For those who can't sleep at night!

Sleepless nights
Arms melting in a void
Words refuse to shape up
A poem wide awake by my side
Charming solitude
Around me…
Nothingness
Surround me…
Darkness breathes in slow trance
A constant sermon of silence
Invisible moments dissolve quietly
A beautiful, breath taking penance!

Existence

I belong to the song of the sun
Humming the chants of flame
I breathe.

The sea rests in me motionless
With its endless depths
I think.

Storms of being, clear the chaos
Emptiness of chaste silence
I hear.

A dark patch keeps unfolding infinitely
Spreading out a sky that grows
I see.

Lives I live in myriad thoughts
Self seeps through words
I exist.

Falling Apart

Too much said, too much heard.
Numbness remains, unperturbed.
Freckles of past, growing on words
Poems look like a discolored herd
Stifling sunrises deep within
Echoing thoughts under the skin
I crave for myself, more each time
Reciting a wordless, empty rhyme
Thoughts
In slots. Arrive and depart.
Moments and memories
Falling apart.

Library Lovers

I saw him behind the stack of books
Skinny build and ordinary looks
Thick black frame around sleepy eyes
Expression clam and mighty wise

She barged in and stood with a stare
Scared me a moment, unaware
A long blue skirt and half knotted curls
Little different than those next door girls

He caught my eyes, gave a disturbed smile
And that’s what I call ‘The Nerdy Style’

Smiling is polite, I was taught in school
Then why did she react like I was a fool?

What did he think?
Did she even blink?

I should have smiled back
I just sat there like a sack

He’ll think I am a pile on
Oh no! She’s already gone

Two lives. One interesting chapter.
Fell in love and lived happily ever after!

The Monday afternoon song!

I get these weird reading pangs, as Monday afternoon awkwardly hangs.

Kafka’s letter to his dad
Morrison makes me ‘oh so sad’
Amitav Ghosh and his brain stirring images
“Poetry undergoing new-lingo damages”

Four gulps of water and a (micro)soft jerk
Is all it takes to get me back to work!

Books

Flipping pages inhaling words
Like open arms and fluttering birds.
A clay pot, a blue sky. Paddy fields passing by.
Just touch each word, it comes to life
With laughter, anger, pleasure and strife
I travel with people living in books
Resting under trees, hidden in nooks
Dusty jacket and a frail spine
An old bulky volume groans a whine
A lean booklet peeps from the shelf
Casually asks ‘Do you need help?’
Histories, spaces, fantasies and facts
Stubborn pages, refuse to react
With greed I read, I plead I bleed
Snooze a chapter, catch back the speed
A patch of self they paint with colors
Worth more than a million dollars
I love faces hidden with books
Crafting a bond with familiar looks

Letter to a friend…

Remember that fairy tale we read together?

The prince and princess wearing crowns studded
With rarest of gems!
I got the similar ones made from my jeweler.
But he says he’ll have to replace the gems with artificial colored stones
I Compromised!

And you remember we read about the lamp they had that
Emitted the light of love?
I tried finding it in each mall but managed to find just an ordinary one
They sold it saying “The soothing light will make you fall in love”
I bought it with the explanation.
I Compromised!

And how could I forget those fruits the prince plucked from the tree of wishes
He gifted each wish to the princess.
There are not many fruit trees left in my city. I just bought a few fruits from the fruit seller. One of them was even rotten.
Does that mean our wishes are rotting out? Maybe!
But…I Compromised!

I managed to get most of the things we read about in that fairy tale.
Last night….
I tried to make that fairy tale a reality
But I couldn’t
This time I can’t compromise!

So I am giving up the real and going back to where we started.
No compromises anymore.

Hope you read me in the next fairy tale.