Love Is

I asked her what love is

She said it's not to be defined 

Something pure and refined

That makes you grow

And lets you know

You are too small to be petty

I said that's quite pretty 

But I thought what you felt inside

Sometimes stormy sometimes calm

It's like holding the world in your palm

Like a song mellowed with age

Like spreading your wings uncaged

Like cradling the sky in your arms

She laughed out wild , So I discern

It beats within you in your heart

The flutter of a flitting butterfly 

But I am talking of love , my dear

Folded in the blanket of snow

Scorched under the blaze of sun

Blossoming in verdant spring

Frosting in white winter's chill

Warring against conquests futile 

Embracing all without a guile

A love that lets you throw

Away that is worldly and low

Endure the bitterest of blows

Of life with the serenest smile

And let's you diffuse your big I

In the isness of your nomadic soul

That is love which you not know

But is revealed in your deepest core 

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Sunday

Some days verses just don't happen

Even after taking a deep breath

And a long sip of the morning chai

Verses just don't happen

Perhaps after a lazy walk down the lane

Or at the milkman's I shall be inspired

To capture the essence of life

Things that don't make sense will 

Suddenly add up

But it doesn't happen like that

On a Sunday the words have gone

For a stroll

On somedays verses just don't happen 

Let's not ruffle memories any more

Let's not hustle 

Let's just lay spreadeagled

And listen to the calm

The silence of this room

The wordlessness that makes up 

The world...you and me 

Verses will arrive on their own whims

Today let's give in to the power of

Just not happening 

And something may suddenly happen 

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The Curse

I thought it was a delulu

When the sparrow straight looked at me

And said in a voice calm and quiet

I think your lewk is just not right

I was surely taken aback

What ? Dare you speak to me like that!

To which he flipped open a diary

And cleared his throat nonchallantly

Hark ye human ! Your broligarchy

Will never go unpunished you'll see

You who have downed the trees in forests

Filled the air with smoke and noise 

You who have murdered the clear blue seas

Think of ruling the universe and rejoice

You with your ways unconcerned 

Wars and words of empty rhetorics

Will soon be from this earth gone

Will soon be from this earth gone

I trembled teetered tottered and said

I am just a sufferer as you are

See the number of medicines I have

To which he was most unimpressed

What ye have done is without redress

You bipeds are all the same 

Whether you take a holy dip in the Ganges

Your load of sins will never be rinsed

Mark these words as I say

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Flash Poem : Distortion

Dreams dive unto the night. Distorted imageries, fragments of fiction that never was. Never will be. I have walked million miles with the moon to reach out to you, to your universe of blissful songs. Perhaps you will wake up to my despondence. Not once but everytime I cry out for you. Hold me into your embrace of stars. But you have only echoed the silences making me believe once again that there never was and there never will be.

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Morning Tea

आह! यह सुबह की गरम चाय की प्याली

चुस्कियां लेते हुए सोचती हूं "आज दिन अच्छा बीतेगा"

मेरे खिड़की के बाहर चमेली के पेड़ पर

वह काला कौआ मुझे घूरता हुआ अचानक बोल पड़ा,

"क्यों! लग गए उम्मीदें बांधने ? अगर अच्छा न बीता तो?"

मैने झुंझलाकर कहा, "तुम निराशावादी!! क्यों न होगा अच्छा? गर न भी हुआ दिन है गुजार लेंगे।"

"एक्जैक्टली ", उसने जोर से चिल्ला कर कहा,

"गुजार लो! गुजार लो!"

फिर पंख झटक कर ऊपर की टहनी पर जा बैठा

और मुझे एक टक देखता रहा

मैने मुस्कुरा कर कहा, "अब तुम भी सीख देने लगे..."

उसने सर झुकाकर बोला, " तुम इंसान...क्या करें?

रहना जब है साथ तो ..."

Aah! This steaming cuppa morning tea

Sipping I thought," The day's gonna go well"

On the Chameli tree by the window that crow 

Staring at me suddenly started, "Why! 

You're again piling hopes ? 

What if it's otherwise?"

Irritated I replied, " You pessimist!

Why should it be otherwise?

Even if it is...it's just a day...will let go by."

"Exactly!", He cawed loudly,

"Let go by! Let go by!"

And then he plonked on the branch above

And kept peering at me 

I smiled," Now, you too preaching?"

He took a bow and said, "Ye humans! 

What to do? As we are fated to be together 

So..."

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Scars

Surgical OPD

A frantic Google search on phone

To figure what the surgeon hid

Beneath his charming facade

A confounding jargon

Of procedures and tests

He knew me inside out

Strange! Wasn't it my body?

The first was an emergency 

Critical...life and death situation

Three months later

The second incision

I asked him how long the cut was

He chuckled, "That should be your least concern right now?"

"Remember! It's my body, my guts, my feelings...you are talking of"

But I kept quiet

Even a sheepish smile I managed

Did he see through me?

After the third 

He said, "Go back to routine. Lead a normal life."

What so normal?

New normal... You've scarred me right?

"The wounds have healed...no puss...no bleeding... "

"It's hard...no sensation when I touch it..."

"Apply coconut oil...give it six months...the suppleness will be back..."

Half a year to feel my own self

I laugh 

My long lost friend apologized, "Am sorry! I did not know. I should have checked on you more often..."

"Never mind," I say forgivingly.

"I have survived..."

Today's Prompt : Scar

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An Acrostic

Swayed and staggered

      Twisted and twirled by the ghoulish wind

On the almost barren, haggard branches

       Rags of leaves once vibrant and verdant 

Mourning the memories of a swirling spring

Clinging to an aeon of bygone dreams 

       Etched and inked on the canvas of mind 

Limp now perhaps once agile

       Every now and then trying to rise

Bent, broken , browbeaten, bruised 

       Ravaged yet holding back hopes tight

And something more...d'you know what it is?

      'Tis called the will to live, love life  

In moments even of despair and doubt

      On wings of fanciful delight

'N cooing the eternal song of rhyme

               "See! I am still alive"  

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Day And Night

yellow afternoon 

whiteness of the walls whiter 

windows bare curtains drawn

floral prints falling in drapes

two pigeons on the sill

heads tucked 

...dozing....

whirring of fans 

from the other room

soft

a few

spells

to live tor

on the other side

must have been 

quiet too

stealthy

starry 

still

night

to die for....?

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I Leave A Note

some days are heavy 

staring at the ceiling 

hours stop 

how blank a wall can be

monotony of a whirring fan

let me lend a story

of angst and agony 

of a breached contract

by staying alive

enduring

why?

is there anything left to do?

apart from the rut 

meaningless

they say your sufferings are 

attached to the body

the soul is free of pain

you are the soul

the brahman

i breathe in deep

i wish to feel the soul 

none

is it dead? 

the body whines

listen to me...heal me 

i give in

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