Rehearsing an Old Plot

Woven in mist

Their faces

Appear in my dreams

And stalk

The spiraling stairs

Of heart

And with lips entice

As I swoon

In trance

And taste at once

The unforeseen bliss

That drips

From those eyes

And fills up my cup

And spills…

Away from the doses of grime and grease

From struggling silence

And fretted unease

Their songs now call to my soul

As I roll

As a fish that is coiled in a net

Of trust and duty and who knows what else.

I am drunk in my dreams

And hope

For a flight

With angels of light

Who I know shall fly

With others elsewhere

Beyond my gaze

In unflinching haze.

And still do I dream

And conjure in vain

Those eyes, those lips

Those enchanting songs

That drag my ship

To who knows what shore

And toss my soul

As a cloud in a storm

That hopes for a flash

To pour out in rain

Songs of a hymn that is unheard of yet!

I tussle with life to sail in my dreams

Punctuating days

With half-hearted screams.

A Pawn to his Queen/s

I wonder by what magic lamps

The streets lit up with thousand charms

And then with spells she rendered me

A pawn to beauty’s sorcery.

Still I search in dim-lit lanes,

As like wind-blown withered leaves,

In vain for all those wonders lost,

Yearning for that ecstasy

That will not let me be.

Dreaming so of rarest light

I long for sparkling, starlit night

When all the figures fading by,

Will one by one come walking back

And fill my dreams will untold bliss…

Perhaps to be sealed with a kiss.

Midnight Monody

Desire,

Dripping from a red dress

Puzzles my sense

And makes me so digress,

That all the mess

Of colour and stress

Shades into curves

Of exquisite shape

That dazzle and delight

Like a snow-capped sight

To a sun-burnt son

Of Saharan plight.

So my stinking pool at night,

Blossoms bright

With grapes and rose

Armed with replays –

Infinite.

Eternal Flame

Away from the circles of starless night

From all the lanes of winding fog

From the depths of dark and roaring clouds

Let me follow forever

Your matchless stride wherever

In all our struggles and strife.

Lead on with clearest eyes

To your towering height

And save us from ourselves

O Guide! O Pilgrim of Light!

Refuse to be Herd

Drudging through the mire of measureless night

I stumble and start and shiver to the soul,

Bracing for a fate that’s unchartered yet.

Writhing through the pain I wonder how long

My hands can hold our unawakened dream

And save from loss that unparalleled gleam.

And still do I hear the roar of that storm

That threatens to burst with fire and hail

And lay our crops to waste –

Smothered into molecules of unredeeming hate.

Still would I sing and bellow through the bone

The voice of a man with a mind of his own.

Soul Survivor

Batter and bruise and roar all you want
Bear your fangs and pierce through the bone
Do all that you can to pain and gain,
And rack my soul with fire and coal –

I will not bow, I will not roll.

But settled and safe in the fort of my soul
I’ll smash all your bolts and grab your gusts
Till all your fury is spent and must yield
At last to a soul that dares to be lone.

Youasis

Steaming down the noonday blaze
I merge with silent crowds on street
With sweat-lined faces, charred as coal,
Wading as through sea of sand.

Then like oasis Magic-born
Your face appears and pouring shade
Thrills me with that sweetest voice
As like dreamt of nightingale.

At once I chime with speechless song
And throb with bliss of breathless days.