JUST A DREAM.

I'M FLOWING
IN AN ANCIENT RIVER.

NO ONE HEARS
WHAT I'M
SAYING TO THE RIVER.

AND WHAT THE RIVER WAS
SAYING TO ME.

DOWN THE NEWS
I,
RIVER,
TIDE.

TO LIU XIAOBO

Yellow river
emanates
in China.
Will your
river flow?
Will kids
row the boat
in that river?

Cities roar
in China.
Will your voice
ascend above them?
Will flowers
soar with wings
in that voice?

Yesterday,
I saw a dream.
Dungeons
are bursting
as bubbles.

Is the dream,
a dream alone?
OR
A rainbow path
to reality?
.

DIFFERENT PITCHES

I An emerald glare Lit up the sky in the distance. The line of sand Alternately Appeared and disappeared. The drum beats Different pitches. The ocean was breathing, Hiding a wrath. II 'I don’t want to Go out in the rain’ Said the girl in ‘English.’ The hair might Fell out in today’s rain.       III Yellowish mist Hangs over earth. No desire to go out. A ghastly silence Sets in the dusk. Frogs splash in the puddles Letting out strange grunts. But yet to see one.    IV The shadow of decay Lies on everything. Art supporting The dying dream. Cynicism shocks The senile brains. Nature leaves last chance. We do not believe in Nature. What is our chance? V The landscape flying by In the windows of the carriage. Everything is fictional, A deception. In the end Settle down quietly In the desert.

 

INDIA

India is a bird
In the map
Ready to soar.

Bengal and Assam
A wing.
Gujarat and Rajasthan
Another.

The pinnacle
Jammu Kashmir
Gazes.

Delhi and Punjab
Stirs the body.

Kerala
Hangs on tail
A stylet.

LOOK

A vulture feeds corses ?

A myena that sings ?

DAMSELS IN KUTTANAD

In Kuttanad
The damsels
Never outruns girlhood.

Like lakes,
Stirs in gentle breeze.

In the brook
Perches becomes stars
At their sight.

At the twinkling anklets
Water lilies flushed.

From the untied hair
The blackened shadows flies.
Seeing the ebony bossom
The sky bloomed wide.

GIRL IN JEANS

Strolls with men
Moves like men
Observes time
Possess political acumen
A polyglot.

Sits as she wish
One leg on the other
Or kept wide open.

Thwarted my male look
With a NO.
LET THE WORLD CHANGE
For an I LOVE YOU.

Proud bossom
Naughty butts

A pass at her
In a crowded bus ,
Your genitals suffer.

Midnight.
Coimbatore.
100 feet road.

In the terrace
Tried to grab
She smothered
My cheeks.

Never believe men
Preach progress.

TO FATHER , UNTOLD

We discussed poetry
In rented homes.

Claws hiding
They asked.

What's the use of poetry?

Airconditioned Professors
Growled.

What poem
Without honors?

Pasting flaky smile
Breaking the world
The editors roar.

Poem,not printed at all?

Benumbed in cold
We chased to poles.

We quarelled
Fondness rustled.

You
Frequented toddy shops
Befriended young men.

Before your poetry
Rocked skies
You went away.

Folk memories
went too with you.

Defiance
Bravado
Conflicts
No more.

Time
The turbid water
Everyone catches fish.

I'm waiting
turn to come.

BEHIND A YOUNG MAN

Aged man.

Won't see the young
See the eyes
The scorching tears.

Seizes the young
Epistles of love.

Hides the hues of youth
In saffron spirituality.

Aged man.

INDU , THE FIVE YEAR OLD

Dragged off to school
The little girl sobbed.

Fortressed school vans.
Enchained buildings.

Crying scapegoat.

Getting out
Savage.

FANTASY

Her cotton sari
Ensnared the city
Hands spirited
Neck sought to strangle
Legs fly
Hair soar madness
Ears melted cell phones
Heart collapsed the sky.

Alone
In a house
Sans address.

DISTORTED

Arabian sea
Encroached the city
With chopped head
And swelled legs.

Clouds fought like black cats
Spirit scented rain raged on.

The world lay
As if in a morgue
Varied dance accrued
Atop it.

View distorted

RAIN

Did it begin rain
In seashore?

Weaving web
With strands of rain
Waiting for prey?

Does it remind
The lassie of first love
When we parted
On a rainy day?

Is the strumpets
Stripped their nudity
Licks the scratchy privates
Of the world?

Do they protect
The vicious world?

The rain
Flows thro' satellite veins
Fluttered,churned.

Thinking of
Music of rain
Felt the nausea of the
Great ages left?

Rain in the seashore?
Who knows?

LOVE POEMS

I

You are a drop of ocean
A tip of sky
A pinch of cyclone
A colorful night.

You are my eyelid
I craved for you.

You reached like a wave
Pulled me like a sea.

II

If you tunes
Birds will talk.

I'm the riddle
Fill me up.

III

In the banks of a river
I'm waiting.

Virgin water
Splashed on my face.

The moon brought
All the stars in the sky.

