Chaos

Ego slashed my skin

Harsher than that blade

I employed, to annihilate

Chaos

Ignorance kept me warm

A garden by the fireplace

Clad in sunset hues

Such chaos

I floundered

Amidst great rebellion

To get to my finish flag

But seasons change

Midwinter sang

A beautiful voice

Strip me off my body

Undress my ego

He said

My unclothed being

Won’t shudder in cold

He said

Canopy

Layers of body

I yearn to shed

Or at least explode

Explode into a glittering dust

That of blue, green and red

A desire to be one

One with the droplets of ocean

One with grit and grime

One with the air you breathe

One with the fire you drive

Until then,

You must be my canopy

A musical dive

An infinite depth

My favorite sky.

I, for you

I throb

Drenching in veneration

Like skin on drum

Beats that play for you

 

I dance

Drowning in love

Like melody from His flute

Tears enough to bathe you

 

I cry

Burning in passion

Like an ant in wilderness

Yearning to merge with you

 

I laugh

Soaking in ecstasy

Like sugar in warm milk

I become, to serve you

 

Yoga

I am the lock, for which

You bequeathed me the key

Only if I master the combination, the

Existence’s revelation is for me

 

Touch

Shrewd eyes with lustrous twinkle

Frosty hair and petite wrinkles

A full moon beneath black sky

An ocean into which I’d voluntarily dive
 

 Conscious of your poise

I tenderly stepped

On grass.

Or rather, on myself.
 

Your charm wooed my spirit

Your wisdom put me into trance

Your voice robbed my heart

But I alone, stole your glance
 

 I was caught guilty though

You knew it all along, I am sure

With shrill eyes, an examination

Heart pummeled and I was near
 

Divinity echoed in my ear and

A cherubic palm rested on my hand

A minute longer and

I’d have fractured into sand
 

I simmered in ecstasy

A love-struck chaos

Stirred the butterflies

And let them out loose
 

Until now, you only touched me

In ways I couldn’t gauge.

Tonight, you touched me

And I know nothing else

But to eternally change.

 

 

Unreturning

I am terribly spent

With life and death

A circular bondage

The distinction, only a breath

 

 Till it disappears,

Each passing number

The subtle thread,

Gets shorter and shorter

 

Don’t look for me

I’ll be far away

In a remote dimension of resonance

Where ripples appear

At the tip of my hands

 

 Into the oblivion I see,

It is strikingly blank

And when I cut the thread,

I am no longer coming back.

 



Sounds

Blood river sway in my veins

A trek to the heart

Drunk, swaying and singing.

Towards lap of the heart.

I am hollow.

My ears only greet music

Birds chirp beneath my skin

The cells in my feet heed to it.

If you were sound, you’d be flute and drum.

Or that of the gushing sea.

And if your sounds crumbled into ash,

I’d smear it on my ephemeral body.

 

Krishna

Did I recognize you late?

Did I not see you?

Or did I hum your glories?

Were I one of the few?

 

Did I dance with you?

Did I paint you the sky?

Were you the one to hold me?

When I was tied?

 

You let me fondle the clouds

I remember how it feels

Did you ask to shut my eyes?

When you swept me off my heels?

 

Did I write you poetry?

While you played the flute?

Or did you giggle

When I danced for you?

  

Your eyes glittered

When your stern face told a joke

While mine swelled with tears

And my stomach throbbed

 

Did we meet in the quiet?

Or were they aware of us?

When you placed jasmine flowers,

Did my hair exude fragrance?

 

Did you talk to me?

Or did you just listen to what I said?

Did you hug me?

Or did you touch my head?

 

I know I lived when you did too

I’d remember, only if you let.

Show me who I were to you

Unveil thy glorious secret.

