A cage, ?, an idea (2000)

I am in a cage with no eyes upon me.
I could escape, I could, but to a bigger one.
It is a circus outside. For them, too.
Inside, outside, within, without: mere semantics.
Chewing cud, reclining, let me watch those eyes.

I am a question mark with no question preceding.
Curved, promising, a trace of certainty in the dot,
But the symbol stays preserved, chaste.
Like the pretty girl whom I watch from far,
The question begs to be there; but I stand alone.

I am an idea He thought of- just an idea.
When He smiles, welts appear upon my skin,
At times I cry but I imitate His smile.
When He turns the hour-glass, like the sand I obey,
Trickling thro’ Time, entering a new vacuum.

His Story : A Thought (1991)

I wonder:

Life appears good
With no complain
Along the line
Of a past dream
But, with no joy.

Enemies of no account
Everyone nice
And no woe brought
With hope unfulfilled;
Yet, deemed a loner.

Promises set alright
As dreams
Or reality could wish
And no foul by Fate
Still without love.

Why?

To Money (1998)

Pale grey turning green-
Ever turning the world,
Controlling the mirth,
Dishing out anguish,
Defining relationships.
Yesterday’s lovers,
Today’s friends,
Tomorrow’s strangers.
Shylock’s grace
Was openness;
But here,
Deceptive generosity
Marks your path, O Money…

There is a past… (1999-2001)

There is a past
when the future
was known to me.
I had a dream.
I said,
I have a dream;
she looks
with a sad smile
knowing of the parting;
I watch beauty
and call it love;
life is a night sky
with her eyes
my guiding stars.
I say,
I had a dream;
she looked
with a sad smile
knowing of the parting;
I know;
her eyes like stars
hide behind dark clouds,
life is a stormy sky
with none to guide;
I watch beauty
and still call it love.
I have no dream.
There is a future
when the past
is all that I know.

from My Long Lost Friend (1983)

It was a gloomy place.
That is the place
Where my friend lies.
And I don’t know
Why my happy friend
Should go there.
To such a gloomy place.

We can do a lot of things.
Why did you leave me
Without telling me anything?
“I will come with you.”
“When can I join you
At your place – soon, I hope.”
And with tears I left.

Bye! My friend, Bye!

Black Ant & I (1990)

The black ant crawled along, for so long and so slow,
Crossing barricades towards other barricades;
A champion of its race, victor of life’s battles;
Held within so minute a space- expendable?
There is a way out, the Overlord knows.
Shall I direct it to freedom and let it live,
Or should it be allowed its time in gaol?
Uncertainty shall follow certainty;
But pray, to be followed by certainty.
Death shall be there and so shall life.
If all’s certain, where’s the fight?
Lessons, lessons, lessons- games of the Overlord.
To be made mightier- than you are, black ant!

n.b.

A psycho (logist) might study patterns in expressed thoughts. A reader might realize that it is just (a) lack of style/substance due to sheer laziness (b) limited vocabulary (c) intentional choice.

in flight (1993)

With selfish reason
is youth seasoned-
locked within oneself
grasping the bars
of another’s philosophy-
ever in spurious flight-
amidst hazy nicotine
or smirking inebriety
or inflicting jabs-
for a lapse from conflict
in murky ennui.

Thoughts merely placed-
in parenthesis-
which is within or without
which is in light or in shadow
which is to barricade or to escape-
is a matter of mirth.

Waking to the alarum of resolution-
a clarion call or a swan song-
love or skeptic, live or die?

Sisters raped- scores shock scarred
or is it hundreds hunger hacked
or unto dust thousands torn tortured-
numbers forever seem blurred-

but the black and white is raced through
onto Garfield and invested shares
divested of doubt-

share life with lifeless
in worlds so far away-
or not so?

Thought of a walk (2006)

Thought of a walk
To those green hills
Behind those clouds.
That was a morning thought.
I knew what the day brought.
Vanishing clouds,
Slum scarred slopes.