Sheet of dew
Fell on the grass.

Time chokes in my heart.

IV

I'm in a cloud
Night engulfs.

Death stalks
At my feet.

You are dawn
Just vanished.

V

Discussions

Something has
Missed out.

Lightning.

Shadows of yellow and green.

Suddenly drenched in rain.

VI

Where were you
All these days?

Where were you hiding?

Something is burning.

VII

Bits of love
Gentle breeze
seductive nature
Nameless fragrance.

Exiled in unknown.

VIII

I reach the sky
Sans effort.

To bring the moon
As carpet for you.

Then turned to pieces.

IX

With swaying hands
A flower came.

Lips made
Melody inside.

Mesmerising dance
Twinkling stars.

A tide in my heart
Sweetness in roots.

X

I died gradually
Lost everything.

Earth and space in you.

Shower me
Quench my thirst.

Regained verses.

XI

Silence.
Silence.

Why there is silence?

Your eyes says it all.

XII

Love soars
Wings infinite.

See you in earth
Forgotten by god.

Whole world slumbers.

TRAVEL POEMS

VAISHALI

Nalanda to Vaishali
Only a birth's distance.

Still it felt farther.

While travelling
Distance increases
Not deceases.

DELHI

Here,
Resolutions
Made.

A one-eyed kite
Never flies above dollars
Executes it.

The tourist guide hesitated
To reveal the rest.

He seems to be
Afraid of someone.

KASHI

Tales of salvation
Told a lot.

Had Ganga possessed
THe fury of Kali?

While dipping in the river
No doubt,man.

Emerging out
Yes, what is it?

MUMBAI

The eyes of the city
Oscillates
Like a pendulam.

They don't show time.

Want to know ?

Keep a dead watch
On your wrist.

KUSHINAGAR

Though Sri Budha
Had dissolved
The soil lacks fertility.

Human corpses
Make soil rich.

The plants and trees here
Herald not luxuriance.

The dead
May not be human.

I'm mystified.

May not be God.

Then, what?

DHARAVI

Sea of tiny sheds
They call home.

Made of torn mats
Rusty tin sheets
Decayed palm leaves
And hopes.

Ganga of drains
Saintly mosquitoes
Himalaya of epidemics.

Not in television
Blank in tourism guide.

I wanna be there.

Where is Dharavi?

VARANASI

A Vararuchi
Among the commuters?

A Dharmaputhra?

Rails are old and beaten.
The trains
Never belong to this age.

Poem lingered lips.
An oldy asks,
ARE YOU RECITING MANTHRAS?

He was on his way to Kashi.

The train came.

In the rush
The old man thrown out.

Instead of manthras
He murmured curses.

I still hums verses.

ALAPPUZHA

Hands of backwaters
Wrap the universe.

The dragon fly flutters
Wings stuck in
His own life blood.


Alappuzha lies
As the heart of a sea bird
Soars far off.

NALANDA

There was a university,
The guide said.

A request.

Don't click cameras,
Please.

History has no rebirth.

Atrocious lies
Everything.

BOKARO

Day light

The steelcity
Doesn't glitter.

The people
Working in the plants
Seems civilised.

Their flaked lips
Moved like ratchet wheels.

May be indicating
Immigrated civilisation.

But people around
Resembled aborigines.

Worn out history smiles.

The civilised and uncivilised!

Resounds siren.

BUDHAGAYA

A bodhi tree
Scattered temples.

Saffron clad sanyasi
Pees in public.

An eccentric got
Enlightenment here.

At gaya
The railway station.

While walking along
The sleeping and huddled shapes
I've lost another dream.
(Damn the dream,who needs it!)

THIRUPATHI

A spot forgot
To be wiped out.

Shaved heads of men.

Anti smell of
Turmeric and sandalwood paste.

Holy manthras
Remained undigested
In the electric light.

A heaven
For slaves.

RAJAGIRI

The present
Scales the mountain
Enduring the unbearable cold.

It might be a slip out.

Is it the temple atop
Caught their fancy?

It can also be
The inborn trait
To conquer the heights.

Unbrushed morning yawns.

In a journey
Why did the resting place
Become afflicting?

GIRLS IN THE TENNIS COURT

The short skirt
Hovers up.

Eyes perceive
On the lingerie
The dark future
Behind.

Pondering over the
Luscious breasts
They'll taste
Of cooked meat.

The exposed thighs
Like the shapes made of
Sandstorms in the desert
Become the feast.

Don't want to see anymore.
No curiosities left.

Women, no longer a surprise.
Nudity isn't a topic of discussion.

VEMBANADAN LAKE

Vembanadan lake.

A canvas
That never dried.

Sky flew down
And sat on my shoulder,
A loner.

On the green meadows
The book of dew drops fell,
Scattered and torn.

Night swells.

PALLIKARNAI POEMS

Pallikarnai,one of the prominent waterbodies that once provided life breath to Chennai (Tamilnadu, India) is now a garbage dumpyard. It now serves as a moving symbol of how the civilized can threaten the environment.


