Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Used-Book Shops

Image Source - Google Image Search
Dull, dog-eared, some torn pages
Fading papers with blots of coffee
Worn out by use, smelling decaying papyrus -
Walking across the ‘used books’ shops
I sense some sad eyes carve into me!

Laden with the sense of nostalgia
Sighs soaked in yesteryear’s memories
Resigned to their hapless fate
Books lie at the roadside shops
Like the orphans of old-age homes!

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Bubbles!

Image Source - Google Image Search
16th March ‘12

Engendered by ebullient minds
emanating through the tender lips
lovely bubbles float in the wind!

Shimmering in spectrum of colors
shaped as lovely rotund pods
gleefully they live gliding around.

Born of the air, floating in the same
essential lessons of existence
the shiny souls teach us all.

Unburdened by unborn futures
untied down by the bygone pasts,
here and, to now, is all they belong.

Here now and, lo, they are gone
but while they are here
sheer fun and frolic is their life.

Dancing for transitory lifetimes
tiny souls of unsullied appearance
they spread around smiles of joy.

I wish to become a lovely bubble
floating gaily in the flowing breeze
I can fly amongst the playful hands.

Even as I end in a bouncy burst
I wish to seed only love and peace
and leave, seeing smiles abound!

Rain on Me!

Image Source - Google Image Search

22nd October '11

Somewhen once Love soaked my soul
in emotional ebbs and ebullient tides
crystalline Love flowed wild within me -
now only trickles a corpse-floating Ganges!

Tender walls of this tenuous heart
once painted with vibrant Love
are growing dry, crumbling inside me
cleaved as crevices tainted with darkness!

My estranged Beloved!
Come back now for a cursory while
color my life with your lifting love
raising me from this hellish life!
 
Once was my heart a ripe orchard
blossoming with buds of beautiful Life -
now with the Love’s stream trickling dry
I’m left to glean leftover-fruits of Love!

Someone sometimes shares a little love
shaping up slowly to surpass you -
yet this painfully paranoid heart
makes them wane like distant mirage!
 
My estranged Beloved!
Return to revive my rickety life
raining on me your intense love
drenching with delight my parched Soul!

Empty Cradle!

Image Source - Google Image Search
Plucking from mind the passing thoughts
I often wove some garlands in words
presenting them all in poetic forms
I basked in the bliss they showered!
That lovely phase is lost these days
indolent mind resembles inert seas
abandoned by whims and words alike
untouched notebook lies like empty cradle
feeding me with pangs of a barren womb!

Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Nightmares


Image Source - Google Image Search
Nightmares
06th February ‘12

Doused in your sweet-smelling sweat
my sleeping clothes stay smeared yet
Remnants of that monsoon night’s rain
stuck at the windowsill as teary stain!

Traces of our passions’ flows unbridled
scattered as stars in my crumpled bed
Unborn mornings’ amoral moons
prying at the patio for amatory signs!

Everything remaining as it was once
nothing, yet, thrills me in your absence
Each sinew engendering sweet memories
yearning soul indulges in forlorn reveries!

Dreams still bloom in very many hues
vivid as summer rains’ transient rainbows
yet the dawns paint me in lovelorn blues
privy to nightmares of rending loneliness!

Ashok Krishna

Monday, March 5, 2012

Sinister Seven!

Image Source - Refer Footnote
Sinister Seven!
21st January ‘12

 Unseen, silent, arrogant God!
At the behest of our whims and wiles
we live spawning forth sinful Cains
enacting not-so-innocent Abels.

Not so keen on quelling our anger
we freely shed blood all over your Manger.
Wrath is no more a cardinal sin
with patience these days running very thin.

Clad with Greed as our raiment now
altar of wealth is all where our heads bow.
Unabashedly we go amassing objects
even when nothing fills hearts’ abysmal sockets.

Envy goes slyly sowing seeds of enmity
smiling smugly all the while at human naivety -
spurning ruddy lotuses at our own backyards
we stand sighing at our neighbours’ wildflowers.

Skin-shows, sleaze and shimmering nuggets
is what now even feminine soul wants.
Men no less, pursuing own Narcissist goals
even Pride here falls headlong into own pitfalls.

Life-feeding bosoms, life-binding navels -
venerable limbs now reek of venereal stenches.
Everything seduces, anything satiates lecherous calls
Lust’s bitter lessons lost as ruins of Sodom’s walls.

Vainglorious parties and baneful taste -
long while since only hunger made us eat.
Our Gluttonous minds make willful waste
even as the poor sift trashes for crumbs to sate.

Slothful souls spurn all life’s good blessings
apathy is what we offer to our brethren’s sufferings.
Indolent minds and atrophied souls -
Your sheep now shed waste their bounty of wools!

Sinister sins seduce us in Life’s every turns
Lucifer’s sirens lure us harping phony tunes!
Prescribe forth, silent God, a fresh set of sins -
all Your previous lot, we’ve now taken for virtues!

Ashok Krishna


(Image Source - http://www.bloodsweatvector.com/apparel/the-seven-deadly-sins-tee/ A brilliant artwork by Joby Cummings.)

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Guilty Coins

Image Source - Google Image Search
A dull afternoon’s wait for the bus
sweating in sweltering heat
sheltered in the scanty shade
I left my mind to wander around!

Out of nowhere, a frail voice
the clanking of coins and
a tug at my clothes shook
me out of my short reveries!

Standing in front, a tiny tot
clad in tatters, hair unkempt
dust and ditch applied all over
prayed for alms with gullible face!

Repelled by the grubby sight
reasoned by my intellectual mind
I drove away the little brat
waving hands, wording nothingness!

As the hapless soul headed away
the bulky wallet inside my pocket -
stuffed with coins and wads of green -
sulked, saddled by saddening guilt!

31st January '12