As a martyr is carried
draped in the flag, holding pride
I carry my grief, with a smile

It is true what they say -
More a person laughs,
bigger the grief that hides

You might say,
why play the hide and seek,
the pretention, why the game of lies!
Unfortunately I now know why

When heart's been hammered
into pieces, ripped apart,
people come with soothing words

but it's you who sit there watching
your heart bleed into rivers
where everything else like
paper boat sails away
except you and your grief.

-

Fringes of your hair fall on your eyes
like couplets on paper
your smile meets my eyes
in between the sips we take

We keep the clock running
talking about the worldly problems
drowning ours behind,
until our cups are empty
and all that's left is
the undissolved sugar at bottom
much like the unsaid words between us

-

With the fluroscent lampshade
dimming my room just enough
I sit floating on 3 cups of tea
trying to pick up the words
tracing back the memory lane

Walking back in time
is much as finding my ownself
chasing reflections
in a room of mirrors

I turn the blank pages of my journal
seeking for comfort,
same way as I toiled around
to turnabout my fate
Tales of time tells
how my life has
turned into a dust bowl

Yet here I am ploughing in a hope
that blood dripping from my wounds
would let flowers to bloom

-

This poem, this life
with all its glory and might
shall be buried deep within the lines

All the tears happy/sad
rolling like reel on a cassette tape
shall remain as a poem,
the world never knew

-

I dreamt of a life
I wish I had
& I had it until I knew not

I walked hands in hands
with the hands of a clock
until I lost myself
in circles of life

I hear the soft echoes
coming from a place
that's distant in time
Laughs and smiles
old pictures hold
tell stories from once upon a time
of someone, I once was
but am no more

I dreamt of a life
I wish I had
my dream slipped away
before I could know
and now
I can dream no more

-

There's a sense of complacency
that develops with time
you learn the unsaid rules
laid out by life,
your skin gets thicker yet
you dont feel its weight
instead it feels like a warm soft blanket
wrapped in a cold wintery night
that you roll yourself into
and sleep on all those
arguments and flamboyance
as you finally realise simple life
brings in more smiles

-

My head is wrapped around thoughts
that are weaving emotions into a muffler
trying to silence my murmuring pain.

If life were a moving car
I woud be sitting in the backseat
staring outside the window
watching my dreams, my hope, my wishes
pass by like the lamposts and trees on roadside

The day melts into night,
the night again re births as day
But what remains is
the tornado in my heart
and the darkness above

I lie on my back outside in the verandah
facing the sky with arms spread, palms open
I recount my childhood days
When i would lie similarly
on the porch, counting the stars
Except then,
my arms were in the air as though
reaching out to embrace the universe

But what does an 8 year old know
about life, that with time becomes
more of leaving than living

-

Splash a little of
red and yellow
bring out the darkness you hide,
passion that burns
mellows you write

And with all of that
kiss away the blues I rhyme

You will see we are
much like the sun immersing in waters
raft in love, magical and golden

-

Dreamers dream,
stoics live
and I for one wished
your hands in mine

On unnamed streets
and bylanes, I walked
from pillar to post
picking words
framing rhymes.
All I could
was to write
your name beside mine

I realise
dreamers love
and writers lie
for love is simply
My heart in yours,
yours in mine
needless of
how, when, or why

-

The solemn truth is
there exists no happiness
powerful enough
to wipe out sadness
Ask a man
of his best & worst times,
you will realize
human's yearning for sadness
is as much as his longing for love

-