I

Pallikarnai
Resounds
In the Alps.
Retches the himalayas.

Foams
In the Ganges.
Forays the volga.

Muddles
In the Amazon
Mucks the Nile.

Incarnates
In myriad moulds
And disguises
Around the world.

Masking the demon behind
Hoodwinks the beholder
Letting none to snare.

II

The subjacent hell
Pandemic heaps of plastics
Annals of the soil receded.

Putrifying greed
Kicked shut
The eyes of mother earth.

Clinging the remnants
Eager to sprout
Future laments.

Wailing of
Strangled stars
Unceased.

Abandoned birds
Scribbles the dirge
In the blazing sky.

III

Fire unfurled
Everywhere.

The stretching blaze
Scorched the city
Stoked humen bodies.

Their mind
Charred long ago.

Unable to bear
The acrid smell
Wind collapsed.

Streets whirls around
Stuck in the hounding wheels.

The world
Tosses upside down.

IV

Flies
Abducted the city.

Assaulted school buses

As tanks
Demolished the sky scrappers.

As missiles
Sped up to homes.

In hungry mouth
Dropped bombs.

Eyes were plucked out,
Lips consumed.

Dismayed sky shrunk.
Stars severed down.

Corses
Drifted in drinking water.

Wings are swords
Legs are spears.

Flies.

V
Before dying
Wriggling soil
Asked the children

Would you give
The leafy eyes
Only to see me?

Before the fall
Writhing earth
Entreated the children

would you give
The ears of green trees
Only to hear me?

To the world of the matured
Went the little ones
Searching leafy eyes and ears.

Will they return?

If return
Will the soil and earth remain?

KASHMIR

VISIT-I

On taking leave
Nafisa gave
A Chinar leaf.

Chart of tears
Glowed in it.

Mist nestled trees.

Stars melted
In Jhelum.
Bluish hearts
Flew over as moths.

VISIT-II

Curfew torn streets
Speeding army trucks.

Election posters
Plastered wounds.

Gunned down twilight
Fluttered in the Dal lake.

Alone,at night
To Chasmeshahli.
Haunted in memories
In Gulmarg.
At Khulanmarg
As destitute.

Infront
Hurriedly
A Chinar leaf falls
Glued
In human flesh and blood.

Frightened Jhelum
Flows feverish.


*Jhelum, a river.

MICHAEL JACKSON

Feet
Disseminated storms.
Nothing dismantled
Everything originated.
Lost blossoms,
Birds,trees,seasons.

Spindle body effused
Thunder and lightning.
Afreshed sky and earth.
Gulfs among mankind
Faded off.
World become a
Toy of kids.

Arms throbbed to hug
The dying earth.
Music effloresced
From the quivering.

Childhood devastated.
Youth wanted to mend.
But death, clowned.

Taught loneliness
In fame and furore.
REAL MUSIC TOO.

I P L

I

Moulds change.
Beholders transmute.
Stadia alters.
Copy books corrode.

Who recalls
The black dominance
Of Gary Sobers,
Gavaskar's
Love like shots,
Kapil Dev's inswingers
That soared as swans,
Sylvan sway of
Vivian Richards,
Imran Khan's leap
As Albatross,
And the dying earth?

Off the fields
The stars'll be
Dissembled by clouds
All of a sudden
Age gulps them.

Who recollects
Memories?

II

Young Suns
Throb in the net.
Spectators uproar
In their strife.

Nothing changes but change.

Let the celebration on.
Let the cheer girls foam.
Let the spicey I P L
Dazzle in the market.

The quest for drinking water
Probes the moon.
Life ends in
A maiden over.

NO MORE NUDITY

Fetid naked earth.
Open,paranoic sky.
Caustic privates of rivers.
Unfold rotten seas.
Baked barren hills.
Undraped wailing trees.
Ravished wounded forests.

sit,
Click the mouse,
Hack internet nudism,
Until dead soil exposed.

No erection.
Nothing.

DAY DREAM

Trees
Climb to the hill.
Swaying hands.
Pressing feet.
Valley gazes.
Streams accolade.

Sea sees
Rains slow walk
Down the shore.
Her flying frock.

Sea calls
Rain strolls away.
Her hair soars.

Dancing butterflies.
Rainbow flakes on
Forlorn earth.
Silent sky looks.

SACHIN TENDULKAR

Crimson parakeets
And white doves
Flew from the crease
Nestled in hearts.

The bat touched
Grounds blossomed.
In each petals
Gods scribbled verses.

Seas stormed out
With the frolics in the pitch.

Colours melted
In the ivory of the bat.
Sounds merged
In its silence.

The past waited.
The present,grateful.
The future'll make tales.

Not mortal and immortal.

The magician,
With a wand of willow
Regained those haven't history.

A sailor
Marooned in storm.

In ways obscure,
Boldly explored
The unknown.
.......Thus wrote
a bee,
Frenzied in the might
you wielded the bat.

But, dear Sachin
I hate you.
'cause
Like a slave,
I'm in a slum,
Where
your sixer cannot reach.