To a teacher

I look at you when you do not see

Laboring to unearth what it is

About you that one cannot love

And with that I love to be

 

A teacher’s tender solace

And sunny smile

Oh! The sweet meekness

The crinkle of your eyes

 

I’d craft myriad excuses

To just be with you

Sit in quietness, see you laugh

Or amble, gently with you

 

A love, so chaste

A word, so reassuring

A lesson, so plain

A smile, so venerating

 

I gawk at the paper; blank

Incalculable emotions; too good to be true

In all, hard to find

An answer to illustrate my love for you

Unwrapping

Raw and gory little being

The cosmos takes its first breath

Debarked from a realm of bliss

The earth steals a petite kiss

You are now wrapped in papers of morality

An additional paper of colorful guilt

Innumerable others of vivid philosophy

And yet another of dire hatred

Food you eat

Or the wrappers around

Elucidate the weight of your body?

Nonetheless, you are primed; you are on

A quest to revivify the dim

A journey to unwrapping a gift

A gift; from another alien realm

Tear apart the papers

To that default ecstasy within;

A souvenir of the higher

Do not resign; Mind you!

There are layers to strip

Before you slumber.

From a lover

I am lost

In a tide so enormous

Swollen with people

And their desire to touch him

I am looking

From a tide so enormous

Tiptoe; wobbling waves

To see what they are looking at

I am seeing him

Clad in white; hair to ankle

Among tears and laughter

Cries to just touch him

I am seeing none else

Blind; swimming in sweat

In haste, to reach him

Eyelids do not bat

I am saying his name

With the enormous tide

A desire, so collective

My heart has now moved up

He stopped there

Heart now clogged my throat

Turned around; him smiling

Searching

Searching for someone

Me? Smiling

I swallowed hard to unclog

Unclog my heart and brain

Waves immobilized

Crest and trough; frozen

Patterns reveal my way

Only one, to The One

I am flowing

A fluent river through a sea

Towards open white clouds

River gathers speed

My face against his chest

My arms around his waist

From an unexplored dimension

His love, I taste

His warm embrace

Melt into me

Like fusing clouds

The subtlest it could be

How many more dreams

Of such should I see?

Before he makes this

My reality?

World

World, a mirage

Inflamed with bitter nonsense

Can I see that I am in knots?

Trapped first under skin

Then entangled

In the ribbons of thoughts

Perspectives. Of all and sundry.

Questionable reality.

Is sound not a dimension?

Seventh, maybe?

I am drugged.

A heaven though. Certainly.

Now repositioning me

Have you ever by chance

Tripped upon this realm?

That I am presently at?

Only moving silhouettes

Oblivious. Silent. Funny.

Do they know I am away?

In case they see me?

I am liking the seventh.

Are there more of such?

For I’d love losing my way

Seeking You.

I don’t see another dimension. Not yet.

I am hallucinating. Indisputably.

For what I see,

Is painted behind my eyes

Not around me.

Amla

Fingers sway on earthen pot

Rhythm from nothingness

Empty spine of a flute

Whistling bliss

Luring me into a brilliance

Could anyone touch me?

Like fingers on that clay?

Could anything soften me?

Except the flute he’d play?

