Travel Guide

Sphinx eyes and purple smile,

She sits atop the tree,

Swinging her mercury feet down at me.

“I have been to the place where souls go to be reborn,”

Boasted the wild-haired elfish figure,

“A concrete path, leading off from reality

Ending in a slippery slope

And just as the ground levels,

You see the dying floating towards it from afar

And bounce off the pit in a shower of silver light into the skies.”

She promised she’ll take me there,

But she never told me when.

Travelling through continuums,

She has visited concepts and ideas –

Celestial and bestial -

That city a few hours’ drive from waking life

Where one drinks deep from the icy lakes spouting violet lotuses

And chases bamboo bridges that dissolve in the mist.

“I have been to your god’s chambers …

He had long run away from all the noise of chants and clanging bells.”

Still, she promised she’ll take me there.

She laughed her echoing laugh

And it changed colours in the wind.

“I have swum in the deepest lake where the waters are emerald and dolphins follow you to the burning sunset.

Just beyond the lake are abandoned jungles and slithering vines

Claiming the remnants of your civilisation’s tall monuments”.

She said I could see it all if I flew over on her giant eagle.

She promised she’ll take me there,

She, in her golden skin - unfettered by human robes.

As the sun approached us, she had to go

But promised she would be back

To tell of secret caves in walking mountains.

So I wait, sitting under the tree and hugging myself.

She had promised she would come and take me there,

But she never told me when.

A Peg Too Many

Liquor soaked nights.
The great weight hurtling along
Tied to the pit of the stomach
In the sultry breeze
In the twinkling street lights.


A one way road
A four-way crossing
And no way back.


Mind slurs as it speaks out
"What if?"
Contemplating the lonely city
Through a red film.


Can't undo what's done
Too late to let go of the chips on the shoulders
Too proud to confess so


Too tired to ask if you care
Too jaded to not know the answer.


Looking for answers at the bottom of the glass,
Swirling the amber liquid around.
And seeing a caricature instead-


Of a life lived in foolish earnest
Of fairytale endings
And warped wisdoms.


A black numbness takes over,
Hello, oblivion.

Detour

I saw you

Naked

Your scars

Your festering wounds

Your whites, blacks, reds and blues

The mountains and the valleys

Your seas and your skies.

I saw you

Inside

Goo and stone

Placid lakes and stormy oceans

The open rafters, the boarded doors.

I touched you

Soft and hard

Your chords, your nerves

Your smoothness, your bumps.

I smelt

The horrors and the victories

Your sweat and your blood.

And I heard

The screams, the moans

Gasps and your groans

Through your fingers and your eyes

I heard a jarring melody.

I sneaked in

To your hollows and your brimming cups

The length and breadth

I navigated without  a map.

And I left your overpopulated town

With its forced company

And its unbecoming sanctity

Dissappeared into the dark

Of grey territories.

Just another road sign

A diversion from the highway

To the concrete consolation of the grinding gravel

From your marshland carnival.

And left behind half a mind.

The rest comes easy.

Margin Love

Back again to haunt

Me in my territory, you

Forgot your way around

My town – melting

Time and colours.

There you are, in the corner

On the margins, silent.

A dark shadow – melting

Into nothingness, as I turn

To look at your features, dissolving

Into the surroundings.

Against the wall, by the table

Dark bulb overhead, casting light

Ghostly and red – melting

Into a pool of

You, stranger.

And stranger.

A warbling rock song, some leather,

Kohl and a seedy bar, and

You sulking in the corner.

A damp dusk, some garden path

And a polite exchange of words with

A shadow already

Melting into the darkness.

Mundane radio alarm

And blue black is blinding white.

Four unread messages and one missed call.

Paradise Lost

Night falls and the shadows rise,

Suspicions crawling out of the holes of consciousness like snakes

Gnarled thoughts twisting inside the head

Squeezing sleep from red eyes,

As the clock marches merrily on.

'What ifs' and 'but thens' come out to play,

On a stage adorned with poisonous tendrils...

And ignorance and innocence long withered,

Are strewn on the floor, gaily trampled on.

Strange sounds in stranger lands...

Thoughts hitherto unconceived

In Eden’s calm.

Now come hurling through

Like a storm, a gale

Piercing the ears like Siren's wail

And in its wake leaves behind

A paradise lost.

Come Out and Play

                                                                                        

Sweet girl, hiding behind the sunshine

Won't you come out and play?

The streets are strewn with thousands of broken hearts

And the bare windows reflect bare faces

But, won't you come out and play?

Bring your doll and skip on the pavements.

Run down the lanes and laugh out loud.

So what if the puddle flows red

And the wind brings poisonous tales of deceit and hate

Come out of your corner, come out and play.

These mannequins walking past have doctored their emotions beyond what once was human.

Don't be afraid of their serpentine shadows

Little girl, come out of the eclipse.

Come out and play.

Come fill my sky with hope

Of beauty in a godless world

Of music in a town gone deaf

Of diamond dust sparkling up this life so grey and faded.

My darling girl, don't be afraid.

Come out and play.

Yours Sincerely

Your worldly banter drowns out your music

You let your glass fill up the gaps in the conversation,

As you twinkle in the smoky haze.

If all the company you need is in this lively room,

Why do you eyes seek out the spaces outside the window?

Oh, fool yourself with all the laughter and the wit-

You always wanted to fit in, yet stand out.

Contradictions you wrestle with when everyone has left.

Interior monologues, so difficult to translate –

Pick up the pen, and lay it down.

Call out to yourself, but he has long passed out.

Your glib mask is starting to stick, my friend.

You woo the world with your boyish charms,

Riding the momentary waves of youth’s beauty

While your true brilliance lies dull and rusting somewhere inside.

Your mirror was always a liar, or did you forget?

I shall hate to be the chronicler of -

A rough diamond in life, and not much different in death.