The Poetry Marathon

Prompt 2

The earth was crusty and sickly and pale

Her tresses were knotted, her breath was stale

And she burned with such burning alarm

Her songs were silent, such deathly calm

But through her grasses, there flew a whisper

Blew a whistle, to gently kiss’er

The soft humming then blasted wild

Singing soprano, tango styled

Till her breath came soft and shallow

Cool as if all life was fallow

A cloak shimmering, silky white

Clear as glass, soft fading light

The freezing gale would sharply blow

To watch her woods fill up with snow.

1. Prompt 1

The Mumbai Rains are splashing around

Drenching droplets, a pounding sound

Rattling sheets and smoking cars

Shrieking trees and dewy stars

Rippling songs in a humid note

Slipping on streets, a sticky coat

And sometimes a smile

Sometimes a hand

To soften this night

This thunderous band!

This pattering plight where’er I go

The rhythm of life in a pulsing flow

Hello, fellow participants!

This is my second year participating in the (half) poetry marathon. Looking forward to reading lots of wonderful poems and exercising my creativity.

Against the current

Swelling and gushing

Frothing and foaming

Pooling salivating drool

Rising up into a crescent

And breaking!

With a thunderous roar

Swaying with the waves

Of harmless doubt

Swirling with ripples

Of pulsating excitement,

Then plunging

 To deep despair

Dancing in the glittering water

Of a vast blue sea

Calling and shouting

Pleading mercy

Wailing and yelling

Bursting torrents of rain

From the heart of an abyss

Engulfing, drowning darkness

Of sounds and sights

Flailing, bobbing plights

Desperately splashing

A slapping whiplash

Stinging and soothing

With a mindless void

Crushing and pulling

In a swirling vortex

Of babbling confusion

And watery eyes

And from amid

The emerald darkness

The blind rages

Of a despairing monster

Shoots a ray

Cracking and shattering

The watery illusion

A spark!

Diving in the heart

Of the heartless waters

And bubbling and bobbing

Floating and failing

Breathing and losing

Trickling and teasing

Rippling in waves

And spraying

Droplets of

 Hope.

Do you see the water,

Cupping in my hands?

And do you see my tears,

Trickling steadily?

That the water roared and rumbled

And made a great gurgling sound

And the pipe trembled and burst

Spilling water all around

And gently it cascaded

And steadily it cascaded

And gravely it cascaded

Nonchalantly it cascaded

To the nonchalance

Of hundreds of men

Blind with tears

And sticky with sweat

Who never got a drop

Of cascading water

When words don’t come

And you bang your head

And stare till blood

Blots your papery vision

And the nib pricks your skin

A drop of delicious blue

And you think so hard

But words don’t come

So you keep your pen

Until words do come.

How would things be

If

There was no rain?

Parched and cracky and dusty

Pleading for mercy

And all their tears, wasted and dry

Would fill not a babe’s mouth

Not all their shrieks and suffering

All ribs splitting and cracking

And lips cracked and dreams

Cracked and shattered

Would burst open the clouds

Or bless them with mercy, with rain

And all the water flowing and wasting

Smelly and dirtied

Coloured and sullied

With leaves and flowers and corpses

With ash and bleeding starkness

All the waves raging and breaking

Will not grant a gentle wave

Of liquid water.

An apple you saw

With breasts red and swollen

And a waist just as dainty

And sweetness spilling from golden lips

Entrancing with fragrance simple and divine

And a pear all mellow

Spotless and yellow

With a bulging pouch

And flat torso

Gentle curves and planes

And it’s taste subtle and exquisite

Lingering on the tongue

Like scent of kisses

And that strawberry

The red seductive berry

Seeds crunching with pulpy lips

Dripping with cream

And decadent desire

A blend perfect of innocent fire

The wind rustling and fluttering and singing

Roaring and howling and sleeping

Cooling, mesmerizing, eternal

Granting life, spirit, a kernel

Sprouting life and beauty

Breezing past

You

Left me behind

I listened in sighs and murmurs

But could not find

That echo of your laugh

Or the tune of your smile

The rhythm of your heart

I couldn’t hear in mine

Like wind kissing and caressing

You breezed past

Looking at the pine tree

Its fragrance spicy and fresh

Wafting its aroma

Of a freshly chopped tree

The Gulmohar

With broad evergreen leaves

Flowers a bright red

Of blood leaking from it’s veins

The Banyan, wise and proud

With roots cutting and melding

Through soil and stone and rain

Now a bare stump of wriggling snakes

Those forests, rich and vibrant

Flowers of every smell and taste

Leaves all sweet and dewy

Now wasting like decay and slit lives