Crammed Quarters

The notion of equality is vague,
Utopian,
Not so to the young,
Who don’t know yet,
What’s wrong with our world,
For every child that spends his mornings in school learning,
There will be one selling bananas in the hot sun,
The school goer is pampered with toys and homework,
While the other loses his father to the local alcohol,
Growing up with uncles and aunts,
In crammed quarters,
Crammed in mind and body,
One day just like his father,
He too shall give up on his dreams,
Spit on big cars, resent the educated occupants,
And end up like him,
Or worse sire children and litter the streets,
With some more adolescent dreams of making it big.

Wind and I

The sound of waves lapping against each other,
Is so gently carried by the wind,
That one would think that there’s a great conspiracy,
To keep mankind from drinking this bliss.

What does the wind look like?
In the distance,
I see the tall trees sway their heads madly,
I know she’s there,
I struggle to keep my hair from flying,
And I know she’s here,
But when the bird of my soul yearns for the sky,
At last, she has stepped inside,
To drown in the wind,
In this sea of timelessness,
Is to have surfaced on the other side,
Like the unseen wind,
That, which cannot be seen,
A glimpse of that unknown force,
To which the spirit bows,
Not in surrender but in recognition,
The wind alone can take me there,
Across the boundaries of what the eye can see.

A Speck

When I lose my humanity,
And there are many moments in the day,
When it slips past unnoticed,
When it does,
I am a lot angrier than I should be,
A lot more loud,
As if I can’t hear my own voice,
Running from dreams of other’s drama filled lives,
My own in that moment seems quite sane,
Organised,
As if I knew exactly what I had set out to achieve,
Truth is I don’t know,
Never did,
It has always been this hazy...

In the prison of open walls,
The one that reads, ‘I have it all together’,
I am locked up with my selfish thoughts,
Scribbling graffiti of, ‘I care a damn’,
Smart and chic like the rest of the world,
Hollow and desolate too,
Strangely it’s their hunger that pulls me out,
A starving canine,
A shrewd old beggar,
A softly crying parent,
The whole of creation seems hungry,
Chaste and angry,
As abruptly as it leaves
Humanity creeps right back in,
For the briefest of time maybe,
But I know this is who I want to be,
A speck who’s not afraid to feel.

Thick Rimmed Glasses

You look handsome in those thick rimmed glasses,

White shirt with denim buttons,  blue jeans,

 Early forties, I would say,

You are leaving to catch a train,

Like you always did,

When your leave was over...

You are happy,

I sulk,

You’ll be gone another six months,

That’s the part ingrained in the head,

Where you laugh, joke, tickle us to death,

And little brother and I vie for your love,

It’s different world,

To which I often return,

Your presence changes the equation,

It fills the dark patches with colour,

It makes me want to get better,

To recreate the old magic of innocence and laughter.

But just as in life,

In the dream too,

You must return,

The father and child chapter,

Doesn’t run in too many pages,

The villains of our story,

Death, disease and darkness,

Have little patience...

Sweet Mango

From where the restlessness ends,

Begins another epic journey,

Into the soul of man,

How do I describe it?

Such intoxication cannot be captured,

In the many languages of the world,

It’s the taste of sweet mango in the summer,

After a long, damp winter without the sun,

It’s the silence of a herd,

 Grazing on a grass so green,

The shepherd and the sheep become one,

It’s a love that becomes loving,

Not tidal but ever flowing,

Nothing seem strange,

The awkward moments are gone,

And every hand is my own,

Sitting quietly,

I wait for no one,

Know that the rewards never fall from the sky,

The birth is within...

I Know This Song

The song is old,

Deep its resonance,

I don't hear the music,

I feel it in my bones.

The song is outside of me,

When the clouds play in the sky,

The sun dances in the balcony

And the wind kisses the trees,

The notes of sheer joy,

Rise from within.

I know this song from before,

It's the song of creation,

The river that ever flows.

And It Shall Rain

Looks like its going to rain,
The build up of clouds,
The hide and seek of light,
The parched green throats,
And those expectant eyes,
Wish for rain,
And there'll be rain,
Nature has read the bible,
The part where it says,
'Ask and you shall receive'.

Much To Give

We have become so jaded,

Less humane,

There is trickery in the world,

But only in bits and pieces,

There is misery,

But only what we carry,

There is so much love to give,

To those who don’t ask for it,

And need it nevertheless...

Lying on the tiled floor in the heat,

I wonder what goes on in her head,

Does she pray for the pain to go away?

Or curse that she struggles to earn a living,

Or maybe resent the harsh, blaring voice,

Devoid of understanding,

Or maybe she thanks God,

For the kind words that pierce the shell of pain.