Wednesday 17 February 2021

How Do Your Unlearn?

how do you unlearn 
how to think?
how do you unlearn 
the bad habits that have 
a dictatorial grip on you?

how do you learn to live again?
free from your accustomed pain 
free from anything that holds you back 
just how?

how do you learn not think 
to live free like the wind 
roaming without a care 
and be home anywhere 

Tuesday 16 February 2021

The Kind

we were the kind the sought 

refuge in the cold embrace of the night 

we were the kind whom we thought 

our souls were reinforced with concrete 


but then we mellowed

and slipped into the graceful 

cracks of life, 

hiding in dark crevices 

craving the sweet touch of solitude 

in the wee hours of the morning 


but alas!

nothing worked 

nothing ever seemed to be 

we are alone, aging horribly 

waiting for trains that derailed 

a long time ago 



It's Not About Men

the price women pay for beauty, 
sometimes, is just way too steep
she wakes up early, without make up 
and her husband does not notice 
unless the difference is too stark 

she fixes her acrylic nails by the salon 
a mix of blue, and other colors 
a man can never tell apart
why is she fixing talons?
is she an eagle, fixing her hunting tools?

and, one time, because you had never met 
you offered a qualified opinion 
"no man cares about these things." 
and she gingerly answers 
"it's never about men
it's because I like it." 

may be the price of beauty 
just as steep as it may be
has never been all about men 
it is about the women, of course 
whichever way you interpret it 

Money is Funny

it's funny, 
money is funny my friend 
it changes people 
it changes a friend to a foe 
but does it really change people?
or does it amplify their character? 

Lord, do not give me much of it
Give me enough
to support my obsessions 
and my basic needs 
make me a model man 


money has changed people 
money is funny 
money comes and goes 
people change and become normal again 
people's character's are determined by 
the amount of money they have 

Nothing Makes Sense

There are stories that don’t make sense

And because of that, they are great stories

Regaled over time, over centuries

And yet without the words

Because the story involves a woman and a man

All good stories – including even those that make sense

Always involve a woman and a man

Especially at the vulnerable moment – naked

 

Man and woman meet one time

The two do not have anything similar

Except because they are bipedal

And breath in oxygen

But then nature somehow makes them

Fall in love

 

‘We do not make sense,’ the woman swats him away.

The man does not go away

‘So does the universe,’ he responds

If he was a poet, he will rhyme

“That’s some up us,

We do not have make sense

Because the universe is made of so much nonsense,”

 

One time, even without any prompting

They realize that they have made a baby

They do not understand how it happened

Because nothing makes sense

It was an accident, they tell their parents

Well, they do not tell their parents

She tells her parents – all alone

Because that makes sense to her

But it does not make sense to her parents

And her boyfriend who has already fled to Chalbi desert


The Dry Well

The little drizzle flowed into the well

The water gathered to commune

With thirsty men and women

Everybody knows it wouldn’t last

Even I knew it would not last

But I camped by the well

For days on end quenching thirst

Oblivious of the days I’d go thirsty

But then such kind of thoughts never gather

For in the little drizzle, I confused for abundance

I even became generous, dishing the little to strangers

Way before even my loved ones reached the well

I bragged that the well was my own bounty

For I have stayed longer beside this dry well

Waiting for the little drizzle

And now I am by the dry well, waiting

Want To Want Me

Nostalgia,

Jason Derulo hits a note

‘Just the thought of you

Just the thought of you

Gets me so hiiiiiiigh’

 

I am sitting alone in an empty classroom,

Chairs piled arranged as by someone

who was suffering from acute diarrhea

but had to get the job done

and to distract my loneliness

I whipped my phone and played Jason Derulo

And then the message came through

The lecture had bounced

 

I cursed

I missed a few hours of precious sleep,

For this?

Betrayal.

Betrayal.

 

A while early, the unwelcome sound of the alarm

Made me think ‘It dawns so early these days,

I just slept a few minutes ago.’

Back then sleep was not elusive

 

 

I tossed my belongings inside the locker

My roommate was also awake, sitting on the top bunker

Also wondering why dawn comes early

A quick shower and moments later I am out

The day dragged on as days always do

And when evening came

An ominous foreboding washed over me

The door to our hostel room was unlocked

Unusual

I checked my locker and my laptop was missing

And now, so many years later

Listening to Jason Derulo

I reminisce that dark morning

And I miss my laptop who we got unceremoniously separated

My precious poems went with it