The Poison Ring

                                        

                                                  ..And then it all started again

That long winding hallway

The flank of doors on either side

The fading tunes of "Remember When "

And the glass of chardonnay...

The courtyard overlooking the valley

And broken flames of a dying evening

The gentle warmth of his touch

And sweet memories for her to cling onto...

"What if this war lingers on?"

"I will wait for you"-She said

"What if I never return?"

She remained silent as always..

"And what if I wanted this evening never to end?

Time to stop right here right now?"

"It will be so"-he said with his boyish charm

-"It will be just as you want".....

Taking off his ancestral poison ring

And slipping it on her finger he said

"See I am there always with you

"Right here when you need me the most"

..And the evening died as all evenings should

Promises made and crushed as they should be

But one little promise had stayed alive

Afloat somewhere on the shores of the night

That's why two days later when the cable came

She knew what she had to do

"It will be so"-he had said with his boyish charm

-"It will be just as you want".....

And when the mourners had left for the day

And the evening flames had died down

She stood in the open courtyard

And gently opened his ring...

As a few droplets fell on her tongue

She wondered how little there was..

"That's all?"-she thought and closed her eyes

"That's all there is to life?"...

 And then it all started again..

That long winding hallway

That flank of doors on either side

That fading tune of "Remember When"

And the glass of chardonnay...

 Remember When...

Nariman Nights

Shadows on the gravelled walk

Softly humming a familiar tune

As the city of a million dreams

Slowly dissolves into the night...

The muted flicker of the streetlamps

Shining jewels on the Queen's necklace

Wish they could break free

Right into the magical night's embrace...

With every wave that crashes ashore

And every gust of wind that blows

Silence scripts a thousand words

Letting unbridled emotions flow...

The zoom of a speeding Ducati

And the glare of the magnificent Trident

The nostalgia in the old chaiwallah's voice

And the peace on the dreaming vagabond's face.. 

The bonding of old college friends

Over a round of dumb charade

Or the simmering romance of the newly wed

Walking along hand in hand...

Boundaries merge and colours dissolve

As the painter's palette overturns

Right where the sea and the night sky meets

A magic carpet gets woven to life.

.

..And life continues to ebb and flow

The "city on ecstasy" feels wretchedly forlorn

But for everyone who cares to look

Nariman Nights live on!......

The Tiny Stream

Drops coalesce

With ebbs and flows..

A lazy meander

Through the sparkling trail..

Charting the contours

And filling up voids..

Moistening the scabs

And anointing the cracks...

With every turn

The tiny stream

The depth engulfs..

And time overflows...

The sun speckled brilliance

Glitters like a pearl..

Crested with dreams and

Crusted from the heart...

But fathoms below their deceptive depths

The lonely tears pine for her long lost love......

Rains...Thoughts...and a coffee cup.....

It is raining outside...

Tisn't the blinding downpour

That momentarily sequesters time

Into a blurred , overexposed reel

Sandwiched between two frames of coherence.

Tis rather a restrained lullaby....

Soaking and dripping through the dry soil,

And percolating right into the heart.

Smells of the coy,virgin earth secretly eloping

With the heroic gallance of the reckless winds.

Lingering just long enough to be felt

And then dissolving and melting into dreams....

Dreams that adorn a painter's palette

Right on the edge of the paintbrush

Smudged, overlapped, merged and disjoint

Losing identity to gain a whole new meaning...

Falling drops that gently remind

Of simmering love and shimmering hope,

As the Prince continues his desperate search

For the blue-eyed girl in little glass slippers....

And thoughts get brewed on the coffee froth

As time decides to ponder.

The frosty pane relates a million tales

Through the fingertips of a dreamlost child....

The gloominess outside inspires

A moment to pause, an eternity to feel

As tears of metal dissolves the rouge

Revealing the hideous gash hidden within...

But they say the rain cleanses everything away

And forget we must and we will

Coz there's currents ahead for the sailing paper boat

And a helping hand is what it needs.....

TOGETHER...

Clouds shift apart..
The sun unmasks..
Lullaby of the wind
Puts to rest
A mischievous downpour...
Beats resume
Last few drops
Dripping from the leaf..
Two broken pine fruits
Carried by the wind
Detached into isolation
Finds togetherness again...
A few lonely drops
Split up to give
A million colours
A million dreams...
'Coz just far ahead
Two lovers walk
Hearts drenched together
Hand in hand....

THE LOST COLOUR

Can you feel her tears dripping from the sky?
Her blood oozing out from the split rubber tree.
Her voice crying out through the shrill bamboo slits
As our axe hacks away her petite limbs.

Her satin hair torn out from its roots
Our hands stinking and reeking of her gore.
The crushed white lily sinking down below
As we rape her again and again and again.

And with every drop of blood that spills out of her
We pick up the red ruby that crystallises below.
The silence in the graveyard hums her ode
As the winding road takes us back in circles.

The artist completes his final brushstroke
On the withered remains of “the last leaf”.
The moonlit night still casts a spell below
But the only thing that shines is lifeless steel.

The wind horse strikes sparks on the concrete floors
As tears of metal condense on our cheeks.
Lost childhood cries somewhere inside, unheard
Unaware that the Pied piper plays no more.

Edifices grow up like towering giants
As the bond of love gets buried deeper below.
Everything green outside dissolves
Like a parasite within, green envy thrives .

…But there right beneath the dark steel concrete
A long forgotten seed germinates to life…..

Senses

I have seen her love

Through the eyes of the mother rabbit

Nurturing and fondling her young bunnies.

I have seen her hatred

Through the temper of the raging forest fire

That reduces vibrant life to dull, grey ashes.

I have smelt her fragrance

Rising from the earth

After a brief spell of summer showers.

I have smelt her putridness

In the flesh of a young doe

Being torn to pieces under a tiger’s claw..

I have heard her music

Played on the flute of the wind

Blowing through the crevices of the hanging pine fruit.

I have heard her silence

On a moonless night, walking down the path

That meanders through the country graveyard.

I have tasted her sweetness

In the golden dew of dawn

That breaks the slumber of the sleepy sunflowers.

I have tasted her bitterness

In the stream of the bloody white sap

Running down the bark of a tapped rubber tree.

I have felt her passion

In the sinews of the galloping stallion

Overcoming miles to reach green pastures.

I have felt her anger

In the breath of the brewing storm

Playing a game of dice with humanity.

I have seen her.

I have smelt her.

I have heard her.

I have tasted her.

I have felt her.

And yet she remains the enigma she was….