THE FINAL GOODBYE

SOME GOODBYES ARE MEANT TO LAST FOREVER
OTHERS A FLICKER IN THE MIDNIGHT SKY
A FLASH IN THE MILKY WAY
SOME SWEET AUTUMN WINDS
HERALDING AN INTER-PERSONAL WINTER
HOW DO I DESCRIBE OURS?
CLUTCHING ONTO OUR PAST
FINGERS, HANDSHAKES AND PHONE-CALLS
SEVEN MEETINGS IN TEN YEARS
AND A LIFE LONG FRIENDSHIP
AN UNKNOWN JOURNEY...A BIG BAD WORLD
AND THE FEAR OF NEVER SEEING YOU AGAIN.
THE FEAR GNAWED AWAY..A TIRELESS WOODPECKER
INCESSANT RAIN ON ASBESTOS
THE WORLD BUSY AROUND US..
US..STANDING IN MOTION
A VIOLIN CONCERTO IN AN EMPTY THEATRE
MEMORIES FLASHING BY US
CARS ON A HIGHWAY
GUITAR STRUMMING FOR A MOON-DANCE
PEARLS IN YOUR EYES..LUMP IN OUR THROATS
ARTIST'S SUDDEN DISCOVERY OF NAKEDNESS
THE NEW FOUND COURAGE TO BID FAREWELL
AND A LONG LOST AFFINITY FOR SILENCE..

BARTER

You want me to earn you? - You precious lady
What do I have to win you over?
You create poetry with words...Carry the fiction of a happy family
Time values you.
You smell of Keats, Shelley and the lines of Browning.
Your sweat carries the efforts of a warrior
Your pale pink lips paint colorful words
adding life to our sepia toned lives
and You want Me to win you over?
Let me rather lose to you
Lose my arrogance of youth
The audacity of Freedom
Let me give you my poetry..To better your Reality
My darkened skin and brightened wit..All for YOU tonight.
My Yanni for your noise.
My history for your past...My Atlas for your spaceless-ness.
My library visits for your family squabbles.
My book-fair visit for your 5 by 4 single bedded room.
All that i have learnt...For all that you will Learn.
All that i have remembered...For all that you have Forgotten.
My surrender for your escape..
My dreams for your aborted vision.
Now that you have all that was mine,
Precious lady...Will you lose to me tonight?
And let us earn each other??

KALEIDOSCOPE

[I] STRANGERS

We were once strangers..what followed was stranger still
Walking out of boring classrooms into coffee shops
Favorite songs on the Jukebox..Cappuccino on our tables
Nervous calculations over money...Miserly finances
Conversations Gambled on Russian Roulette
The sudden found luxury..Naked appetite of a refugee camp
The glass doors remain..only the mirrors are painted black
Our old selves mocking and sneering from the other side
We, strangers, laughing at the strangeness of what preceded

[II]
CITADEL

It was strange when you walked into my life
Stranger it was when we walked together
The long winding road of posh buildings and poor dwellers
Squeezing our dreams between bricks and stones
Destroying their houses...Creating our home.
Beginning our "After twenty years lives"...Suspending the NOW
Young misfits in a speculative world of comfort
Forever possessing the lease of that plot of land
Our assured Citadel amidst the Waste land reality.

[III]
THE 25th of DECEMBER

25th December, Park Street..JESUS just a few hours old
The magi got him gifts..don't know what he did with them
HIS birthday another pretense to meet
Candlesticks lighting up our lives..and HIS altar
The bleeding body pitying our injured souls
We both have carried our crosses
And yet, a church is anyplace with you by me
AMOR VINCIT OMNIA...so did you
Born..tortured...Crucified...Resurrected...

[IV]
KALEIDOSCOPE

The four rupee fantasy of Twenty years ago
Five Olympics, few friends and many gifts later
Your hunt for my dreams
Hitch Hiking...Shop combing...empty home-coming
Colored flint..spy-glass shape..worth a million
You found it...outshining others' expensive fantasies
Wish i hunted for your SEVEN Years' old dreams
And Prevented some of your nightmares...

IMPROMPTU

Blurred dreams, choked laughter
Lonely crowd walks
Friends Galore, Friendships few
Music in veins, Noise in the house
Whiskey thirst- Thirst for Love
Lonely Cyber-world nights
Spacious rooms
Stale Dinners...Late morning Breakfast
Coffee brewing Sleepless Nights
Red Fingers, Green Skin....Grey heart
Keep it safe...Locked...Treasured
Words Measured and Spirits unfettered
Champagne Dreams and Strawberry kisses
Prince Catches but Family misses.