DEAR NARCISSIST

Dear Narcissist

Not all I say is about you

My posts aren't about you

My speech isn't about you

Social media isn't about you

The world isn't about you

There are rules made without your consent

There are lives that don't live by your rules

Someday, you'll get thrown out of the spinning Earth 

in a tangent

And lie there still thinking

I'm too good for them

These talks, these poems, these posts, these rules, these lives

are aaaaaaall about you.

 

WHAT'S THERE TO BE POSITIVE ABOUT?

Think Positive they keep saying

and I try

Just when I'm thinking positive

Why did you die?

Why did they kill you?

Just when I'm thinking positive

Why were you raped?

Just when I'm thinking positive

Why was justice reserved for some

and came too late for others?

Just when I'm thinking positive

Why did you lose your loved one?

Just when I'm thinking positive

Why did you call just to insult me?

Just when I'm thinking positive

Why did you celebrate when I lost and you won?

Just when I'm thinking positive

Why are there sooooo many children and women hurting so bad?

Just when I'm thinking positive

Why were there laborers walking home while I protected myself from Covid and stayed inside with food on my table and a roof over my head?

Just when I'm thinking positive

Why did you hear me out just to do just the opposite of what I asked?

Just when I'm thinking positive

why did the seals in Antarctica die?

And 

Just when I'm thinking positive

Why are there so many painful programs on Netflix?

And yet, I must think positive

meditate, ruminate, and shut out all the crap that's happening

because my thoughts can 'affect' my body

So lead me like the proverbial lamb

to the slaughter house of Positive Thinking.

THERAPY

Let me put you on the slope of a hill..

Green Grass Meadow

Buttercups and Daisies

Dewdrops shining like diamonds -

sparkling in morning Sunshine before

smilingly fading away with a promise to be back...

You lie there on your back,

looking at the Blue Sky,

the Sun is high

White clouds float by

and you think -

I can never ever be unhappy

among Buttercups and Daisies

in a Green Grass Meadow.

 

PROOF OF MY LOVE

there's a waiting in me

my patience the length of your life

let the birds that woke up early this morn

fly back home, their foraging done

the autumn leaf debate its fall

fish have swum to ocean while the little boys hooked their bait

there's the smell of home cooked hotpot

my child runs home fast, her hair flying in the wind

outside the dog chases its own tail

the crow sits on the cow

my neighbor has not tired yet of the bucket he holds

while he explains the merits of organic fertilizers

across the fence

the scratchy squeaky noise of chalk on chalk board

teacher with eyes

at the back of her head that capture the flying paper missile..

the length is the time when a girl smiles

and there's that cute dimple again!

"oh my oh my!"

how many more instances do you want

as proof of my love?

then let me show you

the love line that starts at my wrist

and goes all the way to the rest of our lives

as i wait...

my patience still the length of your life

ONLY YOU

gentle waves

and thoughts of you

overlap...

down the lane

old familiar tune

honeysuckle fragrance

wafting in gentle breeze...

green grass

on hillock

the lone willow weeps

cold winter day

our thoughts intertwine

eyes speak candor

Only you

only you...

I'M DEAD...MY POETRY LIVES

i'm dead

my poetry lives

you may do as you please 

with my poems

be kind to them

don't trample on them

don't throw them away

as obsolete

let not the papers fly in the wind

and find home 

in a faraway pond

to sink ink

to the bottom

don't take me for granted

think back to what i would have wanted

done with my poems

share them with others

pass them from hand to hand

so they can read too

and wonder at my thoughts

my profile pic is not my choice any more

nor is my resume

i remain the same year after year

but let my poems

bring forth a New Spring

again and again.

SOFT WHISPERS

As I lie down on the grass,
And the scented breeze goes on its spree,
As I doze amidst these flowers,
Who is it whispers to me?

As I, on this noon day tide,
Seek the cool shade of a tree,
In this stillness far and wide,
Who is it whispers to me?

Far away in the deep blue sky,
The white puffs travel all so free,
And I lie and close my eyes,
Yet who is it whispers to me?

Then on a moonlit night so bright,
Softly lighting on the lee,
Gently mocking my daily fight,
Who is it whispers to me?

I shut my eyes and ears so tight,
And then I think that I am free,
Yet He who loves me day and night,
He it is whispers to me.

When too busy to stop and think,
When I from my tasks do shirk and shrink,
Dear God, give me that I hear your voice,
Amidst this world's chaotic noise.

And always guided to Eternal Peace

By the soft whispering breeze. 

MARITAL DISBLISS

A seven-year itch

Has set in our marriage

Unable to tolerate each other

A cry for breathing space.

Love gone stale?

Like withered leaves

That fall off strong branches

With strength and resource in them to rejuvenate

A colourful spring

Hidden beauty of our brown Earth

Where all colours come from.

