On bright,
Sunny days
They plodded
Like herd of cattle
Dragged to the
Slaughterhouse,
And gushed back
On pale evenings
Like water, released after
Dammed for years;
The school children.

The Kiss, Postponed

You demanded it
But I restrained myself
Telling you to wait
For I know
It’s easier to plant
And impossible
To uproot;
A kiss
Upon those
Cherry red lips.

‘Hi,
Hey,
Hru?
Fine,
Thanks,
Vow!
Great,
LOL
TC
Bye
:)
Oops
Sad’
:(
Thus we bask in
the warmth exuded
by monosyllabic expressions,
and symbols
that gleefully run away
from our finger tips
to each other
without having to decipher
the sparkle in the eyes,
the mysterious smile,
the shrug,
the quivering lips,
the knitting eyebrows…
The online friends.

‘How to Win Friends & Influence People’

With that captivating smile
I adored, you thrust upon my face,
the book; ‘How to Win Friends & Influence People’.

That’s when I decided to sever all ties with you,
once and forever.

Bad hair days

The hair dryer ad
in the magazine
grabbed me by my hand
and took me down
the serpentine lanes,
mossy, dark, to
the X-O barber shop
where I used to sit
wrapped in
a white sheet
enjoying all the
attention the man
had for me while
styling my hair
to the then
trend; Bachan cut,
and the occasional
warmth on the nape
of my neck as the
hair dryer blown
warm air.

Everything has
gone into oblivion;
the attention, warmth
of the blowing air…
for there remains
just a few strands
upon my head
that neither deserves
attention nor warmth.

Butcher, beautiful

Plaited hair
shiny, dark
adorned with
contrasting
colours of
jasmine and crossandra.

The bangles
jingled coyly
when she stretched
out a hand to grab two
white chickens
from the cage.

The cleaver went up,
then, down.
Rivulets of red
went hiding
into the feathers;
white, dishevelled.

They set
themselves
against
each other
in their
eagerness to be
unique, different,
distinct…
and ended up
being comically
identical!