And the prevailing circumstance
I can't help but wonder
At the zebra pattern
Of the lives of
These humble souls
In an ambiguous world
19. I REMEMBER
"Just because you are lonely
Doesn't mean you are alone
You are just apart
From the rest of the world"
I remember I once had a heart
But it took flight when it realized
That nobody cares
About my bleeding wounds
Now that I no longer have a heart
That is why I still feel lonely
Still singing the blues
Even when I am lying in your arms
20. FORLORN
With broad forehead,
Eyes, wide and white,
With a tinge of passionate red
He stares, deep and complete
Height, slightly above mine
Neither tall nor short
We together made a pair, Thisbe couldn’t
Have it this good with Pyramus
His lips, soft, incline toward smiling
But seldom laughs, encased
Set of teeth, each with its pair
Ablaze with the happiness exuding from within
But reserved and alone
Unapproachable and forlorn, a pair
He and I, remained alone
Both sought and neglected.
21. I AM REAL
You might think I am fantasy,
Hatched by the wandering mind,
In a lazy afternoon
But I am real.
You may believe
I am just a piece of
Imagination,
Brought to life by the tip of your pen,
As you reminisced on the page,
But I am real.
You have seen me, talked with me,
Yet I remained to you, an enigma,
A Book you can’t comprehend
I am real.
I but deliberately kept you in suspense
For you to ponder deep into history
And to wonder whether I had lived truly
Outside your fantasy and imagination
But I am real.
22. STOLEN GLANCES
I will cherish the moment
You first saw me and pretended
Not to see me
I will cherish those moments
I saw you watching me with stolen glances,
Observing stealthily the construction of my being
I will cherish that moment when
You lifted your head,
With casual aloofness
And ignored me, hiding with great efforts,
The pain of not being able to say those words
I will cherish that moment when
I beheld you, standing proudly alone, stately,
Perhaps thinking on how best to say “salaam”
I will cherish this moment
When I, standing before you
Completely free and possessed
By you, as your secret admirer and friend
23. SOLITUDE
Silence should play
Its music
In solitude
24. THE MAD POET
At first
God created the Pen
Then He created Man
And then created the Woman
The Man took the pen
Looked at it
And became a poet
Then he looked at the Woman
And became a mad poet
He became possessed
By the forces of
Good and evil
He has since been raging!
25. THE ELUSIVE CRITIC
I found myself
Falling in to a snare
I set to capture providence
But, alas, ended up falling
Deep in to the webs of
My soul's caprice and
The blinding quest for criticism
Of the lines of prose and poems
I humbly called'' creative art''
26. THE VISITOR
I oiled my hair and
Scrubbed my teeth
In anticipation of
An August visitor
The visitor on his part
Considered the journey
Too onerous and the road
Too narrow, the city too far
The beauty not withstanding
The trap not enticing
The smile not bewitching
And the hostess not worth the trouble
''Open your heart for me'' he said
And I did. ''Open your eyes and
Welcome me '' I believed then disbelieved,
''I can't make it my dear, another time''
Who would want to visit
A spoilt child of the Muse and Venus
Who resides as a recluse
In a Rocky City on the moon?
27. PEN BROTHER
With the stroke of your pen
You opened the door and let me into
The recesses
Of your heart
I had a glimpse of the bliss
The excesses and the exuberance
Of the green pasture
Of your mind
You had a grasp of the past
While still battling with the future
Yet, here I stand pen Brother
In the presence of your life
But for the entanglements of your heart
And the diversions of my life
I would have been the incarnate
Of your dreams
Yet, brother in pain
I suffer the agony of
Your betrayal, with
The non fulfillment of my desire
Alo! Pen Brother
Would you pull the strings
And move the lyrics of
My song?
28. PATCHWORK
You are free
To substitute me
But please
Do not replace
Or abandon me
I know I have turned away
And have grown cold
Fallen short of
The glory of your love
And the warmth of your affection
We have indeed agreed
Not to disagree
But I am glad to be
A woman
29. VOLCANIC ERUPTION
Soft as petal
Hot as fire
Vibrating
Pulsating
Throbbing
Erupting as a volcano
Diffusing like water flowing
Into every cell and fiber
Of the body
Till it climaxed
In a cosmic explosion
30. THOSE EYES
The cold northern winter
And the hot southern summer
Came together and lodged
In my heart
I shiver at the thought
Of being removed from your presence
And burn with the yearning
Of the glimpse of your eyes.
Those eyes
Those searching eyes
Stripping me bare
Of my senses.
How do I deal
With this freezing coldness
This heat -- no water can quench
The fire of love not even flood.
If I can ride on my wishes
I would not only ride to you
But run, jump and fly.
31. THE VISITOR 2
He flew in
As if riding on a wave
Indifferent to the throes
His absence created
He walked in casually
As if stepping
Down the stairway
Of an airplane
So full of himself
So sure of his steps
The mighty man did me a great favor
By putting in an appearance
I watched him quietly and prayed
I didn't even pray
I just watched him and said 'you're welcome!''
And he became paralyzed
32. THE CONFESSION
You are my inspiration
When lost in thought
Battling with myself
My dream
When I close my eyes
In a blue moon night
My companion
When alone in a world
Of lonely people
My fragrance
When I breathe heavily
In the darkness of the forbidden world
My ship
In the stormy waters
Of this life
My Heritage, as I walked barefooted
Along the shores
Of the River Jordan
33. AT THE HORIZON
Where the sky meets the sky
Where you went up
And gave me your heart
At the Horizon
Where the earth meets the sky
Where you came back
And took it back
At the Horizon
Where daylight meets the night
Where you were bathed with light
But you still saw darkness
34. THE CONFESSION OF A GOOD GIRL
I have done so many good things
With my right hand, and
Have done many others that were not.
