False step

Wary of a false step
a snail chews on 
the darkness in its shell 
and waits in solitude. 

Foliage

My complaints about life
dissolve into dreams. 
I have super powers in sleep
to deal with each of them.
When I wake up 
I am already exhausted for 
the ordinary living that follows.
This twilight like truth 
doesn't stay with me for long.
It slips into foliage
Wind does its job
and I go on to collect
more material for my dreams.
Prepare the next battle. 

Towards movement

Life reminds us all the time
it is not a check list
but a checkered one.
Litany is always on.
No break in prayers.
Prayers for
luck this and luck that.
Luck everything.
The dark patch is always
a shadow of success.
And while waiting
hope sprouts between the feet.
Tickles us into movement. 

Happenings

Nothing ordinary 
happens in the past
Put ears to the ground 
clods exchange notes.
And memories 
the young mountains 
pierce the skies. 
Trees remain witness and dispatch
progress reports every season.
And the bees carry tears 
glinting on their back  
Dark and golden
To bloom a thousand flowers.

When we talk

History happens every day
and when we talk, every moment.
Peering down the throats
of mighty anecdotes
We remember the times
And narrate it like griots
We play the see-saw game
of the hee-haw.
The pulse of an electric smile
is felt in the air
We could break off into
unknown physics here
But history
it keeps happening
when we talk
and the thrill
is of the future. 

Fresh connections

An undated frog croaks
its heart out
Over and above the din
of a rainy bar
A snail at the next table
slows down further
Feeling the heaviness of love.
A scorpion makes a quick dash
across the room for a refill.
Earth worms resign themselves
into a corner
with the gurgling waters.
The night is overcast
with foot falls of singles.
I walk with a firm grip
of the umbrella of my thoughts.
But I slip often on the dreamy road
Go in and out of memory
Burrowing fresh holes for connections. 

Secret withheld

Butterflies are smug.  

Fighter jets resting on a carrier.

I disturb their stupor 

Kill them all 

by simple teasing 

They are followed 

by ants 

and a swarm of flies

tempted first 

to the scattered jaggery. 

Insects were my first victims. 

Many summers later 

when I thought 

I am a grown up

They sent a young beetle after me.

A suicide bomber packed up

brain washed and all that.

He entered my ear

in a protective gear.

Chewed on the insides 

like a withheld secret. 

Hot oil and water jets 

didn't matter to  him. 

He was on a deep sea mission. 

The whole village was awake

with the screams that night. 

And its ear still rings

of the lore 

of such and such a boy.