Hushed moans all around
The dilapidated cottage
Obsessed by a call
I’ve come
For an appalling reunion
With the ghosts
Of my forebears
A touch sets off
The rush of adrenaline
Not a moth
Neither a waft
Not the incense
Of ginger lily
Jade to bear witness
I am not here
Far off
In a sinister study
I peruse a memoir
Between the lines
My penitence surfaces
Incises
In the vein of a stiletto,
To my shock—-
I am torn apart.
This summer has been too long, yes, too long.It gets warmer as days pass by like the warmth of urine spreading across freshly -pissed on patch of earth.No scent of rain to cheer my soul, souls need cheering, you know.…
I am sixty-four and retired.The nurses with white clipper crownsAre chattering medicationFor the stroke patientWho arrived Sunday lastAnd about his chicken-shit NeuroWith a penchant for eating Ilish Beja fry.Holter wires and Intravenous tubes removed,I look out the window behindFrom the…
When the evening light fadesleaving behind a trail of memoriesremember me, love.In the haunting nightsof neon-lit alleywaysWearing a black kurta, with a ‘Q & Q’Quartz wrist-watchThat my father gave.The jhumka1 that adorns youPuts my soul in a tranceWhere the distant…
Can you hearremnants of whispersechoing through thedistant lands of death?Where crushed twigslike lace, lie atthe taakh1, in tightembrace of solitude.The songs of lovesung here – that dwell in myheart’s cave – guard decadenttombs in tumult.Nostalgic scents waftof those buried withtheir…
Lifted in a blanket of white, always Floating drifting away into the familiar unknown Veiled by a thin misty layer, Everywhere you go. When was the last time you felt like you, you thought like you, you were really awake…
Goxanis had long, flowing hair, slaying demons who had ungodliness spiraling out of their skull. Rakshasi. That slur had coiled around her like a Malati on a bamboo trellis. It was a trenchant rhyme recited by schoolboysfollowing her like shikras.…
If I cannot have you, allow me to love your shadow,even though Icannot hold itclose to my breath.If I cannot lie with youin the thorns and flowersof romance, leave me the clippings of your finger nailsto put in a locketnext…
As disposable as bagsof plastic, as parents whose duty is done, as any condom, as an employee whose time has come, as a wife infertile, as an election posterafter the lies have all been bought,as a prostitute’s feelings,as toys an…
We met in the admissions line in junior college. I ran to grab the place behind you, hoping you would talk to me. I am sorry you did.You asked me if I’d like to come to your birthday party. I…
Four days late.Patience’s cupboardnow lies bare.Six and forty games of mindless solitaire.Two people wait for the water to break.One trickle. One gush.One, ‘Oh god!’, and one, ‘did you get my stuff?’Seven cabs go by.Curses too, multiplied by two.One stops, many…
The dancers align All red birds with golden crests.They twirl and bend and glide, like god’s own beamIf not for their red robes, they might well be swans.The drums and violin join the stream.A gentle melody in sight and sound…
Let words be words, said strung on precarious, unthinking lines.A fall into an abyss, a person’s self-worth, deep down into damning darkness, no light at the end of a long-winded, long-timed tunnel.A stranger, a loved one, an acquaintance, a friend,or…