Sunday, December 22, 2019

The Cacophony



Flames burning high

Death, destruction, loot all around

Evil men

Pronounce judgement.



In the deafening cacophony

Of thoughts, screams, interests,

Of mirages, half truths, lies,

Of agendas, vengeance & shame.



The weak mind wonders

What to make

Of injustice, inequality

Of distress & its ramifications.



The privileged never bleed

Bloodshed is for the unknown

Wounds & cracked skulls

Are the seeds of radicalisation.



Today's romance

Is tomorrow's regret.

Our children

Will question.



They will be criminalised

Their blood will soak the streets

They will lose their all

In the vain hope of change.



But we never taught them

That rebellion is violent

We told them it was glorious

We said it would bring meaning.



We never showed them

That rebellion is irreversible

That life will change forever

And they will never be the same again.



We never told them

That our words are laced with propaganda

With hate, not toward them

We ushered them to their destiny.




Without regret, without shame

We let them take the beatings

We let them break their bones

We let them go into police stations



We let them cry in rage

We provoked them onto the streets

We let them believe half truths

We fed them lies.




And then in the end

When the ashes go cold

We will tell them they did well

But we will never say


That their lives are ruined

Forever

That they are criminals

Forever.



That the police will come to their homes

Every time something goes wrong

That they will be looked upon

As criminals, Maoists, terrorists.



We did not tell them

That we created that future

For them, knowingly

Deliberately




To further our own gains

To satisfy our own agendas

We who sit in comfort

We who never bleed.



We who manipulate

As much as the ones we hate

We who have no soul

In our quest for vengeance.




We never told you

That you are, but a tool

We will forget you soon

And move on to the next generation.




Saturday, February 2, 2019

The End of Grey-Blue


February 3, 2019



She wandered

As passersby looked askance

At the unstoppable tears

Streaming.



The river in her

Had turned into the sea

She wandered

Looking for herself.



The self she had lost

To the sea roaring

The salt drying

On her eyelashes.



Breaking them

One by one

She wandered

To the familiar.



The memories

Of a river

She sat

At the same tables.



She looked through

The same eyes

The memories

Of blue now



Turned again

Into unrelenting grey

She looked through

The sea furious



Straining to see

If the memories

Still lived

In her, yes.



She counted her steps

On the concrete

A gaping hole in her

Filled with a swirling sea.



She mocked herself

For her vanity

For believing in love

For believing.



She turned on herself

Clawing at her sea-filled eyes

Talons in her stomach

Ice in her veins.



She screamed endlessly

Without a sound

The traitor heart

Elsewhere, forever.



She is waiting

For her mind

To tell her

To stop the pain.



Incoherent, she waits

For some order

A final decision

That final push.



She drowned in the violent sea

Of her own making

What is left is the shell

Which too must turn to ash.



That familiar jumble

That familiar horror and anxiety

That familiar madness

Has crept up again.


The end is blessedly near.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

The Elf, The Reindeer, North & South

November 2016

"Do you know," began the elf, his significant ears evident. "What it is like to be loved?"

"Oh yes, I do indeed," cried the reindeer. "I have been well-loved... an age ago."

"Oh, but you haven't," exclaimed the elf leaning in closer, blue eyes alight. "Not unless you've been loved by the North-South. Anyone loved by the North-South is destroyed forever."

"The North-South..." pondered the reindeer. "What is that like?"

"I have been loved," said the little elf. "I am. I will be. Unto eternity."

"It is like mist," he said. "It gets into your eyes, your nose, your pores, your lungs and leaves you blind, panicked, not knowing where you are going and when the fall shall come."

"And it is like cloud. Light, wispy, delightful and makes you believe you are soaring high, where no sorrow of the world can touch you."

"It completes and undoes. The maddening passion, reckless desire, all stops blown out, your old wounds reopened and nursed back to nothingness. New wounds, more painful than the dull ache of the old scars, weight in my heart while my body and mind soar with abandon."

"She will seduce, amuse, rouse unknown intensities of emotion, she will toss you, flip you, discard you without mercy. She will shower you with the love of a thousand good women - of mothers and lovers and wives and daughters. And she will imbibe you somehow - you will merge into her and you will surge with her and you will fall with her. She will scream, cry, accuse you of betrayal, of deserting her, of not having loved enough, of not having loved at all. She will breeze into your world and take it over as you watch, rapt, unblinking, mesmerised by this creature with the laughter of a lifetime, the love of eternity, the curse of extremity."

