Slyly

Love, tender and raw,

I begin to taste

Between my fingers and

In my hungry mouth

The company of a lover

Flick of the tongue and pleasing sighs

The fragrance of golden champak

And a moon sliver that shines

Sensuous whispers and thirsty pecks

And lingering caresses on the spine

A secret known only to the

Trees that swayed that night

And not to the petty world

That obliviously would deny

The stealthy affair of energies

Unsurprisingly mysterious and unavoidably sly.

 

Vagabond

I’ve fallen in love

In love with a vagabond.

A fiery wanderer of the jungles

Befriending snakes and goblins

A wild one himself

Who drinks passionately from

the cup of moon all night

 

I’ve fallen in love

With a strange vagabond

Who refuses to put down roots

A wild tiger in search of none

Musical yet untamed

With skin made of ash,

I’d lavishly smear him on mine.

 

I’ve succumbed to his wild ways

Yielded to his charming gaze

There’s scarcely anything left of me

When his scent tarries around

Unpossessable is he

So I let him go, that vagabond.

Because he belongs to the wild.

Affair

The affair that lingers

Covertly, tacit,

Between leaves of poetry

and poetry of leaves

 

The affair between

Unhurried silent strolls

Downing unashamedly

the unasked, the unspoken.

 

Like the affair that springs

Out of strummed sitar strings

And percussion, with hands

That know its every cranny & crook

 

Or the affair that is abstracted

within polished red seeds

the old banyan roots and golden tulips

Or from the insobriety of the moon.

 

 

Little Jar

The moon plays hide and seek

With you and I

I would catch glimpses of her

While you plunge into my eye.

 

Her fragrance tiptoes

on the ripples all the while

As you and I caress the river

Hands intertwined

 

A thousand kisses and glow worms

Quiver between infinite time

Your finger traces the creases on my skin

No boundaries. No lines.

 

The glittery joys of your laugh

Ricochets in the silence of the night

I’ve saved the kisses and smiles in a little jar.

Just tell me where to hide?

Farewell

Travelers from a mindless world

Walk into a space sparsely common

Birds and berries give company

To the ears and mouths of these thirsty.

A beautiful unwilling countdown though

Flooded with laughter, kisses and hugs

And intermingling energies

To the last moment of an inevitable goodbye

when one has to leave.

 

But ah! How can one know they love, 

if farewells don’t exist?

In love

I’ve fallen in love

With the winds that refuse to

Warm by the sun

I’ve fallen in love

With the greens that sashay

Like a ballet dancer

The clouds that tease the sun

The squirrels and good trees

That never grow old

The budding flowers around.

In love with the creepers

And the music of roots

The butterflies and ants

Carpels, a blade of grass

I’ve fallen in love

With the twigs that fall

To become later a leaf

Fragrance, stem and veins!

The birds! Oh the chatty birds!

Going about their busy day

I let my hair down

To let the winds caress

Oh sweet cold wind

Take me with you!

Thunder

Thunder murmurs in the far dark distance.

And you tiptoe to my windowsill.

Accompany, the whispers of the monsoon wind, 

carrying the fragrance of farms and crops.

I let you kiss my temple and lips.

But you teasingly trickle down my neck,

Like the inquisitive fingers of a new lover.

I taste the echoes and the musky scent of the soil.

Soon, I catch you by the hand and ask 

‘But first tell me- aren’t rain and poetry the best of friends?’

‘The best’ you say and turn towards the wind, who

hums us a midnight song.