Like strawberries crushed
To sweeten marmalade
A heart pained
Is shred to bits
Bitter sweet memories
Ruddy peels in jelly mush
Sitting still in fragile jars
Lingering fragrance
Myriad flavors on the lips
Fingers now sticky with
Soulful tales to spread!
Hills and Ravines
A fine vintage
Of memories running
On your forehead
Delicate lines
Hills and ravines
Life’s ups and downs
Chiseled on your brows
Highs and Lows
Scaling mountains
Traversing hills
Like a madman roams
In the highs and lows
Of your bosom
This thrill seeker
Finally, finds a home
Wind and Dew
She plaited stars
Shimmers unparalleled
In her lustrous braid
When the wind unravelled
Those twisted tresses
Diamonds floated free
And became dew drops
Beauty
I searched in
Golden sand dunes
Silver ice-scapes
Burgundy hills
Fields of peridot
Beauty, I eventually
Found you within
Stars and Moon
I will meet you
At the other side
Of the blue night
In sweet slumber
In deep sleep
Let’s serenade the moon
Trace lines on the stars
Sand and Ice
Are you made up of
Golden sand dunes
Or of the icy miracles
Of snow top mountains
With you, under the galaxy
Of a thousand sparkles
My heart melts, freezes
Sighs, rejoices, all at once!
Oceanside
Curious crimson
Of a dusky sun
Mixing with seas
Of tranquility
In this cocktail, drop
A potion of moonlight
See the waves dance
Woodland
Flirtatious wind
Caresses pine trees
Raindrops tremble
In torrents free
As clouds descend
The forest resounds
With a swish of jealousy
Hillside
Feathery gray
The magic of waiting
As the mist gathers
Engulfing me
Before the first rain
Surreal shift of clouds
On yonder hills
Dunes
A desert storm
Blows away the
Sands of time
Golden dunes shift
An oasis moves further
I stand blinded
Clinging to a mirage
Mountain River
Life’s meanderings
Like the whimsical
Bends of rivers
Inundated, rocky,
Puddling, flowing
From icy glaciers
To the vast ocean!
You thrill me, Words
As I twirl you around
On a pencil tip
Then you gently lie
In exhaustion,
On reams of white
Until, I pick you up
To dance on my lip
A story, a song, oft a poem
Teasing my mind
With magical verse!
In the graveyard of sin
Peace lies buried again
After dying a million deaths
With its bloodied comrades
Hope, faith, and harmony
The blazing fiend of hatred
Roams around naked
Feeding on the last fragment
Of another body burnt to dust
A bewildered soul hovers
Eyes awash with fading tears!
Prayers have lost their way
Melancholy clouds sweep away
Even the incessant rain
Cannot wash away the stain
Of the blood of innocents
Unheard, unwanted, undead
From an ochre land of depravity
The burning pyre of humanity
Our Earth is now parched
Throttled with rust and dust
What elixir will quench its thirst?
The contagion of hatred
Flows in their veins, unabated
The rulers and their courtiers
And their blistering madness
Hardened hearts, spreading fear
Reigning with violent terror
Pieces of white, pale as death
Kings, slaves, on a chessboard set
Men fleeting, floating, drowning
Somewhere a child washed ashore
A broken doll with owner no more!
Listless hearts pound
In time with the funeral band
Wails and howls, rend the skies
Laments fail, fall on deaf ears
Lost in the screaming headlines
Carnage, pillage, blinding pellets
Flaming fires of disharmony
Mowing down, blasting, bombing
Desperate, despondent, helpless
Humanity breathes its last
Broken, alone in a hospital bed!
Merchants of doom
Selling salves for the gloom
Twines that held together
Ripped, shredded, asunder
Pick up the fragile strands
Weave them into shrouds.
Questions galore resound
Will he live; Is he dead yet
None answer; eyes then wander
To the writing on the wall –
Clear, bold – Silence Please!
So we embrace the silence
Words lost in defiance
For we can never answer
Innocence of our children
Asking how to celebrate life
In this world of bloody strife
How to eradicate this misery
Heal our wounded community
Pitted against each other, we seek
Promises of potions sweet
A sip from the chalice of Peace?
Blue Pen Strokes 