Like dawn beads on grass

Effortless strings of Veena visit

The company of flute

To appease my ears’ thirst

Mischievous energy

Cheerfully tease me

I sanction its spirit

To indulge me

In trance, head sways

Eyes shut from the Earth

Smile carved by lips

Peace exposes its worth

Drenched cheeks

Beats weaken

To the groaning fan

My ears reluctantly open

Charcoal

Cooked by delicate burning

In a bowl, lay, lifeless chunks

Unaware of its life’s purpose

Cling to its family pieces

A brave one then ventures out

To be fed to a thirsty candle

Between a heartless pair of tongs

Tip of which, ironically,

Cold to the wrathful warmth

Its black body imbibe the red

From the fire devouring it

Orange, red, orange-red

Randomly, smiling ruby

Randomly, frowning red

Newborn fire in tummy

Perishes if not fueled

Tongs feed the flame again

A million dust of diamonds

Keep the charcoal burning

Powdered incense now rain on hot coal

Evoking a fragrance none knew

Deeper the red, mightier the dance

Of white smoke that arose

At times sandalwood, sometimes of rose

Skin of the musky fragrance explores

Curves of an empty room

Spicy, sweet, scented molecules

Fondling every object it owns

The black flesh with peeling gray skin

Glows sunnier with a puff of wind

Fulfill existence as intended

And heaves a sigh of red

Blue

Blue, the back of my eyelids

A tinge of stark

I step into a space

My room is never dark

For I dread it

My space is never dark

Not darkness of truth

But the color black

Blue, the color of my eyelids

Escort me to space

Intangible, indefinite bits

I stare, closed eyes in daze

The skies and blue oceans

Gush with enticing expanse

Unite at a mysterious horizon

An everlasting trance

Blue, the color of skin

He’s an embodiment of truth

His dainty fingers enjoy

Caress of the exquisite flute

The warmth of sapphire

And a stroke of azure on canvas

I touch both with delicate care

Blue; my growing madness

Blue, the color of my eyelids

Escort me to space

Intangible, indefinite bits

I stare, closed eyes in daze

Gravity

Don’t slumber, neither do you cringe

On the burden we bequeath, you willingly binge

Dwell within them and reside in me

Live in and out of the earth and in all that we see

I don’t see you; yet I am experiencing

A rigid embrace in your very being

You fathom the passion in a dancer’s feet

You drink the love of someone’s conceit

You are the greatest of all fetchers

You are the grandest of all catchers

Stars and planets float with power unmatched

In the gargantuan indigo space, no strings attached

The beginning of the cosmos, He set alight

Power vested upon, to ants and planets, alike

From where do you come? To where do you go?

That we needed you, how did you know?

You existed before me and long after I am gone

I don’t see how you are different from any God

One soul of you, treat all the same

Neither you see color nor do you declaim

This tender planet sans gratifying serenity

Divided by opinions; United by gravity

Dying tears’ serendipity

Murky skin of hers wander

Past breeze that clench tales

Her dress rags her hide

Remaining shards to veil her shame

Drunken eyes lament

Vanity she once possessed

Swollen eyes among other parts

Now a hue of red

Exposed burns and cuts

Creased fingers and palm

Thirsty hands grieving

Etched on skin, a psalm

Of minarets and domes

Romances learnt and forgotten

Yet stare down at her

With blunt devotion

Walk through a boulevard

Into a desert so rave

Sun bounces off the sand

Sand endures the pain

Recasting pain in her eyes

Wind rages in its entirety

Transitory tear-trails on cheek

Dying tears’ serendipity

At the chin, salty beads

A mortal ocean gathers depth

Plunges onto her torso

Diffuse and rejoices death.

Discerning reality

 

There is something about worn-out places that fascinate me. The exhausted paint coatings releasing itself from the grasp of the wall, exposing the underlying bricks from which they were once built, long ago. They are no longer able to contain each other. I wonder who wins here. The paint, avowed to protect the wall, now unearthing freedom? The wall, who can now be its true self? Or both, for breaking free from the vile dominance of attachment?

Who are you?

Nodding head in exasperation

Fire in belly

And fumes in ears

 

Walking on the forlorn street

A touch of zephyr

You compose the heat

 

Who are you?

 

The intelligence that wanders?

A form that breathes?

Thoughts in your head?

Or the eye that sees?

 

The lone light died abrupt

Abandoned you. Blinded.

Yet, the world you hear

Existence depended on the ear

 

Unaware of where

Bounded swiftly by strange silence

Severed from the world

Existence depended on limbs

 

Blinded, deafened and defeated

Fatigue, arduous to gauge

Worn-out limbs give away

Existence depended on something strange

 

In the cosmic expanse of universe

You and I are a speckle of dust

Yet, the Universe we are

Alas! Crafted of love and lust

 

Love for the material

Lust for the same

None fathom that their body don’t have a place

Let alone their name

 

A million times our name said

A hundred times God summons to say his’

‘Speak of me under your breath’

We, a thousand times forget this

 

Being human.

On clothes, it only lingers

Clichéd.

 ‘Being Humble’ differs only by three letters

 

Born as little bodies, the same;

Churning out thoughts and memories

Energies beyond elucidation

Experiences beyond dreams

 

You and I wrangle by mere thoughts

That sashay and glide

Countless encounters adding them up

And them making up the mind

 

Who you are is who I am

 Galaxies in your eyes, just as mine

 

Body, you see in front of you

Adorned.

Soul, nothing but a crumb of the universe

Of the same soul. Of God.