"Did you fall under her spell?" asked the reindeer in wonder.

"Fall?" laughed the elf as he scratched the mole behind his ear. "I was consumed. I ceased to exist. I gave myself to her riptide, tossed about willingly, almost joyously, as a broken catamaran."

"But?" asked the reindeer, suddenly fearful.

"When North-South loves..." began the elf slowly. "There always comes a time when the storm passes. And in a snap of the fingers, she will leave. Without looking back. Perhaps, even without saying goodbye."

"Are you not afraid?" cried the reindeer, panic stricken now for his friend, the blue-eyed elf with the mole behind his ear and the roots turned silver.

"But I do not exist anymore!" said the elf, smiling softly as the memory of a kiss overtook him.


And he hummed and he skipped and he surfed the cloud, awaiting, almost fearlessly, the next fall. 

Childhood Nightmare

October 2016

Is loving a sin?
Can desire be bitter?
Can we learn
To lie like truth?

I lay like truth today
That familiar bitterness
Seeping from my pores
Sinner, liar, layer.

And it dripped
And dripped
And dripped
Slow, rhythmic

Now a faster cadence
And I, fearful, boxed in
Lonely, unheard
The drip-drip overwhelmed

Drowned me
As I fought futile
And suddenly, blink!
Silence again

Far in the distance
Of memory
Woke a child. 

Nothing Is Lost Forever

October 2016

When humans found language
They lost something.
For some experiences
There can be no words.

I saw a butterfly today
Dead and disintegrating
Food for ants
From death was given life.

I read somewhere yesterday
"Nothing is lost forever"
Truer words were not written.

Gazing upon the almost
Non-existent brow
Putting my lips to them
I experience a surge of something.

Affection? Love? Not quite.
I'll call it ITA.
I don't know what it means

When I press my lips
To the cheek, close to the eyes
The soft chubby part
I know I want that forever

When I feel a gaze upon me
I know it is mine alone
Every second we morph
And change.

One second we're performing
One character
Another second,
Quite another.

Are we one thing or many?
Is ITA the same or varied?
Does my ITA experience
Emerge similarly in another?
One will never know.

I want to polish my soul
Cobwebs have built around it
My spiders are hard at work.

I want to give up ego
I want to give up identity
I want to give up position

I want to win.

And I want the dusty rail
Carriages of my country
To crow about how

A man came once
On a pony, on a boat, on a truck
And laughed so hard
Delighted with himself.

Blue eyes shining
And looked up at the sky
Opened his arms
And let go - of ego, identity, position

And won... at long last.

In the pouring rain
On red earth
We will melt and dissolve
Merge into one.

Someday... maybe.
"Nothing is lost forever."

Irrational Fears

​June 2016

Night rushes in 
Fog falls over my mind
Heavy, unwieldy
I search for you.



Breath catches
Frantic now
Irrational, afraid,
That you are gone.

When I know
You will stay
You will love
You will be.

And I know too
You care
More than
Anyone can.

I also know
Spring is round the corner
Winters never last
Your sunshine envelops.

But fickle, the mind
Afraid to lose
Fearful of no
Terrified of dislike.

And I know too
If indifference arrives
It will affect just one
Never the twain.

Dread and love
Are rancid
No peace can exist
But in your arms.

I love you.  

Moss

April 09, 2016

I wish
To grow
Moss upon
Your mind


Encroach you
Suffocate
Will you
To my thoughts

Give you
A new pair
Of eyes
Look!

Mesmeric
Uncontrolled
Beauty resides
Within

Fierce
Uncontrollable
Unconditional
Passion

Not of the body
No
Of centuries
Of time

Of wasted youth
Of wasteful lives
Of redemption
Of its relief

Passion indeed
Of souls kindred
Of the other half
Not better

Merely identical
Never
The body
No.

Let my moss
Grow
On your mind
Let me be

Your filter
That turns
Yellow light
Into gold

Let me be
Your aching feet
Let me be
The thought

That warms
Let me be
The second skin
Of endless lustre

Of hyperbole
Of beginnings
Of rapture
Of song

Lie on me
Let me grow
Over you
Joined forever

Under the wet earth.