Poems

a poem is the heart
of a purple flower
a poem is the mother
protecting her chicks
a poem is the first snowflake
that touches the ground.
A poem is also my soul.

Please don't judge it morally
with your whims and fancies
Please don't butcher it
with your should-nots
a poem is a sacrificial offering
a poem is a child
A poem is also my soul.

Putting a Stopper

When an obstruction blocks
the peacefully flowing river
it finds other channels
to surge ahead.

When steam
coming out through a fissure
is suppressed
it explodes violently.

When thundering waterfalls
encounter barriers
they rage, regardless.

That's what people nowadays
don't understand.
There are waterfalls of steaming desire
within me
But they think human laws
work differently
from natural, physical ones.

Fragments

I am fluid
I take the shape
of whatever mould
you put me in.
I flow downwards
get pumped upwards.
you throw me,
splash me.
parts of me scatter.
what am I?
is there a me?
the part you splashed,
or the part that's here?

The Sound of Reverberating Silence

Between the ringing of the bell
and the opening of the door
Between reaching the platform
and the coming of the metro
Between lying in bed
and waiting for sleep
lies the silence.

In the depths of nights of darkness
In the heart of rock or stone
In the spaces of an old man's thoughts
lies the silence

Between what I feel
and what I say
Between what I say
and what you hear
Between what you do
and what I understand
lies the silence

In the centre of activity, civilisation
In the core of things
In the abyss of a mind
lies eternal, irredeemable silence

Some go to offices, some go to classes
some go to parties, some go to night clubs
some to book clubs, others to piano lessons
some apply hair dye as they see themselves grow old
some tell fortunes out of tea leaves
some smoke and drink chai and pass time
All are in a hurry, a flurry to escape
all know it intimately, all deny it vehemently
the eternal, irredeemable silence.

From Mirage to Mirage

the sand glimmers with heat
the air glimmers with heat
the clear blue sky mocks the aridity
scavenging vultures circle overhead
the rotting carcass of a camel
in the distance.
they live off the camel, to survive
the hot sun sears, scorches
merciless.
I step onto a sand dune
shifting sands slip under me
sucking me in,
I struggle to escape.
the desert is greedy, hungry
it wants. it desires. it takes.
I am thirsty. I want. I desire.
shading my eyes--- there it is!
palm trees, an oasis.
the dream of the oasis
my faith in the oasis
pulls me out of the shifting sands
propelling weak body, weary mind
towards that promise.

The blazing sun beats down
on glimmering parched sand
Nothing. Barren aridity.
It was a mirage.
Vultures mock me with rapacious
raucous cries
the sand shifts from beneath my feet
sucking me in, sucking, sucking
the blue sky laughs and jeers from above

no water in sight
no human soul in sight
only hot sun, shifting sands, vultures.

I look in the distance
I dream, I believe
in the promise of that baseless mirage
I have utmost faith
from mirage to mirage I live
my faith in a mirage quenches my thirst
torn by contradiction
broken by mockery
with certainty of uncertainty
my only rock of faith
a mirage.

From mirage to mirage I live
I've been doing it for years.