Thursday, January 13, 2022

The Boundary

I draw a boundary beyond which
I have only indifference to others' suffering
I wake up and think of the universe
And this boundary stretches to the slums of infinity.
By mid day, I feel lucky that something horrible
has bypassed me and my family.
It has struck others beyond the boundary.
Clearly, my boundary has shrunk.
By night, the boundary only extends to the immediate vicinity
To someone whom I can touch and hold
And in the darkest hour, the boundary shrinks
to a point deep inside me. 
It is indifferent to my own sufferings.
Lectures me on the why-not side of probability.

Monday, July 20, 2020

Limited Vocabulary

An unexpected rain enthralls.
A lapwing repeatedly calls.
Its speech surrounds my nest.
I think limited vocabulary is the best.

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Thorny side up

Sometimes I say things I don't mean 
At times I mean things that I don't say
You may have realised by now
That it is difficult to get away. 

I hide smiles behind tears 
and tears behind smiles 
You might have already perceived 
These are my prominent styles. 

Without me reminding so late
You know that life is a bed 
of Roses with thorny side up
But there is nothing to dread. 

It is all temporary 
till it becomes permanent. 
It is all body
till it becomes parchment. 


To my reader across the seas

I can rain somewhere near you 
Make a point that is less distant. 
But this is not how gravity works for me
It forces me to search, with a cursory lamp 
in the narrow passes of inspiration 
Leads me across thoughtless plains
into the forests of silence where 
I hear only the sound of my breathing
Before I suddenly reach a magical place 
Called the ending, which could be this 
Or wherever you stopped reading. 


Saturday, April 18, 2020

Mrs. Cinderella Prince

Now she needs kinder shoes
That comfort her like never before
She doesn't let the prince choose
But leaves a note outside her door. 
She puts her faith in the fairy elves
Waits patiently in the kingly castle 
For the shoes to walk by themselves
Without carrying a princely hassle. 
She wants shoes in which she can stay
Not the ones that'll take her away. 

Saturday, January 13, 2018

In the right light

I read something that nudges me
to look outside the window
or imagine somewhere other than now.
I think about the infinity of things
and the endless horizon of possibilities.
I imagine the chains that they are all bound by.
I feel the chain of events reaching me
and wetting my feet with experience.
I am rewired at that moment.
I am put in the cross-hairs of my own thoughts.  


Saturday, December 30, 2017

The muse

The muse car-pools with me
and is silent for most part of the journey.
It adjusts its gaze occasionally to see
if I am noticing how things can be.
But I am just focused on my ends and
what it all means to me and the world.
It doesn’t disappear yet, it waits
for the moment when the windows darken,
the wipers flail and everything is washed
in the rain, and I observe something
that rings bells: bells of charm and not alarm.
And the inner leaves rustle in a metaphorical breeze.