Category: Poetry

Whatever I thought was a verse

Silence 2

Posted in English, PoetryLeave a comment

Silence please.
The House is in order.
Under the dome
Green carpets
soaked in blood
echo barbaric silence.
Complicits walk hand in hand
Goons are masters
for they rule the living and the dead.
Governance a slave.
The deity, an accomplice
rides waves of black coats
and saffron fallen leaves.
Paradise mourns humanity.
The Valley laments.
Caressing the corpse
wailing willows lament…
‘Barbarians?
Do you do this
to your daughters?’

 

12 April 2018
on the abduction, rape by multiple people, and murder of an
8 year old girl inside a devsthanam (temple) in Kathua, Jammu, India.

Letter from Papa

Posted in English, Of Family & Friends, PoetryLeave a comment
I dreamt of Papa
shuffling letters in his hands
walking to the letterbox
stopping and reading the addresses
checking the seal, uncurling edges
once again before posting,
as if parting from friends.
Checking the lock,
and the time plate on red box,
he turned one last time  –
looked at me and said,
‘one of these will reach you, soon’.
The letter comes as letters
One character
One word in
One dream
each night.