TYPES OF PAIN

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C2D27V6B

There are pains that you can talk about

and share your distress

like the pain of harsh words and actions

the pain of poverty and struggle for survival - which when you overcome, a matter of pride and respect.

Being physically hurt, or

the pain of separation, perhaps?

These pains that one can claim as one's own

and talk about and seek justice

And then, there are the pains that can never be spoken about...

Drunk like poison -

stuck in the throat, turning it blue,

making the systems go haywire.

slowly

slowly

killing you...

 

EMPTY SLATE

 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C2D27V6B

My ink is different

when it dries there will not be invisible messages

the space I occupied will be

just as blank as before I was born

for I've chosen to forgive all 

And to do that

I've chosen to erase my memories

how can I have written anything at all on my slate

when by forgiving time erased itself?

you never hurt me

And I never lived.

She's the red rose girl

She's all the roses in the world

The look in her eyes

asking me why

And honest to God

I did not know

But I could have lied

Instead of watching her die

She will live on long after

the world's long gone

She's the red rose girl

She's all the roses in the world

 

Pink flowers that can never in my garden grow

so wild and with such joyous abandon

He looks over her shoulders at the pretty girl on the platform while

his arms are still around her and perfunctorily smiling

at the something silly she's saying, laughing at "I don't know what she said"

she looks up at him adoringly in a relationship never meant to be

The train moves on...

 

UNQUENCHED

https://www.amazon.in/Glorees-Poems/dp/B0C2D27V6B

We closed account long back, didn't we

when we moved our different ways

or just that maybe skills were lacking then to say

I love you

I want to be with you

What has life taught us since then?

Some better communication skills?

Pronunciations, prepositions...

and a travesty of lies

that if you lace it all back to back

and one by one

lead right back to where it all started

with us still unable to voice our thoughts

with us still waiting.

 

YOU ONCE MORE

Do not blow life into a dead mind

that has not just renounced life but

denied there could be any beauty in it

that when the smallest of fires is lit within

will make the heart beat faster

the butterflies in the stomach flutter

and suddenly there is Sun in every diamond-like dewdrop

the Peepul tree has tender leaves again

the cold refreshing breeze blows through the hair, and

the flowers are fragrant once more...

Yes, do not blow life into a dead mind

that has forgotten how to love

lest it hurt all over again

lest the rains fall, and 

tears never stop flowing

Let the cold winter be

 

IT' SURE FELT RIGHT...

Maybe the rains should not have fallen so hard 

outside the window

the pitter patter of raindrops on leaves

the day slowly darken so early in the morning

the wet sparrows on the railing beneath the red tiles of the roof

shaking out the water and squabbling

maybe we should not have watched them together and smiled

maybe it should not have been so warm and cozy inside the room

or the lights so dim throwing shadows

maybe there should not have been the proximity

that made us look into each others' eyes

throwing out into open the blatant truth we tried so hard to deny

maybe your touch was the warmth I sought on a cold day

your breath in mine, knowing your fragrances for the first time

maybe we should not have kissed and blocked out the world

Maybe it was all a mistake...