Scarlet Juliet

Words melt into nothingness as I sit to write

The magic of your dark brooding eyes

The heat of your breath sets my soul alight

As you kiss me purple, in sweet reprise

Sear your promises on my lips, my amour

And I’ll drown in your delicious tenderness

Thrashing some, sobbing some, sinking some more

And reborn on seafoam like some hellenistic venus

Is my destiny love or is it your name,

That deep red love that suffocates in the layers of a rose

When pricked, shows but a hint of my insides aflame

Your scarlet Juliet, that pains and pleasures in throes

Ecstacy

My soul rises and struggles to be set free
Clamouring from within its gilded cage
A song erupts from the dulcet depths of me
Beating sweet rhythm down my fault lines

You draw drops of dew with sun ray fingers
Break me, I wish to split and evaporate
Into ethereal infinity where nothing lingers
Relieve me of the paradigms of time and space

Place one leg of mine in heaven, for just a moment
Before it slips away and I spiral back pulsating
Make me a whirling dervish of ecstatic lament
As I wail for the pleasures of your lost paradise

Welcome to the Jungle

You trim your mane and pluck your eyebrows,
Make no mistake you're in the animal kingdom
You mask your odour with perfumes and powders
Having found newer ways of marking your territory

You talk of love and everlasting friendship
Your selfish heart fumes at my attention to another
Make up your mind, give me your love
Or take away everything but dependence
It is customary for hunters to cut away feathers
Have no doubt, they are hunters not lovers

You laugh at love, scorn any promises of permanence
Yet you yearn for someone to say 'forever'
You hold vigil all your life for 'the one'
Someone who will consume you with ardour, day and night
Irony is you are terrified when faced with such love,
Heard of the proverbial dog chasing a car, my friend?

You covet the tigress, you envy her stripes
You long to be in her brave and majestic tribe
Yet you keep the company of cackling hyenas by day,
Laughing with derision at her solitary ways,
Slipping away one moonless night you eat her hunt,
Alas, eating her leftovers will never make your spots stripes

Human Nature - Through the looking glass

It is 1:30 in the afternoon of an uncharacteristically hot summer day in Bangalore. Picking up lunch trays, the IT millions march in pairs and groups to find tables & chairs to sit and eat. In the milling crowds, a lone guy happens to be lucky enough to find an empty table, under the cool shade of a tree in the outdoor part of the cafeteria. He settles down with his dosa and iPhone, eating every now and then, while furiously typing away on his phone with a serious expression on his face. A kitten suddenly appears from nowhere and starts staring at him eating. The guy dosent notice at first, then his friend comes along with a tray to join him, looks at the kitten, taps our guy's shoulder and points the kitten to him. iPhone guy rolls his eyes and goes back to eating and furiously typing, while friend sits next to him and starts eating too. The puny but gorgeously orange kitty now starts meowing. The men continue to eat. Meanwhile a girl that some would call fetching, looks on at this 'awwwwww' inspiring scene. iPhone guy stirs from his texting, to notice the girl across the table. The girl gives the kitten an 'Aww-you poor hungry thing' look and flashes the guy a smile. The guy smiles back and immediately tears a piece of dosa and drops it on the ground. The kitten polishes this off. The girl now gives the guy an even bigger 'you're my hero' kind of smile. The guy rips an even bigger piece of dosa and drops it down for the kitten. Amidst all this silent drama, our hero's friend suddenly comes to life and notices his friend feeding the kitten and his motivation for doing so, across the table. Now he wants a piece of this action too, he tears a piece of the paratha that he is eating and chivalrously throws it at the kitten. The kitten finishes the dosa, sniffs at the paratha, jumps behind some potted plants and disappears having rejected the paratha. The girl picks up her finished tray and exits cafeteria. The boys look at each other accusingly.

Tea time tragedy!

My lone milk bikis cries for the company,
Of one Mr.tea or even frisky señor coffee!
Alas their eternal bond must be broken prematurely,
For I happen to be bound miserably to my desk,
Tied with work, oh that shameful, villainous blight,
Has turned me deaf to these lovebirds' plight!

Spirited!

I might have my dreams broken

I might have my reality shaken

But believe me when I tell you this

I couldn't feel more alive this moment

I close my eyes and behold I see

A world dripping with colors

Sugarcane on snow capped peaks

Blueberry bushes by the beach

Power cuts on a warm night make me dream

About the moon melting into drops of butterscotch and cream

You could blind me, shackle me, gag me, rape me

Yet you cannot touch, leave alone kill the spirit within me

Don't Stop!

Masks intact we endeavour every once in a while

For a night of fun and frivolity, where strangers meet

Appear to get along, make acquaintances with facades

We come forward, we retreat, we march to the drum beat

Poised and practiced, we dance along invisible lines

Sanctimonious lines, lines we are told, we should not cross

I have a problem with lines, always have, errant child that I am

Painting within lines for a picture, about which I don’t give a toss

We slipped away, away in the moon drenched night!

Away from lines and all, thwarting checks and tilting balances

Distilling the night, until what remained were only the wee hours,

Those precious moments, my acquiescence to your manifold talents

Celebrating the eternal truth that you are man and I am woman

That nature meant for us to take ever so pleasurable a jaunt

My adage is that, our lives are caught within the shackles of time

My love, yet we are free every moment to live the life we want