Wednesday, February 19, 2025

A fresh dose of joy

 

Fresh winds enlivened the spirit,

Cut through timidity

with the knife of loving familiarity

and friendliness,--

a growing closeness

embracing with a kiss.

Is it bodily attraction,

or pleasant feeling of proximity,

or being relaxed in presence,

or synchronization of thoughts,

or sweet melding of emotions,

or vibes on the same frequency?

The priests of imprisonment

 

God is like the warden

whom we try to bribe

to get into the prison cells

to meet our acquaintances,

family and friends,--

money, power, health, prestige, name, fame.

 

And our fears are the priests,

the lesser gods

manning the doors and wired fences,

We have to placate them too

with obeisance, offerings and rituals.

Tuesday, February 18, 2025

The smoker of memories

 

Passing through the darkness

of the long corridor

smelling of past memories,

Feeling destiny’s roughly hewn walls,

Eyes speaking of pain,

there I walk

with my once golden self turned crumbling chalk.

 

The gently sculpted folds of your love

turned to sharp, cutting edges;

the lovely embroidery and beadwork

turned a rough, barren terrain,

Taking a long drag of smoky memories

from the flaming cigarette of the past,

I cough

and realize

love is rarely enough.

The fallen artist

 

Bright, unrealistic colors of love,

Childish, whimsical, even idiosyncratic,

Painting an alternate reality;

a different dimension of life

on the plain, routine canvas,

We use cheap paints and crude brushes

to shape something

to go along our dreams,--

a concrete solidified dream

in an ephemeral world,

Drawing the outlines of hope, safety, light.

 

Then you realize,

it doesn’t meet your expectations,

So you pick up a soapy mop

to erase the once lovely painting,

which turned into a comic-tragic graffiti,

You become a cleaner

from an artist that you were before.

 

From fine lines to sloppy mop,

Flop!

Why?

Because we have needs in different compartments,

One picture centered around one object

doesn't go into different chambers:

emotions, thoughts, dreams, desires, lust, needs.

 

The brush of love

temporarily appears to wade through

all these different needs,

We believe it’s giving all that we need,

Soon we realize it doesn’t,

The picture disappoints us,

We then just stay with each other,

Trying to believe that

we have happily been together.   

Sunday, February 16, 2025

The dark which is brighter than the light

 

There is a type of darkness

that feels one with fear;

of something of the visible manmade threats,

actions born of hate, greed

and our own fears.

 

Then there is another darkness

that envelops you with friendly embrace,

An invisible representative of all that

which makes you feel good in life.

 

Through darkness I walk by choice,

outweighing the former by the latter,

Darkness is a sieve,

It allows you to segregate good from bad,

I try to cast away the little stones

left above the wire mesh

and let in the fine sand of joy and goodness

trickle into the bowl of my heart.

 

Don’t underestimate darkness,

If you learn to hold

all that which makes you feel good

then it enables you to see

even clearer than the daylight.

Becoming a bigger entity

 

The trees are very kind,

Soak their kindness,

Accept the sweetness of fruits,

the scent of flowers,

the freshness of air,

the beauty of bright dewy mornings,

We are here

to fulfill mother nature’s purpose

by being loving, kind and receptive

to all her smiles and charms,

We do that by

welcoming and feeling that happiness

that oozes form her in pristine forests,

That’s what mother nature wants from us,

And a bit of furthering the same

from our end if we shall.

The core of pain in the bubble of gain

 

So much darkness

under the sunny façade of a bright noon,

So many vulgarities

hidden beneath polished etiquettes,

So much pain and suffering

stocked under confident, smiling faces,

So much hate hidden in seemingly kind hearts,

Funeral songs lurking below gay festivities,

So much pain swallowed by bright eyes,

A kind of grey darkness from inside

flushing something to the surface

that we call good, hope, joy, happiness, lawful

and natural as it should be.