Tuesday, June 29, 2010

A Textbook Case of Love

In the dusty corners of an ancient textbook
there are these signs of love.
Hearts, swans and arrows
brought out by an invisible cupid.
Hearts, drawn in ink and arrows in pencil
by two of us in a by-gone conversation.
There are holes in some hearts of the inner pages
with traces of Tic-tac-toe within, ending in a draw.
On some pages, swans fill the margins
with their elongated necks like a cursive S.
Their beaks seem darkened and their eyes
emotive with anger, amusement
fear and boredom: all teenage versions.
There are codes for "I love you"
formed by complex rules using the printed alphabet.
Blots of ink, appear here and there
thinning the paper with
the eclipsing frustration of mid term holidays.
Very rarely, the hearts appear in Red
proclaiming a stronger, dangerous and a bloody love.

4 comments:

Usha Pisharody said...

Textbook case of wonderful metaphorical imagery!

I like...
Hearts, drawn in ink and arrows in pencil
by two of us in a by-gone conversation.
There are holes in some hearts of the inner pages

and...

swans fill the margins
with their elongated necks like a cursive S.
Their beaks seem darkened and their eyes
emotive with anger, amusement
fear and boredom: all teenage versions.

It brings back sepia memories!

Trinath Gaduparthi said...

@ Usha

Thanks for your reading! As soon as I wrote, I thought who is going to identify themselves with this poem. Nice to see at least one in this list !

Avi said...

You've proved it again that poetry can be about the simplest of simple things.

Trinath Gaduparthi said...

@Avi

Thanks. I try to keep it simple. Complex things warp my mind. So, I don't go there at all.