, tighten the noose
Such wild beings should not be left out loose
Burn it down to ashes once done, it’s just a thing

Some dreams were shattered, devoid of everything
It felt one time, but not anymore
Does it still breathe? Yes, what a chore!
They were done, and everyone, and long lived the thing

Transient it is, my smile and yours
It comes and goes, ebbs and flows
Like rain it showers, pitter patters
And akin to the sunshine’s gold it glows

Like the gentle breeze it caresses the face
It cradles you, in a tight embrace
Like my mother’s laugh and my baby’s coo
It keeps you warm on a cold winter’s day

Smile, o smile, I supplicate
Just one moment, is what it’ll take
What’s the haste, don’t slip away?
Aren’t we bound into a union by fate?

Stay with me for a little while
Can’t you please, oh curved, sweet smile?
Those chortles on jests so infantile
Forsake me, but bless my child

The sway of head in a pendulum move
To and fro, to disapprove
Nay, no, and a simple nein
To cut the chord, to decline

How easy is it to break a heart?
To shrug it away and depart
Saying no is an art,
A perfect prose, a mastered craft

Only the brave can win this one
For, once released, it’s not undone
To be untouched by those broken eyes
It takes but steel to disguise

Can’t you not make just one excuse
To not spill blood, and no brutal bruise
I would, if you ask, although a ruse
Fallacy to truth for once, if you choose