Saturday, June 28, 2025

The cave

The caveman did not want

To be forgotten when he died
The paintings he left behind
In hollows of Yelagiri hills
Of the hunter-gatherer days
Show his heirs have not left
His ways behind or grown up
The weapons have changed in
Velocity and reach and effect
Facilitating mass murder from
Beyond the enemy's visual range
Leaders threatening to bomb the
Adversary back into the stone age
Hark back to their wild ancestors ---
Ten thousand years and still the same
The conflict-filled mind still in the cave.






Tuesday, June 24, 2025

Nowhen

When the mind finds nowhen

Between today and yesterday
Waiting for a tomorrow it still
Hopes will arrive somehow
The thought that nothing survives
The march of purposeful time
Cannot be thought away 
The tree that'll outlast me sways
In the rain-scented monsoon wind
All my troubles seem trivial when
The weather is as jubilant as now
The cries of excited children mock
The admonition of parents who
Remember only their last illness
After getting drenched like this.


Monday, June 16, 2025

Hot and humid


The rainclouds scatter with the winds
And the summer atrocities resume
The ice cream parlour is busy again
With children leading family marches
Into the shop that now closes later to
Host those who cannot sleep without
A little cup of butter-scotch or strawberry
As it is all barred for me even in extreme
Weather like this I have no craving for it
Having long shed my sweet tooth to limit
Blood sugar levels on doctor's orders ----
But give me a physician who prescribes 
Hill stations for heat wave conditions
And ice cream when it is hot and humid.



Thursday, June 12, 2025

Waiting

Unfazed children measure

The hospital corridors 
With their feet and hearts
Find a sofa that swivels
And swivel till my head spins
The network is intermittent inside
So I get offline more than online
And soon learn to pass time
Without recourse to doomscrolling
I am back in my school standing
Outside the class for some reason
Counting the number of crows
On the mango tree and wondering
How they spend their long days
Besides making the water rise
With stones till they can drink it
Or losing stolen snacks to foxes
Which know where flattery works ---
At last my name is called and I go in
To know if I am better or worse.