Morning Clouds

You know those daily crests in awakening,

Reaching across both shores of our drowse,

What clues hair to grey bids eyes to open,

Yes, names and forms still in a single daub,

Duties and passions, indistinct notes to ear,

You pull the mattresses again to your face,

Painting another dark coat to fading night.

It has ever been seasons of mist and cloud,

Saw myself as you do, through dewy glass,

Taught myself life on edge, like rain clouds,

Felt my map groping across dim territory,

Learning that more unknowns lurk in light,

Alas, day will return soon like a jilted lover,

Back to codified moves of Black and White.

(2012)

Memories

Bathroom is our museum for musings,

What is learnt here is hardly forgotten,

Our durable lessons on Toilet Training,

First sharp session with a safety razor,

Place to rewrite our own daily history,

Or whitewash; tuning to color of times,

Meditative space before the peak hour,

Where artefacts of the mind and body,

Recalls the heritage tour from I to We,

Across tiled lies above cementing truth.

Warm water splashing, I take a glance,

Day’s stubble reversing my times past,

Cutting clean, don't seem like memoirs,

But return daily like chased senile men,

Those that ran behind on days at beach,

Making tattoo of my name on her arm,

When I asked to be a mole on her face.

She left, when her tattoo perhaps faded,

While mole on my face lives on, steady,

Unblinking, even as silver of mirror pale.

(2012)

The Blessing

I bless her now as her back turns away,

On another weary trip to find her man,

Dreamy of one who is collage of many,

Of thirteenth zodiac, born and unseen,

But husbands come all made and ready,

Melting, stamping, drawing and curing,

Too tedious an affair with hours in heat,

You could tend to him instead as plant,

See him strike roots deep, shoots high, 

Wait through cycles of seasons to fruit,

Till your teeth brittles even to flesh - 

And finally retreat to cool of his shade.

Having done grandma rituals on trees,

Her feet go far slower, gaze more acute.

(2012)

Lines To The Wedding of Anu & Ramkumar

vAgarthAviva sampruktau vAgarthapratipattaye

jagatah pitarau vande pArvatIparameshvarau

'To attain mastery over the language, I pray to Parents of the Universe, Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvati, who are united with each other as a word and its meaning'

Kalidasa, 

Benedictory Verse of 'Raghuvamsa'

May you join in wedlock like our holy rivers,

Flowing from elsewhere, indistinct from now,

Hand in hand from mountains to the plains,

Let ancestors rest, render our lands fertile.

Rivers are ever pure, born far above our earth,

It is worshipped still, bearing corpse to  fish,

This bond makes you pure, this touch innocent,

Gush on, pausing neither to regret nor to plan.

Assimilate from the sky, absorb from the earth,

And let many streams surge from your womb,

They will reach where you can never voyage,

Celebrate you in lore of priest and song of ferry.

Long summer does not last, nor do floods of fury,

Yield to rains as they fill and to sun as they dry,

In rhythm of seasons nothing is left to achieve,

Gently let yourself into the great embrace of sea.

(Chennai, 10th June 2012)

Distress Delights

Life is never bland for them who delight in distress,

Chewing it over, not thirty two times but sixty four,

The lure of aroma, menu spread to such easy recall,

Appetizers in unspoken promise, entrée in long wait,

Principaux cours of heartbreak, dessert memories,

It ends not just with taste buds, but moves beyond,

To serve vitamins in salad of fruit and vegetable,

Have it to thicken your skin, endure all that is to be,

Proteins in beans, also count in lobsters and crabs,

Helps to heal your heart, ready to be ripped again,

Many hued Minerals hide in these apricots and figs,

Keeps blood pure and warm for those come to hunt,

May carbohydrates in grains grant you bon appétit,

So feasts shall ever run and you will ever have its fill.

(2012)

Green Tea

Saw her last, wrapped in sniffles and coughs,

Hence my Green Tea gift for convalescence,

Eyes narrowed, lips pursed as she grimaced,

Thanks for savorless brew for lifeless tongue.

She was of impeccable taste, from tan to toe,

Sampling experience, nourished with such,

Awed by the pleasant, bored with the good,

In her chase from Here Now to Where Never.

(2012)

The Joke

Dressed grey, she wanted it in black and white,

Equally, her joke was nice, ‘casual messaging’

She typed, ‘it was between us, never serious’,

It was not at all serious, I admitted, checkmate!

No one died. Cell count healthy. ECG Normal.

