Time

Time repeats itself

It tires of the new

Brings back the old

Pretends it's new

Fashions reappear

Icons are debunked

Then they are buried

Till someone finds

Overlooked virtues 

Nobody can go back

But everything returns

The rituals are circles

A millenium is resurrected

When words are uttered

No time is lost for seasons

Recur and the grandson

Who looks like the hrandfather

Is reborn to the same fate 

Time favours dead poets

Recites their words anew

To the delight of trees

And birds he sang of.

Redeemer

Now is the time to

Talk of the silence

Engulfing you like grief

Of words that wouldn't

let you sleep

Till you made sense of them

All the sorrows of the world

Seem to hide in the

darkness of the night

Think of feet trudging

in individual deserts

Amid rolling meadows of affluence

Their skies draw no clouds

Do not know the respite of rain

There the drones chase the

children in sleep

And death is redeemer.

Even if

Do not invite death, who must earn his keep ---

Even if you fail again

Even if you see your

dream snatched away

Even if everyone knows

you didn't make it

Even if everyone sees you fall

Even if you see everyone laugh at your plight

Even if you are now on the stage of darkness

With no one around you but ghosts of your failures

To listen to your soliloquy of defeat

Even if the dogs around you smell your fear

And bark and bark as if you are a threat to them

There is still your breath coming and going

The blood still flowing from feet to head 

The tree outside your window dancing in the wind

The hungry cows cawing for food

The pale blue sky with puffs of clouds

Watching the traffic of hectic parrots

The vendors on tricycles plying their varied fare

Your home will not wash its hands of you

For it knows there is a tomorrow for you

That will make you laugh at today

That you even thought of taking yourself away.

Inclination

It seems the day is inclined towards rain

The way the dark clouds array across the sky

The afternoon inclines towards night

Daylight leaving as if needed elsewhere

Yesterday when the first monsoon showers fell 

It was night and the eyes could not let go

Of something coming back like a blessing 

When there was little to deserve it 

The heat of the preceding days 

Was forgiven and no one minded a wet homecoming 

Today's inclined towards yesterday 

But the patter of feet could start before sundown

 Or the promise may still peter out 

With the water bearer inclined to stay away.

Weather changes

 

The sun turns fiercer by the hour

To step out could be hazardous

The trees are practising stillness

And the air seems inflammable,

Under the shade a worker

Is straightening out rods

Unfazed by the May weather,

Just days back someone chose

A watery grave undone by weather

Of the humankind not weathered,

Even the mythological god forgot

He was an incarnation and giving in

To despair surrendered to a river,

Given time the weather changes

And all thought of dying vanishes

When the monsoon rain arrives

With its wild, dancing flowers

And a season of hope and harvest.

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.