24 Poems ~ 24 Hours
I'm that awkward position between life and death
Dedalus’ Flight
It is not worth staying back
For my church, my family and my country
Or the moocow coming down the road
To meet me …
The artist in me craves for freedom
What if there are stubbles of beards on my face
I no longer wet the bed.
After the horizons set
The pastels will rise with me
To overwhelm the dead sun
Going round and round my life
Past and present.
Hour 16
A Grain of Rice
Outside, the sun displayed its prowess
Over the petty organisms called life
As if to burn the coolest of minds;
And Draupadi was burning too
With frustration, with anguish:
No food for the holy guests
For Rishi Agastya was no ordinary being –
He could gobble up the entire world
And drink the ocean dry;
To treat him and his gang!
Even death seemed easier to tackle.
Jubilation in the guest camp
And dirge of sorrow for Draupadi,
Tears dried down her cheeks
Leaving a trail of emotional burst
She hoped to avert the critical epoch:
A knock was heard, once … thrice,
Counting her heart beats she gobbled up
Capsules of air-filled saliva,
And advanced towards the door,
Towards her fate …
A divine force pulled her in,
Krishna, her ‘Sakha’ stood smiling:
A hungry ‘Sakha’ demanded food, much to her annoyance,
A hungry ‘Sakha’ forced himself
Into the kitchen and found –
A single grain of rice …
The smiling ‘Sakha’ consumed it
For the whole mankind
Empty stomachs of the universe were filled
And Rishi Agastya’s too
Without eating a morsel
The knowing ‘Sakha’ saved Draupadi from humiliation
A grain of rice saved her fate …
Hour 15
Anathema
Dear cursed li’l frogs
Ye hold the evening in your mouths
For heaven’ll smile at your ugliness –
The mystery of your beauty unbound,
You’ll kiss the dawn of freedom.
Don’t fret li’l ones
O’er plums and tomatoes
For there are things sweeter –
The melody of your voice unsung,
You’ll touch the jars of grace.
Wait li’l ones, for your raincoat moment;
With timeless motion
You’ll find your true love –
Who’ll take away the curse
And you’ll turn into handsome princes.
Hour 14
Same No More
Arriving Tuesday, this world is same no more
Same no more
Science gone underground to serve the don
Humans will fly, instead of missiles
And meet each other in close embrace
Where sound and light will dance
With one speed
In the nine dimensional world
This world is same no more, same no more
For love flows its nature
As science stopped underground to serve the don.
Hour 13
Matrix
Where snow capped mountains
Shed their old skins
And passes on life to the new;
Where the ravens sing
The song of death
Where doom vanishes
In the ambiance
And secures the sky;
Where ocean pays homage
By touching the bottom
Where waves lap up
The sands of freedom
And erase old foot paws;
Where stillness of the night
Wreathes in pain
Where emptiness of the sky
Laughs with joyous rapture
And breaks the bonds of shadow;
Where silence stifles
The greater voice
Where hands reach out
To the universe
And claim the earth in hollow.
Hour 12
Swallow Tail Jig
Beyond the mountains and moors,
Fields and plains,
Where the Dubliners pass
Hand in hand, toe to toe,
Where winds play step dancing
To the Swallow Tail Jig.
Hour 11
Color Code
It is coded by the invisible
Not yellow or brown
But in the blue canvass of the sky
To spray paint in rainbow
It has a green – the earth covered tapestry
It has a purpose
The virgin forest, the lush foliage
The ocean green…
Not in black or white
Why then do we fight,
In the name of color?
Hour 10
The Spider of Eden
The spider of Eden
With eight legs and a body
Spins its web from north to south
Blocks the gateway
With its silken thread
To match the mighty tarantula
Hour 9
Storm Inside
Outside the sun shone bright much so
With blinding gossamers threads sensing much;
The brewing storm inside, depends
For the future to chance upon.
(Inspired from “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams)
Hour 8
Sense Of Belonging
A burst of cloud
In my eyes
Gathered deep
In the night of my heart
While cupid attacks
The might of logic
And paralyses
All sense of belonging.
Hour 7