No abnormal skew in climate change carbon,

Petrol hike mercifully in place before the event,

No stock market zig, nor interest inflation zag,

Some distant galaxy affair, not terrorist attack,

Not about monsoon, nor about farmer suicides.

She had a ‘tendency to mislead’, it continued,

Aha, a handsome couple we would have made,

Her aptitude to mislead, mine to be misled,

No quarrel either on route or the destination.

She waited wordless so long ‘to avoid the hurt’

Letting knife sink inches all those quiet days,

Now ready for that one final thrust to cut neat,

My executioner sitting next to her feeling edge,

I saw last clouds scatter before my final sunset,

But kind even in goodbye, she wished me luck.

Her guilt shutting door fast, much was unsaid,

For instance, words of love received in silence,

The juicy puzzles sent with gaping stars to fill,

Of the winks and those tongues that stuck out,

Her head knew and heart felt and spine sensed,

The gentle emptying of one spirit onto another,

When silence was eloquent and speech baffling,

Thoughts in perfect wedlock with the passions.

Smile, darling, as you whistle your way to bed,

You called me joker once, loved your joke on me.

(2012)

The Deception

Skilled at drama, she played her part too well,

Practicing moves at every instance, off lights,

Don’t need her snaps, knowing her every turn,

That inviting look, that snare of restless fingers,

The venom of her fangs, the depth of her bite,

Relationships were scripts, every person a role,

Focused and diminished to her changing needs,

They were gestures all, well tailored to each,

Her early crawl to lonely dotage yet to be,

She was a baby once, so innocent and so cute,

Claps of joy and cries through powdery mess,

Cued to newer toys at shop than boy next door,

Then a girl, her charm oozing from every pore,

Smile to scowl, scaled to mood of that moment,

For he of hairy chest, or a joke, or a larger car,

Sometimes all three, safe distance from each,

Becoming mother next with her breasts intact,

Weaned children on healthy government milk,

Proud that as they grew, she became younger,

Being talk of town at Parent - Teachers Meet,

Older next to dictate choice of her son’s mate,

One that could cook to her loosened molars,

Literate to read her pills, press her lower back,

Never having felt heat of sun or chill of dew,

Never having sensed falling rain on raw skin,

Stranger to tears, hot and cold, down cheeks,

Never having seen anyone straight in the eye,

She now prays to God to carry her off in sleep.

(2012)

Last Lines

What brings us together could tear us apart,

If you measure my love through my verse,

Single day’s verbosity won’t flood banks,

Nor next day’s wordlessness dry the river.

My skill in words inch towards perfection,

While my love like sea will feel no decline,

May skill at word never equal depth at love,

My best lines on you ever remain unwritten.

(2012)

Dramatic Space

‘Khuli palak me jhoota gussa, bandh palak me pyar /

Jeena bhi mushkil, marna bhi mushkil….’

The old poets were right; life indeed is a stage,

Entire drama being played out, offstage and on,

While fate gets rehearsed, emotion never does,

All viscous is tears; only need to drip and flow,

Deep or wide, wrinkle is either a laugh or smile,

Rest can flow subterranean, like clue of prompt,

Distant, invisible, waiting, be useful on purpose,

Love is no play; mine was one in lack of space,

Asked to be your face, just got to be your mask,

Felt the heat of your sweat, not the why of it,

Sought to be your script, but got to be your plot,

A rare chance at rewrite, even to we puppets,

I could have been feelings, mere gestures it was,

Reading you from signals just like next stranger,

Grammar I aspired, but became your language,

To seek you beyond confines of noun and verb,

In that hail of fabric flora, write of me some day,

As the one true flower that struggles to be a fruit.

(2012)

Dinner By Candle

Candle light dinner is for thirty plus,
Wax drips to teach how time melts,

How it hurts, the force of its strike,

Leaving behind hard and shapeless,

Of fading shades, weakened grasp,

So let’s hold hands, fingers entwine,

Wrap tight, lest hours slip our mesh,

Let’s squeeze moments to last drop,

Making pulse race faster than clock,

Let’s lock our lips, sync our breath,

As appetites whet to the unfamiliar,

Preparing to digest joys at debut,

Stroking of hair, pecks on ear lobes,

Hands moving across abacus of ribs,

Nose as pointer scanning your back,

Your endowed rear as a gentle drum,

But candles shorten, whisper to sigh,

And it is time to choose your menu,

As left and right run up your spine,

As wax wane and glow on last drop.

