We, devotees, were asked
To go through a metal detector,
Frisked for belt-bombs
Our bags were searched
...
Silence is not always consent
It could be a loss of words
Even a loss of faith in words
Perhaps, a pause, for something else
...
The night flickers
As tantalizing as a
Half-remembered dream
With its mosaic
...
When the earth turned
As infirm as the sea
Little was left standing
Of hubris or faith or hope;
...
What are the Greeks to us
Or we to the Greeks
That we should weep thus
For them; our fate is mirrored in theirs - -
...
There were fewer farmer suicides
Last year than in the previous year
The crime records bureau report said
Only 1980 took their lives in 2014
...
Between the make-believe home
And the waves
Only tiny little fingers
The sea knows the child
...
Death stopped me at the door
Went away without answering the questions
I could only throw at what he left behind - -
That is not who he was
...
It's only when you have to leave
That you most want to stay
Stay back to grieve
Over that which never can stay - -
...
It's so hot the trees
Are still sweating leaves
Showing up the sun
For what it is
...
Someone doesn't want the earth
To give up its dead
For the dead, he knows, do tell tales
That will nail the lies of those
...
With a child in the arms
The world is full of wonder
It's like looking at a tree
Before it was named
...
The fall hasn't erased
The smile of the buddha head
The dark face
Doesn't show
...
How life-like, the dream is
How dream-like, life is
How unadorned, truth is
How dandy, the lie is
...
Telephone Booth
It is where lies come readily
Without any prompting
As there are no eyes
To belie the words
No eyes before
To see through them
Like a quick scene change
Without resort to props
It turns into a college
A tuition centre
A classmate's house
A movie theatre
You cannot but worry for your daughter
When you watch a college girl
Tell her mother
That she'll come late
As she has special classes
Then hop onto her boyfriend's pillion
Urging him to drive fast
'Or we'll miss the opening song! '
Next time the guy comes with another girl
When you tell the first one
She breaks down
'He said he could not live without me! '
Sometimes the youths carry on fake conversations
While trying to hit on you
'You are plump in a very desirable way'
(When I know I am fat and fighting it):
Every night before I close up
I tidy up the place
But cannot sweep away
The lies heard all day.
About your poem ''DALMATIAN'': [..] taking one single moment of a personal experience, [..] IT speaks about a universal reality.. A VERY GOOD POEM. Thanks for sharing, Prabhakar Greetings from Italy