Black rose trapped in a cage of white pages...

Like the white waning moon marooned in a black winter sky!

Fragile and naive...
Had she entered the pupa,
With a fear of the dark in her heart...

Headstrong and wise...
Did she emerge,
With a love of lightning in her soul!

The heartbroken girl smiled after ages...

For the meteor shower up in the dark sky...

Across the hillside taught her...

"𝓗𝓸𝔀 𝓼𝓸𝓶𝓮𝓽𝓱𝓲𝓷𝓰𝓼 𝓬𝓪𝓷 𝓫𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴 𝓪𝓹𝓪𝓻𝓽 𝓲𝓷𝓽𝓸 𝓪 𝓶𝓲𝓵𝓵𝓲𝓸𝓷 𝓹𝓲𝓮𝓬𝓮𝓼 𝓪𝓷𝓭 𝓼𝓽𝓲𝓵𝓵 𝓻𝓮𝓶𝓪𝓲𝓷 𝓫𝓮𝓪𝓾𝓽𝓲𝓯𝓾𝓵...! "

Something tugs at me from the veil of the ether,
Calling me to my real home!

In the faint twinkling of a dying star,
In the wilted petal of a bright flower,
In the melted wax of a long dead candle,
My mind searches for memories of a place so familiar
Yet whose existence maybe was only a lucid dream... !

Why this utter urge in my soul to dissolve like fine mist into the air?
Why this nagging sensation to mix with the soil and the sands?

I had lived my life too short for answers
But way too long to ask  questions
That I always look into myself to remember the one reason as to not being able to call this bewilderingly beautiful walls-
"My home...!"

The smells of frankincense and myrrh made holy the air...
As white flames with smoke veiled the deity...
The one priest with folded hands and bowed head...
Offered his obeisance to the one he had always thought of as his own... his one Lord God!

Far away in an unknown land...
Another man was counting the beads of his rosary...
Singing hymns in praise of the One...
His protector and nourisher... His one Almighty God!

Yet when night took over the day...And the two men prepared for slumber...
The universal One sang the same cosmic lullaby:
"My children under one roof...!"

Once upon a time...
I had gone down to the sea.
From ancient of times, I had heard that the sea can teach you "love"...
And thus I had gone, anticipating to learn the art of love.

But the sea was a different sight...
Dark waters swirled in phantom waves towards me...
The blissful guardian of the sea called the sun had gone to a slumber... Spreading a veil of darkness over my eyes...
Streaks of thunder flashed across the sky...
And it rained on my hopes that I had long dreamt of !

Drenched in the rain and in invisible tears,
I realized the depth of love...
For love is but the depth of the sea and I, but a shallow soul...!My heart had but no courage to approach the trench that love was...
And thus my soul began to fear the sea... N sadly, love too!
               ~V.Venandi

A haven of brilliant colours lit up her eyes...
And her ears caught the faint murmur of an ancient song of the flower gods...
Her tender hands felt the papery body of her new friends...
And affectionately did she blow a kiss to their hearts...

She often wondered how her life had filled with such colours of the primroses...
That she had no chance of recalling the dungeon trapped days of her life...

Her world had become one with the blues, reds, yellows, oranges and violets of her new companions...

....

And this was how when he left her...
She never left herself!

There is no real end to anything...
Every thing remains in bits and pieces...
Whether it be the remnants of fallen leaves or the ancient ruins of a castle...
The charcoal still emits a hint of amber... Even when the fire has died down...
The heart still beats the tune of the faint remembrance of a loved one...

Some things always remain in small bites thus...
Maybe in the hope of wanting to be awakened...once again!

A brief sense of history takes over my olfactory lobes
Sniffing, I smell ancient burnt bricks and lime mortar
My hands reach for the uneven floor piled with ages of dust and the ragged walls portraying a dull grey...
Reminiscent of the times lost and stabbed by cruel hands of destiny...
Pieces of carvings of flowers and animals lay scattered on the frozen grounds
An eerie stillness presides over them causing my heart to tremble in an unknown sorrow...
Statues, full and broken seem to lay all over as if knocked out by the ravages of time...
Time...
What enigma is this time? Like a vain ruler, it rules over the ruin...unaffected by the lost happiness of this once glorious kingdom...
Darkness is the new king and silence the queen
That reigns terror in this empty palace day and night
Roots seem to have penetrated into its giant stone of a heart...
And wild birds have found a shelter in its once forbidden chambers...

I wander aimlessly pondering over the sights I see...

