You’re the butter to my jelly The ice cream to my cone The waffle to my syrup The lemon to my scone You’re the creamer to my coffee The ketchup to my fry The sausage to my pizza The corned beef to my rye You’re…

The tale of Crane Hill An old Military post located in the bay An old war room, updated with radar and sonar The echoing halls of a retired war zone Here the natives laid Slain by disease and Conquistador Here the soldiers died Blood spilled…

“Opening Closing” “Opening Closing”  “Opening Closing” Playing hide and seek with the cookie that rests in an airtight jar. Don’t you feel suffocated?  Let me give you a home in my tummy, but then would you also betray me like my mother? I cannot fit…

Tenth picture on my phone Is a beautiful painting By an artist who paints with her fingers, Not brushes- Lata Balakrishna; And here she has carved out a fort In beige and ochre Under purple-blue skies, Wearing Of all things – A rich green wall,…

When I was a little girl My grandma used to tell me Stories of times past And people that lived long before me Stories of kings and queens Warriors and sages Stories with lessons And sometimes, a little reason Parables from Ramayana & Mahabharata Stories…

the exhausted mother shut her eyes her back was hurting she didn’t have it in her to tell her children the regular bedtime story just imagine, she said to them, a beautiful garden in front of your eyes with flowers in bright colours and anima-…

Ma told a tale of a devout worshipper of thunder falsely accused of stealing a goat sentenced to be imprisoned In court, he invoked his god Thunder struck His accusers died.  

School was out It had to be Summer Back then the seasons were as defined The Chicago breeze wafted through pigtails like no other air I looked out the sunroom window at my friends playing in the park and had to get there My sister…

Hour Fourteen – “tell me an old story (like a folktale from your culture, a fairy-tale you heard when you were young, or a story passed down in your family). You can give it your own twist as well.”   Not Just Yet Yama Raj…

Raised by men Who taught me about womanhood their way Handed me a cape And let me run through the woods When I reached a house Tired and weary There was a man hiding Behind the mask of a woman I was not scared Thought…