The Wonder Years?!?

Once upon a time,

Before three children let themselves be women

There were mornings of blissfully burning eyes

From feverish conversations all night

The half revealed secrets

Of falling asleep mid-sentence

You plaited my hair more often than my mum even did

Midnight macaroni and cheese

Baring my soul under the stars

Make believe sagas of romance

Before a boy so much as looked in our direction

Wearing each other’s clothes and cooking together

Learning to structure a thought

The comfort of validation

The “I know how you feel” reassurances

When birthdays used to be big enterprises

When you used to cry at the drop of a hat

Days when the burden of the world was upon us

Unabandoned hugs that I have never hugged anyone since

Piggybacking on bicycles

Singing together, arguing about song lyrics

Having a crush on the same boy

Endless summers

Blink and you missed them winters

There was nothing I couldn’t talk about

With you for hours together

Without you for years together

Like animals that regenerate limbs

Might I amputate my adolescence?

For making me believe I will always belong

For the ones I thought will always be my anchor

Who are you now?

Who am I now?

Ode to a birthmark

When I slide my lips down your neck,
your shoulders encase little shrubberies
Of beige, brown, and ash color treats
I long to plant my mouth in them all night
To feel the tender, beloved aberrations
What would I not give to bask in
my little orchard of peace and perfection
My dreams are wet with suckling on
your sweet decadent piece of confection
To think my love that beauty and charm
Are locked in so many wondrous things in nature
That gifts from the universe are hidden
In the unlikeliest places, and I found mine
under your shirt, near your heart

For a friend...

You look at me with those brandy eyes
Flecks of amber glowing in twilight hours
Seeking answers in a night of truth and lies
I have no choice but to succumb to your powers

Your eyes plunder me, now probing, now protective
I let go of the dark demons plaguing my soul
They pin me with doubt and color my perspective
A glance from you and I’m pristine again, no taint nor foul

There say treasures lie among rubble and ruin
I sat alone among the pieces of my heart, willing myself
To feel something, anything, to scrape numbness for pain
Feel I did overjoyed, a joy that sears and cuts like a knife

I beg you to take me away to mountains that are mystical
Leave the loss and debris behind, to start anew life (!)
You stoop to pick up my pieces with that smile so ironical
I will take all of you, shards and all, come what strife

No one but you knows, what I need so badly, is reassurance,
You weld me together with your words of validation
You put the sparkle back in my eyes, the spring in my dance
I could call you blacksmith, but you know I prefer magician

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.