A Mango Flower

You came in like a mango flower of spring

Shooing away the hangover of a cold winter

The vibrance of a touch of pink, a bit of yellow

Ampleness of green, wavering shades of red!

 

The melodious songs you sang with the cuckoo

The cool breeze and the warm sun you brought

The dances you danced with the chipmunks

Melodious, soothing, joyous and unwinding!

 

The summer interrupted briefly by June showers

A goodbye which was perhaps undeciphered

Searching in seedlings and saplings, Crestfallen

Still dreaming that I will grow old under your shade

 

Have you ever been free?

That when you take a stroll
You hear the birds and leaves
Not the voices in your head

And when you hum a tune
You hear not the disapprovals
But just the song in your head

That you can speak at your will
Express your perceived truth
Unshielded, and unmellowed

And when the load is weary
You can mellow at will too
And aren’t afraid to let go

That you can choose any path
The less travelled by or the other
And even choose not to travel
Have you ever been free?

When Hope and Realism meet and chat

Hello there!, Realism
What is with the flaunting name
Aren’t you merely Pragmatism
Whose taunting makes us tame

Oh! Hello Hope
Aren’t you ‘Daydream’ when drunk?
Hopeless romantic on a dope
You give a high and then we flunk

Ah, I see that Realism!
At least I have my friend faith
You kill joy and bring skepticism
Reduce jovial bodies to wraith

You got it all wrong, Hope
I got all my forecasts right
Your goals are out of scope
A culprit in every hindsight!

Realism! I give dreams
Eclipsing your calculations
I always extend extremes
With boundless imaginations!

Hope! When it is no longer glee
Dreams go and you are in pain
Cross the schism and meet me
And I hope, it won’t go in wane

The Block- 2

Subjects come and go and don’t inspire

Melancholy doesn’t help neither does ire

Characters are hiding behind secret walls

Hopelessness creeps in and I perspire

 

The pen is static and never scrawls

My mind wanders through empty halls

Unholy battle between persist and retire

There are no sparks nor any special calls

 

In a state of perpetual turmoil

Where I feel covered just in voile

Stories to concoct, so much to tell

But words conspire and I just toil

 

Reveries and reminiscences- I yell

Epiphanies- Eviscerate this spell!

Oh dear nature! help me uncoil

Break the block, free me from this shell

Weeping Abstractions

So, heard you killed someone
Who didn’t believe in your abstraction

You felt yours’ was more abstract
And the other’s not so much
Hence you could burn
That lady

And you! You thought nature
Was a better abstraction
So you nicely beat up
The old man

What about you? You lynched
That different one who felt
There was nothing
To Abstract

You both had similar abstractions
But different histories, right?
And hence, dead twins
On a father’s hands

I am sure your masters are overjoyed
But your abstractions weep

The Last Heaven

Will you be the melody at the end of those movies?

When the actors are having their catharsis’

And I am having my epiphanies

 

Will you be my innocent feeling of success and pride?

Which I got on the last day of a junior high class

When I was all ready for the next leap

 

Will you be my uncontrolled joyous anticipation?

In the last phase of the journey

To a glorious vacation

 

Will you be that special bit of food I keep for the end?

And savour slowly with extra joy

No matter how my day was

 

Will you be those happy smileys at the end of a sent message?

After conversations about nothing and everything

Never ending, never really starting

 

Will you be my last heaven?

 

Sensations in Chandni Chowk

 

Hymns, Azaan, bells and kirtans
Amalgamated a melodious fusion
Like an eternal optimist’s dream
Of everlasting love and oneness

The incongruous motley of colours
Of toys, rugs, attires and jewels
Like an inebriated painter’s splash
On the canvas of perpetual vibrance

Aroma of countless royal cuisines
Medley of incense and perfumes
Like the fragrance of a festival
Unending and all-encompassing

Dazzling Jalebis and tantalising kebabs
The solemn lassi and the calming firni
Like lovers, with polar personalities
Chaotic, complementing and devoted

The prismatic splatter of cultures
A promise of colourful coexistence
Hope and mesmerising sensations
In the lovely chaos of Chandni Chowk

The firework

 

The ray of beaming glitter
Moving towards stars
Lighting the dark
Moon’s envy

And suddenly,
Spreads out like
A gigantic peacock
Of Sapphires and rubies

Pure euphoria
But ephemeral joy
Disappears in no time
Pleading not to get attached

Ah!, with that glow and radiance
Sparkled my heart and mind
Leaving a vacuum and,
Few impressions

The Leaf

I grew up in a 30 feet tall tree

In the branch closer to the sea

Five feet below the giant crown

Above a valley across the town

 

In my branch we were abundant

The number, no one really knew

Very alike, almost equally we grew

But none of us were redundant

 

I was one in many, but not ordinary

Daily I captured the wind and light

Made fuel and kept the stem merry

And that also kept the petals bright

 

We had fun, and we had laughter

When clouds were grey and noisy

The water came pouring thereafter

More food, no work, all so rosy

 

We swished, rustled and whispered

In festive season, we changed colours

But once in the storm, many withered

I had to work for many lost brothers

 

You may say, I was one in a billion

An inconsequential figment in the hive

Yet I lived, laughed, danced and cried

Open your eyes, I kept the world alive

 

Curse of the modern Spectacle

 

The unheard melody
Of the flute seller
Dressed in rags, unclean
No online concert tickets

The unseen film
With a resonating story
Very few stars by critics and
Online mockery all around

The unread quote
Of the lonely misfit
Missed the uplifting epiphany
It didn’t have enough likes

The unfelt serenity
Of the picturesque hills
Near your grandma’s place
Not a listed destination

The unfulfilled intimacy
Of the heart’s alter ego
But the missing approvals
For the representation of joy