Smile

It was commonplace

To be stopped

While crossing the road

To be asked

If I was your child

Because an old friend of yours

Saw a familiar smile in a strange face.

You will always be with me

For I carry your smile forever.

I am the flesh of your flesh

You live on in me,

So too in others, born of you, to you.

Across the Valley

Narrow the path

Hard the stones

Sharp the thorns

Difficult the way

The Christ my shepherd

His cross my succour

His peace my salvation

His father’s house my eternal home.

(My father passed away peacefully in his sleep last Thursday. His concern for all and his cheerfulness will continue to guide me everyday.This poem is a simple expression of the deep and abiding faith with which he travelled the rocky road these last few months.)

Missing you

My house sighs in silence

As echoes of your laughter

Fill it still.

Day's end

At sunset
the world turns
peels the sea
inside out
drowns the orange
turns all black.
Await the sunrise.

The cat, the fish and I

see the cat unceasingly blink

while it loudly mews

and repeatedly  spews

the remnants of the fish

moily.

look at the mess

it made on the lovely  lace doily.

like a cess-

pool but the stink

rises to high heaven.

i hold my breath for ten

whole seconds but

when I breathe again it crush-

es me with the power of rot.

Fact

To tell you the truth

Which I do

When I’m not lying through my front tooth

The one that’s left

Not the one that fell

And makes me say foo for poo

With a gap that turns purple furfel

I more than miss you, I’m bereft.

Consumed

You 
were a good read.

I feel your pages and taste

them as I close you one last time.

One by one I sniff, I feed

I digest. I could not waste
you. 
Why, it would have been a colossal crime.

Fool

You could have broken my heart
You chose instead to criticise my art.
You belong in my bed
You. Man! Not in my head.
Never in my mind

That is closed with a blind
It opens when I bid
My third eye's lid

I can feel you try to prise
The edge apart. Know it’s unwise
To trigger a sound-spill
Of words ready for the kill.
When you don’t play the fool well
What was warm will close to a dark hot hell.

Hmmm...

Hmmm...
That, by the way, is the sound of a thought buzzing in my head.
Like the proverbial bee in the bonnet
It buzzes.
Softly but surely,
It buzzes.
And when it does,
you may be busy
But oh oh oh,
You just heard the buzz.

Creation

So,
hammer in the nails
invisible let them finish
the rosette
the sunset
the birth
the earth
the universe
the verse
things small and biggish
So,
Is the boson is in the details?

Enough

Zipping by
Passing me
Blurs of all sizes
On the information highway
Bullet bytes and super fasts
Speed by the expressway
Blue and green
Red and yellow
Techno-colour flashes
Crowd out life
Till with blinking eyes
And thawing brain
I peer, I search
I find the exit sign.

Mothering

Your voice shoots out

In a staccato shout

The unceasing hail of words

Sprays backwards and forwards

Your scolds have disfigured the walls
Unevenly peppered them with holes

Dodging them stands the battered teen

Prisoner of war, your older son

While you wield, remote and unseen

Your phone, the ultimate weapon.

Where's the angst?

I wrote and wrote

And then one day

Question in hand

An uncle smote

Me to the sand

You’ve nothing to say

Said he I’ve nothing against

Froth but really, where’s the angst

Divorced

Remarkably red are the seeds

Spilt on the mat of reeds

It’s not all that often

You see displayed a heart

Not peeled, not shelled

Just split wide open

Two halves lie far apart

A love no more closely held

It would not be fair to call it hate
But I did see the sun scorch their pomegranate

Love

Soft blankets cover

Tiny feet warm, secure

I remember

A kiss on the hair

When the rain stays

Dammit, rain

I love you and all that

But have you seen the basket

Piled with laundry

Overflowing into the bucket

Next to the bathroom door

Dammit, rain

My plants are growing

But the yellow clothesline

From the areca palm

To the front window

Is empty

Those are pins not birds

Not even the birds are out

Dammit, rain

Don’t you ever stop?

When the rain comes

O, when the koel cries

Then the earth softly sighs

Her gentle, fond goodbyes

To retreating blue summer skies

O, set the bells to ring

Come with open heart to sing

When dark grey clouds wing

Your way and rain they bring

O, from the madly waving crops
To the pirouette of the drops

The rain dances on the hilltops

Through every field and copse

O, the monsoon music floats

From those laughing paper boats

When every field with water bloats

Rain fills the world with moats

O, as water falls and falls again

Flooding right through every vein

This sweet singing heart so plain

Ever rejoices with the rain

Sometimes

Sometimes I want to go up in flames

Be angry and throw tantrums.
Sometimes I wish I could cling

Be needy and weak-minded.

Sometimes I long to cry

Be moody and teary-eyed.

Sometimes I'd like to walk away

Be carefree and irresponsible.
Sometimes I pray nobody knows

Just what I wish for sometimes.

Not haiku 3

Heavy drops hang
Rain clouds darken
Drenched leaves quiver

Familiarity

More than sport

There’s a certain comfort

When touch sees

And reality brings peace.