But you said I shouldn't worry
Nor complain
That I shouldn't tell the world
That I am angry and hungry
Even as I looked at it devouring
Through the O of your arm akimbo,
Well then, let the spirit feed fat
On the fat of the body
And let the body grow lean
Out of fear
I have realised
I have been alone all along
And from now on
I will dream my dreams awake
35. ON BENDED KNEES
Go down on your knees
And worship me
Because I am the man
Your king
It is not so, you see
When the wheel turns round
I will be on top, so you go down
On your bent knees
In this kingdom
I am the Queen and you are
The Subject that goes around the World
To get the wealth that pleases me
And when the world turns round
I will be on top
As for that king
I have not yet met
36. THE RAPTURE
" Under me, your living face endures"
He said, "descending on you in a rage
Of tenderness, you bore me patiently"
Yes, that was when he ruptured
My rapture
Dashing with each of his breathe
The last hope I have in him, even as I
Breathe in the fragrance of his perfumed
Sweating body
I wept.
I refused to be swapped.
37. MUSING
All I do these days
Is Fantasize
The Sun and the Moon
Passed me by
And the Hands of the clock
Slowly ticked my life away, but
I do nothing but sit
With starry eyes
Conjuring
Oblivious of the
Brightness of the Stars
And the ups and downs
Of the lives around me
All I do all day
Is building castles
Of pure conjecture
That seemed to be so far
Far away, reposing with the sun
In the distant horizon.
Bales upon bales
Of lines, have I wrought
To ease the pain of
The reality that is
Like a shadow
A form without life
Hard as I tried to
Blow life into it
It simply
Refused to breathe
That Stallion that lives with the Sun
38. STRANDED
It was a time of anguish
When you are
Treated as a
Second class citizen
No longer significant
Even after making
The sacrifice and
Enduring the pains
Stranded in a feeling
She was never been
Made to experience
In a world of make-belief
39. PASSERS BY
I held my breathe
For the glimpse of his face
Cried all night
For the warmth of his breath
I held my breath
For the feel of his skin
I halt my steps
For a touch from his eyes
I held my breath
As he passed me by
Searching, agonizing, looking
For the girl of his dreams
I held my breath
For the caress of his lips
40. SWEET TORTURE
I used to believe
That true love doesn’t exist
At least, not in its ethereal state
Surreal
The kind you only read about
In books, and listen to
In poetic ecstasies
Of tortured poets
But I was wrong
Proved wrong
When I became a witness
To a tango of the hearts
Witnessed
The good pleasures and the pain
That brings tears of joy
To the eyes of the beloved
As he stares deep into her eyes
A love so unconditional
So real, the Ying and the Yang
41. DROWNING
Plunging deep
Opened the floodgates
Of hot perusal and
Burning pursuit
Submerging me into
Sublime Submission
I became overwhelmed
With the Love that is pure
Drowning in the flood
That flows from your brows
And dripping with the dew
Of remembrance of
The ecstasy in my dreams
Submitting
Receiving
Accepting
Claiming the vibrating arrow
And the diadem of the sphinx
At the peak of the two mountains
That are close to my heart
42. I HOLD THE KEY
Yester-night
Your spirit visited me
Running its fingers
Through my hair
Lullaby- ing me to wakefulness
And I looked
At the side of the bed
Where you should have been
Still cold and empty
As it has always been
Through the years
But how dare I believe
That you will ever find me
When you had not been searching
And you have not been looking!
I neither went East nor West
I remain rooted to the spot
Holding the key to my destiny,
My Fate
43. STRATEGIES
He lied
He cried
He said he loves me
He planned
He schemed
He wants to touch me
He knew
I know
He wants to hurt me
He searched
He looked
But could not see me
44. DANCE STEPS
What happened yesterday
Mr. Masquerade
Your performance was beyond
Expectations
Why did your toes failed to move
Along with the rhythm of the drum
What happened yesterday
Mr. Masquerade
That your gesticulations were
Arrested
By the gusto of your moving
Hips
Your action is beyond pardon Mr. Masquerade
And have to re-live your dance
45. SERENDIPITY
In the silence of poetry
I hear rhythms
In the coolness of love
I felt the heat
In the solid darkness of the night
I found the light
In the tango of the ying and the Yang
I discovered harmony
In anguish and turbulence
I found victory
Under the shadow of your eyes
I found peace
BOOK 2: PHILOSOPHICAL
46. PRISMATIC LIFE
Take Life as it comes
Laugh when you are happy
Cry when you are sad
But always understand
Without sorrow, Life will be
Just a routine shuffling of feet
So when sadness and anger comes
Close your eyes and let their bitterness
Soothe and caress your nerves
Touch their rugged edge and get
Refreshed and strength to welcome
Happiness once again
47. UPHELD TREASURE
You can dig the ground
And get wealth
But you cannot dig the ground
And get knowledge
It has to pass
From brain to brain
48. THE LOVE FOR APPLAUSE
And the standing ovation
We crave for more and more, and
Never have enough even as the last echo
Faded out, we are already in the process
Of setting up another arena, for the reception
Of the applause, the ovation and innuendoes of
Being the best, most autistic, most dramatic
Most.... Until we fade away
With the applause, the ovations and innuendoes
Unto the great beyond, still bowing “thank you, thank you”
With the ever ready smile, that has never known happiness
49. MAMMON
Mammon! O father of men
Come and lay claim
To what you have begotten
O children!
Worship your father
Go towards East and West
In your frenzy to amass
For nothing
Will fill your bellies