They are burning effigies, it’s that time of the season, Ones in flesh and bones are hatching crimes of the season. Bandits from the barrens decree beheading of the infidel, And savour blinkered women over the wine of the season.…
Tag: Poetry
My Aunt’s Lollipops
Such divinations she planted in my ears,my aunt, who died on a cloudy day,spelling out the mantras to allay my fears,and reading the omens that came my way. Success will surely pass you byif you tread on a broom as…
The Aroma of Darkness
Many a misty mantillashimmered over lights gone pale,the shapeless shores of myopiacaught me early on the trail. To a youth with glassy countenancecame another shadow in tow,an accomplice dubbed astigmia,deepening what myopia sowed. In the deepening ink of eventide,hyperopia spreads…
I Knew I Shall Weep
Where walkways were fragrant with you, I shall weep, It was not till I left your city, I knew I shall weep. Affinity is at discount in the market of subsistence; There are thousands in the meandering queue, I shall…
Just a Thread on the Trunk
The page remainedunblemished across the night,waiting for letters. But why sniffle a haikuWhen one can weep a sea? The peepal wears a new green sheath.It shimmers and quivers in thebarely felt breeze.Everywhere around it is nothingbut baked dust, caked fields,and…
The Springtime Wind —A Translation
Basanti Hawa, or the ‘Springtime Wind’, was the first Hindi poem I fell in love with, early in my childhood. It is written by Kedarnath Agarwal, a much-awarded doyen of Hindi literature. The poem captures the freshness, fullness and essence…
The Cleaver of Oblivion
The Milky Way is white and frigid with the fever of oblivion; A billion suns will be battered by the cleaver of oblivion. Remember not the love songs lost nor the updraughts of passion; Drowned in a moat of disdain,…
Malice of Zinfandel
Silver grey on temple peaks is the fern of the New Year. The sun has grown wrinkles at the turn of the New Year. Candlelit stilettos turned sherry red in a nightclub, Istanbul is freshly dug cavern of the New…
A Byte of Moonshine
Sharpen now a crescent for the rite of moonshine, Bullets will not halt the flight of moonshine. Clouds germinate on the zephyrs from wet hills, The heart leaps windward with the kite of moonshine. I count my blessings over…
A Dewdrop Ghazal
Get me worms of silk for the runes and a dewdrop, Seven folds of veil for a cocoon and a dewdrop. The mirror is in youth, and the jasmine in bloom, Smoky is the kohl like the moon in a…
With the Cicadas
The evening is long with shadows of the afternoon chopped and spent at the edges of green black leaves of pubescent jackfruit trees. With the cicadas I pause and creek. With the cicadas I wax and shrink. A blackbird took…
An Open Puzzle to Haiku Writers
Rose gold iPhone Fingerprints of feather Haiku they wrote. The bowels jettison Smokes of pot noodle Dawn, noon and dusk. Grumbling in the groin The brooding, wet cistern Agrees and sprays. Young eves frolic In the pale light of the…
One Grain Amongst the Storm 