Your Sister, The Whore

For Nithya

Because we bear the same cross,
Of wanting to love and be loved-

Like Carbon atoms shifting
With new attachments every day.

Organic are our bonds-
They disintegrate everyday.

They say we are special
And want us all for themselves.

I love them truly,
And so do you.

But who loves us
The way we want to be loved?

Bear a Torch to the Toilet

The Greatest Thinkers were born in the loos-
An Archimedean "Eureka" speaks Volumes for their thoughts.
But to a toilet frequented by the country's brightest young minds,
Their heads illuminated by dreams and virgin knowledge-
A Torch needs to be borne.

The floor underfoot is watered twice a day,
It shines emerald when the top layer is skimmed.
Universal truths are deciphered on the walls
Where the delicate pink tile makes patterns in the grime.

The Intelligentsia prance in their night-wear,
All beauty and brain-
Ballerinas leaping over fallen hair.

The Pricklers in the Nether region
Turn a blind eye to their performance
And remain indifferent
To the drains constipated
By the Black mesh of Keratin
And over-flowing codes of Red.

In the toilets congregate
The heavy Recta
And their last meal behind clamped mouths.
The ceilings blink down mournfully at them and die.
The taps snort dryly.
The pleasures of a rear in mid-air
Is plunged in dry darkness.

I step down from my brown ceramic pedestal.
My heels slap the floor below.
I'm at a moss for words. 

*ಅನಾಮಿಕ *

ಮಂಜು ಮುಸುಕಿದ ಬೆಳದಿಂಗಳೇ,
ನಿನ್ನದೆಂತಹ ಶೋಕಗೀತೆ?
ಅವರೋಹಣದ ಅಂಚಿನ ನಿಟ್ಟುಸಿರಲ್ಲೇ
ಪೂರ್ಣತೆಯ ಆರೋಹಣದತ್ತ ಹೊರಡುವೆ.

Sea Roots

Where life began I stood

Beneath the bluest sky 

and the gray-blue sea

Constantly waving and beckoning me.

The gentle rhythm of the ocean

Rocked my mind to rest,

Trying its best to quieten

Your voice in my head.

The ocean sighs 

And our million sighs:

So many missed moments 

of togetherness stolen.

The ocean beckons me,

The shore laughs with people,

And I know I don't want to go

Without you. 

Shopping List:

Abhi, buy these in the evening:

1. Wheat flour (3 kg)
2. Rice (the one that costs 45 bucks) (10 kg)
3. Mustard seeds (100 gms)
4. SSP asafoetida (POWDERED!)- the big bottle
5. Ariel (front load- 2 kg) (Or is it Surf? check once)
6. Eggs (get the small box)
7. your deodorant (must you buy that?)
8. Nail polish remover (where did mine go?)
9. make-up concealer (I also want you to see that dermatologist. come back home at an earthly hour some time!)
10. that ointment (check the name on the box. does it still itch, butt?)
11. pair of white ear-rings for your new kurta- pick something visible
12. large hairclip. sorry, yours broke.
13. pre-blow drying hair spray (HOW LONG has yours been empty??)
14. sun block (Find SPF 50)
15. it's time for your contact lens' solution, too. please tell me you finished the one you bought LAST year?
16. false teeth/vampire fang/clown mask... something. just make sure you stop wearing that expression on your face!
17. peas (1/2 kg)
18. Sun glasses for you. Aviators are on sale at that place. go check.
19. Femininity (25 litres) (I'm making you bathe in it!)

Love,
Abhi

Fore-verse

A mere white tube-rose

Must first be freshly dead

Before it becomes experimental paraphernalia

In the ink-pot.

At first, the broken stem puckers its lips,

Daring to test the moist blue-ness.

Slowly, all the chromes are drunk,

The white tube-rose turns blue

Somewhere between lifelessness and decay

Holding within itself what could have been

A poem, an endearment;

Gaining omniscience over what would have been

Secrets, bitter truths.

Stories consume it

So they can be told in another life-time. 

Bleed

How the red capillaries bloomed under the epidermis,

And you held my hand

Lightly dusting pharmaceutical fairy powder.

A sanitized doctor's touch it was-

The wound healed

The heart only continued to bleed.

Remember how the capillaries blossomed under the epidermis;

A-rose to your first, aiding touch.