Moonlight

The moonlight stops short

Of the balcony window,

At a particular time in the night

The tiled floor catches the moon's

Reflection and robs the eyes of sleep,

Other nights in another city come back

To remind you of when you lay awake

Listening to the sleepless dogs wagging

Their tongues and dreaming of tomorrow

You imagine walking the moon across

Familiar roads back to the river bridge

From where you see the temple towers

Raise folded hands towards the sky with clouds

Ready to bear any tidings to any place

If you are awake and looking at this moon

Pray that this serenity return to skies

Everywhere and children sleep peacefully

And go to school and come home safe.

Shrouds

Those little girls did not go home

That day from school and learnt a truth

They could not tell anyone they knew

Think of the mothers who cannot fill

The screaming absences left behind

Heard above the wail of air-raid sirens

At night they wake from fitful sleep

Thinking they heard those little steps

Patter again like rain around the house

The full moon often wears her round face

That when it wanes there is a dying again --

Tyrants who weep that girls are in chador

Hardly wince when sending them shrouds.

Do not

Do not ask children

To be soldiers

In your adult unequal wars

In your Herod-like genocide

Do not make them keep counting the seconds

Mother lasted before she was counted dead

When the father too had counted himself  dead earlier

Do not make them sleep

In the ruins of their homes

Watching the sky where there

Was ceiling and keep staring

At stars till they moved away

Unable to look at all this darkness

Do not make them write wills

Leaving their toys to children

Who too may die as children

Do not do not do not do not do all that

Then you go home and put children to bed.

Waiting

The blank page
Waits for words
To fill its emptiness,
The bare blue sky
Will not mind
Even barren clouds,
The white wall
Wails for
A child's scrawl,
The lonely aadi wind
Knocks on doors, windows
Crying to be let in,
Dreams stand orphaned
In every street
Of the sleepless city.

Lust

In the dark
Colours lie awake
For the day to break,
Roosters sleep light
Cannot wait
Serenade false dawns,
The dream brings those
Who have vowed
Never to step
Into the house,
White chases tan
While brown blanches
Ochre darkens
With lust
Turns ogre
Finds the door shut.

Colours of desire

When we meet
We swap lists
Of what we have bought,
She looks admiringly
At my designer wear
Praises my taste
Envies my luck
At getting a rare shade
Extracts a promise
To get one for her;
Pleased, I seek her tips
For repainting my house
I tell her I liked her decor
The last time I visited her;
After making a fresh list
Of what was new in the market
And what we needed to buy
We take leave, heads bursting
With the colours of desire

The deep

The hands are tired
From clappping
For those
Who leave little for others,
The throat is hoarse
From singing praises
To someone whose miracles
Include taking away
The little there is left,
The feet are weary
Of the mountain path
Leading to an empty shrine,
The eyes keep looking at the skies
Hoping for signs of cracks
The ears want to hear
The rumble of volcanoes in the deep
Which wants to give up the dead.