untitled #16

Bury the undead

Ask them

To please

Leave…

Dig deep, with your fingernails

Feel the earth ooze

Underneath your determination

The scent of your will

Giving away your anguish

Turn every stone, undo.

Knead death into your tears

Let it nourish the grave

Make rooms for the pain

And lock it deep beneath

Bury the undead

Challenge them to stay still

While you lower your love

Push it underneath

And leave it

Immortal...

Shame

Brazen,

She cocks her head

Studying the damage.

Swaying to an obscene rhythm

Like a creature

Like a something

A nothing

She dances, on everything destroyed

By her

Gleeful at her escape

From tightly barred doors

Now burnt, demeaned

She is beyond my reach

Her deception

Is fresh and clean

Even as she reeks

Mossy, matted curls,

Soiled, clammy skin

Old bruises

She fascinates and abhors me

I see us both

Clearly

She, burning in her own sin

Me, calm in sacred linen

But the more our gaze lingers

The more I smell

The moss in my own hair

The grime on my face

The stale bruises

‘Come’, I whisper

As I pick her up

Because holding her hand just won’t do

Come. I take her back

Back  home with me…

Untitled # 13

You are not my sorrow

And yet you thrive

In the unshed tears I carry with me

You are not my pain

But you fester my healing

In small deliberate ways

You are not my failure

But I disappoint myself

From time to time

Because of you

You are not my achievement

Yet I cannot think of you

Without some pride, some satisfaction

You are not my balm

And yet in you

I have found relief, composure, peace

You are not my happiness

And yet to you I sacrifice

Smiles I had known

From some earlier time

You are not a stranger

And yet you seem unfamiliar

In my nightmares

You are not mine

But with every passing day

I want more. I want you

You did nothing wrong

But surely

I did nothing right...

Menthol...

(Love. Habit. And a breath of cool air... My dedication to my everyday)

I wake up, with you

in the back of my mind

A pleasant promise of togetherness

My morning ritual

My sanctimonious affair

Will begin soon

I search for you

Through a blurred vision

I long for you

Behind closed eyes

And in finding you

My fears seem allayed

As the flames touch you

Inches from me

I feel you singe

I take it all in

The fumes embracing my senses

Slowly the chaos fades

Morning has come

As your calm soothes my ruffled veins

With a hint of mint

A cooling kiss

You are mine to be devoured

Again...

Heal

(For Cheistha...)

Relent
Absorb
Open wide

Revolve, steadily
into a nonchalant abyss
then fall, quietly

Quicken your pace
Follow
then be led

Amidst swirls
resounding heartbeats
Evolve. Leave behind.

Look into
A new mirror today
feel a different pulse

Hang a new dream-catcher
Close your eyes
Heal.

Oasis...

All that was needed

Was a bit of sand...

Even as I looked

It twisted, and grew

Feeding into the crevices

Of my only refuge

My sanity…

My soul latched onto it

Eating at its feet;

As the mansion grew

Surrounded by the most wonderful things

And you

I plunged into it

wholly,

But only tasted

Nothing…

Slowly realizing

That my creation

 did not exist.

That world

I had to break

Bit by bit

Sucking out

Each painful drop

Of you

From my mind

I killed

Every semblance

Of my paradise

Only to stay alive.

That was then.

I wouldn’t dare

To build again.

The Unloved...

Broken fragments

Behind brittle walls

Feigning strength

Amidst mild gusts of wind…

Cramped sea shells

Hollowed by life within

Lying around

Waiting for the mercy

of being crushed

By absent minded limbs…

Sometimes

The wronged

Are much too easily

The wrong

Nature

Hardly remembers

These scattered remains

These scarred links

 In our universe

Perish slowly

Painlessly

We are all too busy

 Ignoring the unloved….