The Chiaroscuro

The poverty we faced
united our problems
and we loved those travels
in carts buses autos rickshaws
when our bodies radiating love
brushed  shoulders in  warmth

The umbrellas that hooded us
in its vain attempt to shield
from the heavy rains
showered love till we were drenched.
our bodies by then twining into one
singing the unsung  song of love.

The house with its thatched roof
tyndallling the sunlight torch
awoke us from that  single  light cot
made heavy with the struggles
of our loves labour -  
the soporific love against the weltschmerz

The chiaroscuro hung on the loving wall
A happy witness to all.


we were one against all
one against odds
we were superposed
that no might could part.

and now-

the umbrellas are torn away
by those heavywinds of wealth
The big SUV belts us apart
 the sun , the showers , the heat
a distant myth to our rich world.

The bungalow that marred the sun
ends us at the distant dreams of our
family cot, made with finest wood !
The  lugubrious carvings on it
immure us in our bedraggled love!

The chiaroscuro hanging on the cold wall
A dumb witness to all.


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DOWN THE VALLEYS OF TIME

The greying hair I noticed today
hidden amidst the blacks
fails to jolt me to the present
to accept my youth that has passed.

The moonlight filters through the windows
no- not disturbing my sleep- for i sleep not
The soiled vessels and blackened pots
wait for me when the day arrives.

The floors to sweep, the soiled clothes
the cobwebs and dust to clean and clear
And me the fly caught in those cobwebs
of life's  never ending love and litter.

The teeth now  has lost its lustre
The enamels exposed to the jaundiced yellow
like little toy soldiers, they had once stood
neat and polished in life's perfect symmetry.

The hollow cheek sunken deep
leaves no clue of the dimpled past.
It was hard to believe that those drooping ,sagging ,
breasts were once marigolds in their blooms.

Those fingers which had housed
those painted beauties of shaped nails
now gone numb with soap and soot
weep in those wrinkled , hardened palms.

Yet that impertinence ,the impudence sticks on.
The body in its journey , leaves the mind behind
in search of doors without keys
A vassalling  to the dreamy minds.

The torso has started its retreat
to deaths valley, down corridors of time
The mind still moving on and on
in search of new pastures and plains.

Me- caught between these two travellers
Knowing not , to accompany whom?
Will they ever meet in their travel?
if then- Where will i be?
 or rather
What will i be?

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DELUGE

The river remained like a squashed eel
An eyesore to the ferry man
Who sat hunched in the dry ferry
He was scared ...deadly scarred
The overflowing men shrouded in black
had beat him black and blue
For he had tried to stop the mining pillars
into the heart of the sparkling water s.
Dead fish lay scattered
Turtles gasped for air
The  glimmer  the sun sent across
was the last sigh of bedraggled river
The ferry man was frightened
 the curse of the naiad and nymphs
The men had flayed it alive
Raped the breath out of her, defenceless
And he, her love, could not  move a finger.
And soon they found him
Heart burst open in the mushy land
The ferry , mediator of his eternal love
Bobbing back and forth,
Unbelievingly
In the filthy remanents of her waters.
And then all hell broke lose.
Like mute heralds
The skies flashed it lightning
The water unleash ed from heavens
 awoke her from her slumber
She swelled and roared..
Like a troubled horse which lost its master
the ferry moored to its pole by chains...
She held it to her bosom and swirled
And took along with it
What was  once called the City of God!