Wilted Rose As A Bookmark Poem by Seema joglekar

Desideratum*—plucked young as an oblation
of the love sick hermit, ,
Billet-doux *forgotten, why resurrect me in a book raving wolf &false prophet,
to venerate at leisure? , a life in bracket, the reluctant goddess
Then cast away to shadow knife in the cellar?
Or a worse fate of utter neglect in Hades.?

Feeding her cold, satisfied distrust,
Condemning a future bound to its secrets,
When in denial, looked me over,
just a banal confirmation or an error fixed in doubt.?

Surrendering each page to the bookmark,
given an adrenalin wash for the trouble,
Like a prop used to measure the mistakes of the past
Or a fruitful future to girdle.
The Gods are hard to please, give him the benefit of doubt,
No one’s innocent all have blighted the rose!

Petals compete to be wisps,
camouflage a dehydrated existence,
Delicate lips frozen in time with its taunting freshness,
left forgotten immortalized between the pages,
of a lost moment a reminiscent, //

Each of my curl fathered a rainbow
& stole hues from Providence,
Have felt the sun on my back, been on pollen parole
& have drunk a few dews, //
Have smelt the grass—then, not even
disgust could have woken me up
Like a wooden-legged pirate,
pages held me within their grip.//
Under the wings of bird squadrons & the prairie night
I have been touched by the stars,
Danced with the whine of the wind, the sound of the surf,
Here- I bear the scars.//

A conclusion not yet reached, between the
unrelinquished affair & unread pages
Oh! How could you place this scented
caress on destiny’s cheek-an anomaly in a world so decrepit,
Still warm with the heat of its emptied treasures,
early morning hiatus.//

Shriveling to cover my bare nakedness,
stripped of my former glory & feat,
Your frailty deceptive, lasting
Longer than the memory I bequeath.

Flung across a torrid courtship, dragged &bumped
Yet you stand, contorted, disfigured but so firm &tough
Than contest, even the wildest alley cat,
would have surrendered a freshly caught rat.//

Here you are -Crushed, Crumpled, Dried, Wilted
Ready to spring back to life with your old nerve and dread!
Here I am, maligned, crushed, crumpled,
, God! Must shake myself off this reverie I led!
Just leave me Confirmed or Dead! !
x-x-x
Notes: *Desideratum=object of desire
*Billet -doux=a love letter

@ Seema.Joglekar.13 March-2009
#On Discovering a Wilted Rose in a Library Book.