A Stone

She thinks what she shouldn’t think
she says what she shouldn’t say
and when Athena’s curse beckons
a Medusa, the woman becomes.

How sweet is the forbidden fruit?
How deep is the most unkindest cut?
How blinding can be the mirror?
How far is too far for her?
Over there where glows no lantern
she walks, in defiance, beyond all return.

I’m no silhouette that intruded your sleep
or an apparition that rustled the leaves
Neither an incubus that strangles the meek
nor an omen that unleashes the evil streak.
I’m nothing, ‘cause I turned into a stone
lost in the labyrinth of tresses that hissed
not a woman
but it's a Medusa that I kissed.

You Didn't Know!

You knew you believed
the letters and the words
they, indeed, piled up like Alps in the clouds.
The shelves of your study
the lanes of your memory.
You thought, on that day, the faith would rise up
like a Griffin out of the Ebony woods
but it’s just that you didn’t know
when the last of the dark winds blow
it’s all ashes and dust.

You knew you loved
that heart and that countenance
abounding in a castle raised in the rains
on a gloomy cape with a looming hope
dreaming by the ramparts
of flags of peace and blissful seas
and you thought tomorrow would dawn anyway
like the kingdom of high out of the frescoes in sky
but it’s just that you didn’t know
when the last of the dark winds blow
it’s all ashes and dust.

Inside Out

Rising again to the shining skies
a smile within, but contempt outside
got an avalanche of words that won’t be spoken
and a houseful of feelings to carefully hide.
This tongue isn’t enough to unveil the heart
for words deceive our ways into a winless war
only these eyes open the doors of burning fire
but baby, we are so close yet so far.

We rush through these alleys in search of something
crossing all the miles with this rock on our head
we put up a face that speaks words in millions
but know not what it is until it’s dead.
Truth embraces these four walls of blinding darkness
for daylight reveals the painful and bleeding scar
hearts long for each other, but hands don’t reach
‘cause baby, we are so close yet so far.

We ‘re making this journey beyond the end of road
places we passed have turned desolate and cursed
can’t read these lines of the book of our life
for vain is everything that we saw and touched.
Put on new clothing, but this heart’s always the same
it’s time that moves on while we stay where we are.
The road we take to go is the road we need to return
but baby, we are so close yet so far.

My face is melting like a candle of shame
bones are burning in this tormenting flame
fences are circling the thoughts that stream
yet, blood in my veins is calling your name.
Voices and dances are filling shrill silence
lone red rose and I wait while fortunes spar
for it’s Valentine’s Day, if you still remember
but baby, we are so close yet so far.

Entity of Love

The idea of love, so alluring
through - an hour and a half on screen
fictitious paperback leaves
lines of bard’s dreams
and top of the charts surging down the air streams.

The doors fling open
for that special someone to walk in.
The season of love, when it arrives
attesting indoctrinations, it connives.
Anxiety of suit and gown see nuptials through
leaving two lives under that one wretched roof.
Ego’s esteem shrinks space
contradictions bursting in face
moments dressed in incompatible fads
pound the whimsy mirage to rags.
Matinee idols turn zombies, best sellers - a preposterous trash
chartbusters fall mum under stark reality’s lash.
Domestic wrangles, court room tangles explicate
the futility, though late.

Revulsion wrenched heart limps back to work
and on a misty evening of wreck
when that whisper fondles the ear
that aromatic dinner in candle glare
lets the heart’s doors creak
to trudge once more through the bluff’s creek.

Not once down this tedious rove
could grasp this enigma riddled entity named love.

Traveler

I’ve come a long way from home
over the mountains of wailing blood and bone.
I found my love in the distant fields of snow
and lost it in the summer of an avenging sun.
I’m a traveler and have been to many a land
and always held this good book in my hand
Sometimes, I ask myself,
“Why on earth am I here?”
maybe I got my own cross to bear.
I’m a traveler, I know, I can’t help
or maybe I’ve been running from myself.

I’ve seen the naked skin on the ribcage of starvation
a hundred outstretched hands for one piece of bread
peeped into the eyes that got nowhere to look
walked through the rotting squalor of paper and mud
heard the voices of guile and whispers of deception
lying buried in sickness in the forsaken isles of flood.
Sometimes, I ask myself,
“Why on earth am I here?”
maybe I got my own cross to bear.
I’m a traveler, I know, I can’t help
or maybe I’ve been running from myself.

Tonight, I’m alone on the streets of this strange town
ain’t got no friend to meet, and no place where I belong
the whistles of police cars, the rumbles of subway trains
and the chuckles of passing girls are the only familiar things.
My back’s to the wall and I blow air into the cups of my hands
it’s cold, baby, maybe you look to hide me in your wings.
I don’t know where I’m heading, but I know where I’m from
girl, I’m beat and wanna last till I go home
I don’t ask for a fire
and there’s nothing that I desire
this one night, let me stay in a corner of your eye
at daybreak, I go trek a myriad miles and yet find my home too far away.
Baby, sometimes, I ask myself,
“Why on earth am I here?”
maybe I got my own cross to bear.
I’m a traveler, I know, I can’t help
or maybe I’ve been running from myself.

Natural Man

If purple graces a butterfly’s wings
yellow embraces the other
unique nectar and fragrance
manifest in each blooming flower
some set apart by stipples
some stand out in color.
Every sparrow chirps in its distinct fashion
varying flecks on each Kingfisher’s bosom.
Every creeping python
crawling lizard, humming bee,
aquatic beauties swimming the sea
each kind is different from its own
that’s the splendor of life
of being alive under the sky of rainbow and sun.

So was man
before books bent his back with a hunch
and his tender feet were enchained
to classroom’s bench.

Reading unending rows of alphabet
fonts of print on paper
bellowed out repetitions
that taught the same charter
- think alike, know alike and be alike.

I was barked at with canes
whipped on the buttocks
knelt on the burning ground of pains
sat on thin air with my back to the wall
and shamed for being different from all.
The word is “discipline,” but they instilled fear
claiming to groom, they robbed every year
manufacturing puppets faceless and formless
a machination for machine tools
of a dumb army of robots.

My soul was arrested
mind was cremated
and heart was broken, I didn’t know.
Like a flying bird,
a sheep in the grazing herd,
a swaying lily in the valley,
and a Herring in shoals of merry
I discovered not myself.
I know histories of distant lands and mysteries of cosmos
mathematics on both hands and lingua franca of hosts
have a computer on palm
but know not who I am!

New Czar

A new tycoon ascended the tabloid pit
confiscated accolades profusely writ
he unlocked his product, a disguised beast
invented new needs for the susceptible meek
patrons of impositions, his slaves to be
entangled in a jumble closely knit.

Caged universal tongue is unshackled
resurrecting the dead tower of Babel
Then, confounded tongues freed many
on the unfound common ground under a diverse canopy.
Now, sow old seeds again till farthest reach
owners of one market can easily reap.

Dollars and Euro
at hand for borrow
faces, races, human spaces
lined up in sky scrapper’s shadow.
All rise to the new empire
east city, west city and ethnicity no bar
welcome benevolent multi-national Czar
with affluent glitzy palaces of power
ride on the impoverished third world horse
by the closed shop of the universal slave
dragging his stinky hearse.