The full moon shines on my face through a crack in the roof...
As if wondering about the purpose of my visit into this empty land
I remain silent feeling the chill of mystery that surrounds my soul...
I suddenly realise that I feel solace in this vacancy... That same vacancy tries to reign over my heart... shredding it into pieces...
Maybe that is why I can so much sympathise with this non living entity...
It is as if my mind and the mind of this ancient structure are one and the same...
We seem to connect to each other, like old lost friends...
For who better can understand the essence of a ruin other than the one whose life feels like a ruin...

Tired I lay over it's bare ground feeling the memories of the days gone by...The ringing laughters,the shedded tears ,the spilled secrets and the peace lost forever...

Time passed over on the wings of a bat...
And finally an ancient sleep took over...!

In the dark gloomy sky...
The crows and the owls screeched their ugly melodies...
For the world below lay scattered in pieces of fragile humanity...
Once or twice a menacing wind blowed to keep a check on any joy that seemed to arise out of the bottomless pit...
Terrible is the word that described the drama that unfurled in the place between heaven and hell(earth)!

And yet not all was lost...
Inspite of the storm the old man has continued to walk in his limited garden...
Inspite of the gloom, men has gathered in himself the courage to sing the song of praise!

And if that is not enough...
Can't you behold the million scintillating lights that has always been a part of the dark sky... ?Like the twinkling stars!
The hopes of men continue to give light and life to a million unborn souls!

We will find the way...
We will go back to our ancient days before the sun sets forever...
For hope scintillates the sky and I decipher in it the message... that
"This too shall pass"
         ~V.Venandi

She is the sea...
Ever deep and cleansing...
That when people who stand by her shore...
Are driven into contemplation by her lapping waters...
The hearts rejoice the cool breeze which she radiates from the ***** of her sacred land...
She makes the people feel the sea within themselves...
She presents memories in the form of shells for people to take back home her essence...
And sand castles fashioned by tender hands are always embraced by her infinite boundaries...
She and her lover sky,ever entangled in a kiss, plants the seed of love even in spirits of frail lovers...

She is the sea...


And ever thus she remain an unforgettable experience in the life of every soul who visits her sanctuary!

The white luminary finally sketched itself along the lines of the dark canvas sky...

And my serene heart suddenly went out of the way...

To spill all my secrets to the watcher in the sky...in wild sobs and silent howls...

I hear ancient horses neigh and the crickets seem to be in a frenzy...

Could I have helped myself from spilling my own secrets...?

...

Somewhere deep inside the ocean... a sleeping oyster wakes to expose it's pearl bed to the same haunting shadow in the sky...

It looks up to the brooding moon in question of how it forces without force...

To come out of your hiding... Naked to the core!

The oyster too wonders aloud :Could I have concealed my mystery a little further?

The lava that flowed down her eyes from the bottom of her soul,
Hardened to formed various shades of rough igneous rocks...

With a heart of stone she consoled herself:
"Only does he floats momentarily in this passing time like debris in the great ocean of my consciousness...
For in another time, sooner or later he would touch rock bottom...
Erasing all the paths he made in the great currents of my mind."

How often I had wanted to be a sunflower...

Living in tranquil communities with unity...

Putting up a blooming smile...

Thinking yellow thoughts...

And turning to the sun for positivity and prayer!

Thousand miles apart...
Yet the same in essence...

For lo! On a hot summer day, when the dehydrated grasses shed tears of a chill longing...

The sky offers the same with loved tears of consolation and a candid embrace!

Sometimes I am driven to a state of utter insanity by the incredulity of my own self.
How shamelessly I stand waiting under the sun looking up to the sky as if a sudden love would fall from it!
I scratch my own wounds making a fresh pain out of them to live through.
Was I not done with the devastating breakdown of my heart not many a while ago?
But like a woman hypnotised I am feverish with a new hope-This time a wish for burning.
Brokenness was bitter,I console myself but what if burning feels better.
I will play with the flames, dance with its passion,let it get into my body like a ghost and then die down along with it as ashes.
Maybe I am on the verge of doing much more than what my mind can accept.
But you know once you taste of love, you will always want more of it.

No matter whether it causes a breaking or a burning.

𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚊 𝚋𝚞𝚝𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚏𝚕𝚢 𝚏𝚕𝚊𝚙𝚜 𝚒𝚝'𝚜 𝚠𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚍𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝...
𝚂𝚘𝚖𝚎𝚠𝚑𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝚊 𝚝𝚢𝚙𝚑𝚘𝚘𝚗 𝚝𝚊𝚔𝚎𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚖 𝚝𝚘 𝚍𝚎𝚜𝚝𝚛𝚘𝚢...

𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚠𝚎 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚙 𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚟𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚊 𝚜𝚗𝚎𝚎𝚣𝚎...
𝙸𝚗 𝚊𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚍, 𝚊 𝚖𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚍𝚛𝚘𝚙𝚕𝚎𝚝𝚜 𝚑𝚎𝚕𝚙 𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚖𝚜𝚎𝚕𝚟𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚎𝚖𝚋𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚎 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚌𝚛𝚊𝚌𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚎𝚊𝚛𝚝𝚑...

𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚊 𝚝𝚛𝚎𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚌𝚞𝚝...
𝙼𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚜 𝚊𝚛𝚎 𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚗 𝚊𝚜 𝚠𝚎𝚎𝚍𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚑𝚘𝚔𝚎 𝚊 𝚖𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚐𝚊𝚛𝚍𝚎𝚗𝚜...

𝙴𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚠𝚎 𝚜𝚖𝚒𝚕𝚎 𝚊𝚝 𝚊𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛...
𝙸𝚗 𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚙𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚠𝚘𝚛𝚕𝚍, 𝚊 𝚖𝚊𝚗 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚍𝚜 𝚌𝚘𝚞𝚛𝚊𝚐𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛𝚝 𝚑𝚒𝚜 𝚕𝚒𝚏𝚎 𝚊𝚗𝚎𝚠...

𝙰𝚗𝚍 𝚏𝚒𝚗𝚊𝚕𝚕𝚢 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚊 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚛 𝚋𝚞𝚛𝚜𝚝𝚜 𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚑...
𝙰 𝚙𝚘𝚎𝚝 𝚒𝚜 𝚋𝚘𝚛𝚗 𝚒𝚗 𝚊𝚗𝚘𝚝𝚑𝚎𝚛 𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚝𝚘 𝚛𝚎𝚖𝚒𝚗𝚍 𝚝𝚑𝚊𝚝 𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚜 𝚝𝚑𝚘𝚞𝚐𝚑 𝚝𝚒𝚗𝚢 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎 𝚐𝚒𝚊𝚗𝚝 𝚌𝚘𝚗𝚜𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚜...!

What do you ponder, O moon?
Do you wonder if I too have my dark side...!
What do you smell, O moon?
Do you catch the fragrance of death that lingers my side every moment...!
What do you hear, O moon?
Do you hear the agony and screamings of an invisible broken heart...!
What do you feel, O moon?
Do you ever touch my bed at night hoping to lessen my loneliness?
O ,dear moon, you may be seven seas apart,
But you and I are one in essence and loneliness...
For every second of our lives we live to die and die to live!
              ~V.Venandi

And you made me bow my head down in admiration!
The wound of the sword began to heal when your eyes fell on me...
O soul, what potion did your eyes contain?
That made me feel at home...
That touched my soul even before I knew what your hands felt like!
I knew nothing about you yet I knew everything...
It was as if you plundered my universe and stripped me naked to the core...
Remember me always...
I will love you till eternity!
And one day we will meet...
The greatest day of our lives...
For our ignited souls will find solace in each other!
                  ~V.Venandi

The girl never knew what love was...

She had only heard people falling in love...

But whether love was an abyss or a deep ocean to fall into...She could understand it not!
...

Yet when she gazed at the moon his smiling face was all she saw...

When she lazily strolled in her garden...In the hum of the bees she could but hear his excited voice...

And when she sat down to paint her favourite picture... Her hands always unknowingly drew a pair of dreamy eyes...

She couldn't fathom her restlessness on calm nights and her calm on stormy days...

The world she thought had gone mad...

But little did the naive girl know that it was her world that was being carved irrevocably with...

The shape of love!

Of all the loves in the history of the world, ours was a one that could not be.

Like a newborn child dying the moment it is born, like a flower dropping to the ground the moment it blooms, like a fire put off the moment it begins burning,

Our affections were robbed of a life!

But maybe that is why, this blank space, this nothingness would cherish our love...
Because out of all the loves that stood, ours stood out more.

It was not a smooth trail of ink that took the shape of letters.
It was a blot of ink, a gigantic one that could not take a form and yet left behind a stain for the world to remember-Of a love that stirred hearts only to put them to sleep!

The earthquake wove ripples of terror in the minds of my Pompeii...
Trembling I looked towards the great Vesuvius of my emotions still offering me a hint of the bad days to come...

Yet I chose to belittle... And went on bottling my concern within the four walls of the city of my mind...

So one fine day... When I saw a layman hitting stones to see a spark...

The Vesuvius of my emotions erupted... Without a warn
And engulfed my Pompeii in a great ocean of long suppressed lava leaving only in some places a hint of some hardened souls...

...

Thus... The regret of catching the hint of Vesuvius about the unexpected exodus of my emotions... Only remained a prisoner of the past!