the perfume box...

The spring urged me

To smell her virgin smells

Full of life, vibrant

Dancing off mango trees…

While I languorously

Dwelt in my past

Full of your smell

Hinting his smell

And their never fading smell….

Yours was like you

Inconceivable, brash

Open and suddenly shy!

Salty and uncertain

Sour at some places

Misty and fresh

Always…mostly…

His was deep

Coarse and heavy

Musky and hinting

Selfish…

Cleverly guised

Under crisp paper like aroma…

Theirs was stable

Predictable almost

Silent and consistent

Meek yet enriching

Stoic in its bearing

And it began and ended

In me…

It’s not like my past is smelly and rotting

It’s just that I love thinking of it all

In smells, emanating from tiny bottles

Holding those magical moments

Each distinctly dressing me, completing me

Defining me…

Now, I need a new box, a newer tiny bottle…

The spring beckons…

ahem...

Love still keeps me awake

Is a startling discovery

Or it was your love

That kept me awake always

Not even letting me enter my dreams

And linger a lil longer

With all my passing lovers… 

waves

The ebbing wave

Once rushed back to another one

Asking her at once

To rise higher

And plunge deeper

To dream of their maiden home

The horizon!

And yet embrace

In broken glory

The shores of reality…

I did not sleep

I could not sleep

‘Cause the unsaid

Between you and me

Spoke to me all night…

absolutes

Happiness not only eats

It drinks and sleeps with sorrow

Like all opposites

They too live in complete harmony

And abide by their agreement of discord

In this absolute world

They share a cracked mirror

To reflect their duality!

sting of power

I don’t wish to kill you

Just enslave you for a while

Feel the sting of power

And the prick of hallow pride

Watch you feign death

And the given up battle

Letting the twinkle of cruelty

Change the iris’s hue

All mirrored fraction by fraction

Till the mourning dies down

And you rise from your death

To assault my convictions

And leave your ugly victory mark

On my shallow, empty hand

Which once tried to kill you…

tangles of destiny

Come and I shall lead you

Through the layers of existence

Till we reach that knot

Of our souls…

Strange silken threads

Entangled and detangled

Let me show those

Wells of sensations

Quenching your thirst

Of generations

Let me place the flame of the moon

Under the canopy of fragrance

For you to walk past

Into the palace of my existence

Let me sprinkle some tears

And moisten the petals

Of hesitant desires

Waiting to be touched and crushed

To poetic deaths…

Hold my hands and clasp it light

Least our destinies

Are entwined forever…

the lamp

As the darkness of silence

Turns a shade darker

You light the lamp

Of conversation between us

The glass it glows and warms up

Comforts and bakes

Your emotions

Melts mine at places…

Till am afraid

Unsure of your intentions

Will the wick burn out?

And blacken the glass?

Sooty and opaque

Just like our feelings…

Or did my erratic breath

Just flicker that flame?

Will you cup your palms?

And steady the lamp

Of conversation between us?

farewell......

When his hands clasp yours

And the fires are raging

Slip one ornamental hand

Into the recesses of suppressed desires

Bejeweled and hidden

In your breast

Let your painted fingers

Rush slightly over my bare spine

For that one last moment

Of trembling sensations

Clasp your hand around my waist

Hold my being tightly yet lightly

Like you’d clasped the first butterfly

Our togetherness may shiver

And meekly resist

Maybe beg for life…

Close those enchanting eyes

Least a tear might betray…

And pick me from there

A flash and ashes will merge

Watch that burning

Feel that heat, feel that cold

As he waits for the scented water

To pass through the intricate patterns

Of your hands into his…

A befitting farewell

Was my last wish….

canvas....

Take a quick dip

Watch the swirl colour past you

Feel enchanted by the myriad shadow

Of your being

Wet and whet

Set up in white

With hints of red

Go meet the green

Create profusion

Of long lost woods

Just a dash of brown

Their clasped embrace

That quivering drop of dew

At the tip of her hair

Did you create it?

Or its make believe?

Paintbrushes and canvas

Or taut, touched and framed illusions???

You are my last indulgence…

I send you couplets

Full of hope and joy

I wish you the moon,

Sun and the ever changing sky

I serve you the last saved up

Piece of dream and cream

I see you in the mirrors

Of the soul

I paint you with

The faintest shade of pink

Least you recognize it

In your sleep…

Least your blue quilt

Faintly gives off

That quaint smell of

My stale unshed tear

I fear you’d raise your hand

And let me play

With the mirages of destiny

And simply clasp my fingers

At the first tinkling of laughter

Ours…

And then lead me back

Into the streets so bare

Through the latticed alleys

Of time and prime

Into my own world…

I shall cherish that oasis of touch

Always…reminding myself

That you were my last indulgence…

let the night....

Let the night go on…

Let the darkness sing its mystic song

Be there always those twinkling stars

Silence in its velvety coat

Be there always the dream in a dream

Let the night go on…

Let the roles come alive

Be there always buzz in the memory hive

Being in its trance like form

Be there always overlapping visions

Let the night go on…

Let the waves of solitude regale

Be there always the old moon’s ale

May the actor always prevail…

Be there masks and more masks

I have to wear them all….

Let the night go on…

searching.....him...

They tie wishes to trees.....

Flags of good luck and desires

Colorful and fluttering in the Himalayan winds…

Oh the land of monastic yearnings and deep rooted passions

I seek thee…

I seek thee there….

I searched you long

I sought you in stories

Poems and songs

I sought you in the dark alleys of time

I sought you in the diamond mine

In the bazaars of Mathura

In the Kaashi of my soul

“Have you seen him ever?”

“Have you seen his golden shadow gliding by?”

“Did you catch the glimpse of the glistening sorrow in his eyes?”

I asked one I asked all…

“Have you seen him at all??”

He promised me to return…

He promised me the moon

The rainbow fabric and the deep blue lagoon…

 

 

The unsung melody...my reticent lover...

 

A simplistic verse, a word slipped out of emotion,

The unsung melody gifted these to me....

A sky painted with a defined blue,

Water with a greenish hue,

Petals of stars and flowers dipped in dew,

Is all the verse which i could give...

A string of couplets and pearls of joy,

Was his next gift,

A mountain painted grey,

Dawn breaking at day,

The purple of trees

And their rhythmic sway,

Was my reciprocative way....

Emeralds of "bandish",

Diamond dust of the "raagas",

The melody filled my soul...

An incomplete poem,

A few unshed tears,

A cup of our passion...

Was my parting gift...

To,

My unsung melody....