(2012)

Lines To The Mother Of Six

Poems are children too, sprung of fitful passion,

Here are ours, six birthed in less than a season,

Many were spawned, but these found the mark,

Manifesting your symmetry, cupping its charm,

Chiseled like your curves but deep like your tan,

Metrical like your lust - wild and nailed in place,

Dancing like lioness’ mane to lilt of your gait.

Two on your hips, two more on your shoulders,

One entwined around neck, one walking besides,

Weaned on your milk and nurtured by our love,

They outlive us, with some even bringing fame,

Lisping in tongues that we had never ever heard, 

They grow from prattle of rhyme to deft of craft, 
Hymning ever of you, even across sands of time.

 (2012)

Setting The Thing You Love Free

Setting this thing you love free,

It departs, leaving you on fire.

Passions stoke more in absence,

Communion acute in silence.

It may return on wings or seed,

Tired bird back to nest in heart,

Or as a strong tree yet unborn,

Of deeper roots, farther spread.

And wheels of my life grinds on,

Amidst endless lines of traffic,

That extra legal word in draft,
Oracle bugs and graze of cows.

(2012)

Remorse Reveries

Archives stacked and indexed neat,

For reminisces at noon and winter,

Cuds of times that never were,

Words spoken, silence out of turn.

Many forks on dark, deserted roads

Passing lights too fickle to anchor,

Steering to eye, without feel of feet,

‘Evade bumps than keep to map’.

Alien routes, strangers in new land,

Drizzle to rain, all huddled together,

Some came for breath and sweat,

Some came for a hitch and a ride.

Those souvenirs of expeditions past,

Dusty, once shone, brought smiles,

Beer Mugs, Laughing Buddha, Rings,

Go to bin; light bag for ageing back.

Mists retreat, warm feet restless,

Enticing paths circling forest hill,

Pacing to  smell grass under trees,

And listen to songs of birds above. 

(2012)

Waiting For Her Messages

 

Shooting message deep into circuit sky,

To her in exile as unnamed constellation,

For dots to connect across virgin vasts,

To know her contours, navigate her map,

To span her rainbow from smile to tears,

While her reply is a star, silence too is,

Filling up her profile with bone and flesh,

Gestures none, but yet not beyond hope,

Mean times of her reply give them away,

A second for love, just another for fury,

Half minute to pout, an instant to giggle,

Minute plus for that one unbroken stare,

Cluster of them flow in to double her joy,

Heaps of them clog to halve her sorrow,

By such trickle of reactions is she felt,

The waiting kills but her response thrills.

(2012)

Heart Break Poem

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(2012)

Of Elephants and Grass

Elephants

Fight

Grass

Suffers

Elephants

Make

Love

Grass

Suffers

(2012)

Getting Used To Your New Home

It is unfamiliar in a known manner,

Like walking to a place away, long lost

Map is now truly not the territory,

Still your legs would carry you there.

It is yours yet, but not fully yours still,

Your very own child - mind its own,

You gave it blood, you gave it bones,

It grows its limbs, “unhook your finger”!

Not what it used to be - home and walls,

Streets, Air, Dust and the promised peace,

Perhaps it always was, but you were not,

No longer the beloved dad you once were.

(2011)

Lines On My Friend Who Changed Her Picture on LinkedIn

(To Ms. Sivakami Suryanarayanan)

This be the verse to Copper Goddess
Shining in sweat, I pray not to fail
Reach the wordless through words
Her tresses smooth like workflow
Limit chaos, dam to the unruly sea
Brows like bows to words like arrows
Diva of data, her smile nuanced
To various points of bell curve
Talking of bells - her rings hug the ears
Setting off alarms to rhythms of day
Queen of reports, she pores them all
Pointed nose sharp over the errors
Matriarch of telecon, her honeyed tone
Calibrated to pitches across hierarchy
Lips closed but open to a little glimpse
Of molars stacked like Business Cards
Polished neat as Corporate Brochure
Practiced logical like Bullet Points
Do not fail me, as I am no client
Even the physical is beyond my rhyme
And I thought LinkedIn was about hearts

(2011)

Resigned, Waiting

Resigned, Waiting
Two metaphors
Mirroring, yet not

Acres of green all around
The Windowless confines
Resigned to dream

Feeble steps into the dark
Aged crutch on thorny path
Waiting for light

Resigned to wait
These burdens rest light

(2006)