I would like to go to Moonar

On a honeymoon all by myself

With my poetry along for company

And think longingly of my husband at home

And miss him, and cry for him, and crave for him

So when I return, I will be a good wife

Noncrabby, nonnagging, nonnasty

Sobered and steady and ready to appreciate

And listen as he speaks of football matches and Governmental statistics.

MY POETRY CHAIN

I pick the ripple off the rivulet

The hope from birds’ eggs

The lush green off the forest firs

The speed off horses’ legs

The scent off the dewy rose

The blueness off the skies

The velvet off a puppy’s nose

The colors off butterflies

I pick the majesty off the mountain

The fire off the Sun

The wetness off the monsoon rain

The silver off the Moon

The warmth off a friendship

The core off a heart in love

The mother’s cloak of protection

The Saint’s reverence for God above

I pick the sweat off workers’ brows

Those beads of daily gain

And string them all into my verse

To make my Poetry Chain!

WHERE EVEN EAGLES DON'T DARE

In the silent place in my mind -
you don't exist

your narrow, four-lined
square, boxed
suffocating point of view 
does not exist

your inability to comprehend 
any world beyond that
does not exist

your funny little 
self-righteous speeches
from there
don't exist

your rigid rules
of shoulds and should nots
don't exist

your presumptuous
misnomer
as grandeur
your pomposity 
does not exist

your crooked sadistic jokes
that thankfully 
I don't get
don't exist

your unquenchable wrath
at my freed soul
flying high.......high!!!
and your helpless inability to control 
me
does not exist

'Cause in that little space in my mind
is a laugh
of unbridled mirth
at your childish 
and futile efforts
to chase shadows
and try to conquer
the UNCONQUERABLE.

SEDUCTION

Leave it.
The game of love burns!
In the encroaching space
Of that hut
A storm within and without
The wick turned low
Casting ominous shadows

Deceptive
The tongues of flame
Disguised as they are
As your lily-white purity
Your pristine virginity
Your baffling innocence.
Your eyes so dark
And all too big for your face.

I keep against the wall
Against the dancing shadows
Just out of reach
Of those flicking arrows -
But your freed soul
Is a forest fire
Burning all
Only aware of your own desire -
Child-like, reaching out
Enveloping, engulfing.

I cannot escape.
 Hovering now on the brink
Of Life and Death
A bright light beckons
Light without heat
Benign, well-known shadows
Welcome.  I smile
A gentle smile and give up.
And give in
To the all-consuming lethargy.
The flame flickers
One last time
And dies……..

Forever.

My soul, a thread of white smoke.
The Sunrise now
The Hand
That lights my pyre.

...HE LOVED HER ALL THE MORE!

Rocked by a love so strong and yet so tender,
He gazed and gazed in the most lovesick fashion.
But she knew that if she had to give him back to her,
Must gently and yet firmly thwart all his passion.

And with such pain in her love-filled heart,
She turned away, to make for the door,
His gaze filled the distance from each other apart,
Pleading that he could bear his love for her no more.

But with some strength from God within her growing,
Turned firmly away from his warm cocoon’s lure,
Never to walk down his route ever again, yet knowing
That he loved her all the more!

He's An Ordinary Guy

Why accuse

That your heart he broke

Come on - wipe those Cupid’s drops

He’s a ordinary bloke.

Don’t give him colors and qualities

Even he would deny

Take off your rose-tinted glasses and see –

He’s an ordinary guy!

His dabbling in philosophy

His Sagacity doesn’t imply

Its just insatiable curiosity

He’s an ordinary guy.

His blunt comments and all about

Of Truthfulness is not a try

It’s just he’s shooting off his mouth

He’s an ordinary guy.

His correcting of your mistake

From Intelligence is a far cry

Its just his own are at stake

He’s an ordinary guy.

He brought you flowers -

That’s cute one can’t deny

With her though he spent his hours

He’s an ordinary guy.

His lips luscious, his nose is sharp

His ears perfect - and those big eyes!

Its just his lure, its just a trap

Oh! he’s an ordinary guy.

Glory

CHASM

Small the hands

In mine.

Big the responsibility

Of seeing her

Safely across the chasm.

Glory

BURNING

Consuming my soul is a flame
Burning, burning
Till I am nothing but a burning flame.
While the hand that lit me has long since gone,
I burn.
Frustrated with my burning,
Wanting to die out and not knowing how,
I burn.
Leaning towards the wind to be put off,
But just increasing in strength
I burn.
To what end I burn I do not know -
When it is to my benefit that I turn as cold as ice.
I pray to God to turn me into anything but this burning flame -
For with tears in my eyes and helplessly,
I burn.