October

You came to pick me up in green
And you came to see me off in ochre
And so it feels like autumn in my chest
Now as then
When I count the seconds
Left, till we meet again

This was our first October
With mornings made of sore blanket
Wet cheeks and warm lemon water
Our feet draped in the sunlight
Filtered through the faded time
Of the year old newspaper
I wish our nights had been longer
Darker and deeper
Like the colour of your tresses
And I wish our clock had stuck at 3 am
At that perfect hour
When dreams take over
And sleep had no power

The gardens we greeted
Those walks that we shared
Two bees out of the beehive
Tasting honey in the air
Weren’t our shadows far too behind
Unable to catch us
As we bartered the sunlight
Across asphalt alleyways
With strangers asking directions
Of far off places
And tying open shoelaces
We answered in no
For lost souls we were
With everywhere to go

I can listen to you sleep all night long
But the dreams that I dream of you divides me
For I remember the first time I saw you
I was wax in love with the flame
Your face was my life on fire
Your name was the name of my name
And in the blank and silent space
I saw my world being born again
In the fragrance of your hair
I found the petrichor of a long lost rain

By day and by night
Through pages blank, white and yellow
I read our destiny
That started with a hello
But now in this moment
I am daydreaming like dust
Your love is the water
And my life is its thirst
And the end I foresee;
Is of us lying back in bed
Sharing a single breath
Till all we can say has been said

Splinters

Summer falls on your skin
And you become a photograph
Taken in another time, in another world

There is so much to see in your smile
In the delicate haven of your hair
In the long awaited embrace
In the absence of heat
Under the cold bed-sheets
Lying like lost Latin
These folds of satin after satin

On winter solstice
When the moon is a sorrowful sickle
Or a pregnant womb of the invisible night
I watch your form breathe
The dark pink; this colour of our love
As we hold on to the same dream
Between our fingers;
Like a tissue paper napkin

Do you dream of the daylight, child?
When I hold you
In the glass castle
Where the vision of the world
Is a filtered reflection
Like thoughts diluted to diction,
I suppose, you do
All birds does
And the Butterflies too

Your veins are in my palm
And I am running out of breath
On the cusp of madness
I stay and I pray
For the sorrows to surrender
And bliss to find a way
Is it too much to ask?
Is it a leap of false faith?
Will I find back the angel?
Or fall down to death?

My eyes often betray
The hurting of my heart
When I walk and I talk
While acting out my part
But tonight, the symphony
Is like syrup and the sea
Goldfishes at the shore
Eyeing my honey on the tree
And I am here in the hall
With strings in my hands
And my soul playing a marionette
That no one understands

To Blush Or To Bruise

Blue lines on my face
Teardrops on my dress
She said, she said
There is no one at my place
But he wasn’t standing far
The man in violent garb
Pining compliments
Like flowers on the barb

His brutal hands were red
From all life, playing dead
And like a rose to the cactus
She wed, she wed
Merry was the man
Like cherry blossomed lies
The kiss was murder weapon
Aided by garter and bow ties

And so years were spent
Part in bruises, part as prize
With smoke in the lungs
With mirror in the eyes
While the violent man he waltzed
Alone on the floor
With a corpse in his arms
To a music playing no more