CHAOS

We cover our hells with roses
and fear foreigners digging deep
into our glorious projections

the slinky growth from diseased weeds
no gene therapy can erase:
we reflect the chaos as gold

trying to shed the crusts of small selves
invite death for a change and lick
the narrow lake between the thighs

it's more voluptuous to float
in the sky and come out transformed
with Kali's blood dripping light and grace

and recast the seeds of destiny
in undying flowery perfume
without fear of quake or collapse

A TRAVESTY

I wish I could clean the cobwebs of legends
that veil the vision, moralising future
with doubtful glories urge us to move backward:

echoes of the dead reverberate; no use
setting the alarm to go off 2010

stashed away in empty slogans life's seconds
periodically exhumed is a travesty
of obsolescence of the sun ever clouded

Gateway of India or Delhi's Circus
suffer midnight lust with rites of consummation
like the conclusion of a tragic poem

SEXLESS SOLITUDE

I don't seek the stone bowl
Buddha used while here:
she dwells on moonbeams

I can see her smiling
with wind-chiselled breast
in sexless solitude

her light is not priced
but gifted to enlighten
the silver linings

PEACE

Out of wood and stone
he carves his vision of peace:
night's secret visage


Hidden
in the heart of spring
cries for peace


Unruffled
by passions and clamours--
Buddha's calm


Her heart
a thousand doors of
oneness


Drunken with force
spreading the century's sore:
nine eleven


Splendid with the moon
night in silver peace dreams
thousand folds of light

DREAMS SHROUD THE GLOOM

There's no meaning
in being cold and groan:

silence frightens
between the acts

who cares how much
I care and love

forgetting wrinkles
in the lone pool

dreams shroud the gloom
unburnt in sun

SILENCE

Is it the perfume
or your body
that makes the nights
drunken?

your lush lips
ripple fire
in beautiful silence

your fragrance radiates
flowers and water

can I seek
my voice
in your breasts?

PARTING

She doen't know
how silence changes
the dynamics of love
in bed it kills
like the changes
in weather patterns:

I remain sleepless
despite her smell
next to my pillow
holding injured ego
part in the morning
like aliens

THANK THE BODY TOO

It's part of prayer
to have the lingam kissed
or kiss it to feel

the creator's pulse
for a moment
thank the body too

that houses the spirit
we seek in His name
for relief and salvation

through the cycle
of day and night
meeting and departing

learning and unlearning
each moment synthesising
god, sex and the world

HAIKU

Bathing in thousand
they float lamps on her breast--
the river sparkles


Alone
the cellphone on her bed
rings


A film of mist
between my eyes
and her image


Travelling back
from the waves of bliss
a foam-leap


Making holes
in the wooden cross
white ants


Standing
between flowers
Jesus on the cross


They walk on red coal
matching steps with drum beats:
carnival of ecstasy


Reflects the rainbow
in the mirror of water--
Yamuna Bridge


Awaits sunrise
in the chilly Ganges
a nude worshipper


Safe from sun
under nascent leaf
a small fish


Out of wood and stone
he carves his vision of peace:
night's secret visage


Unruffled
by passions and clamours:
Buddha's calm


Alone
on the National Highway
Hanuman


In a moment
trapping eternity:
the camera


Two peacocks
on a dancing spree:
see water


Painting mom's smile
with broken crayons--
smiling Winny


Suffer animals
with a peculiar smell:
men in white khadi


Without washing hands
he touches the hibiscus for worship:
her frowning glance


Krishna offering
parijata to Radha:
Narada looks on


The temple dome
in the flooded Ganga:
empty kalash


Sleeps the night with
desires wrapped in blanket--
spring in the eyes


No bottom reader
but the shape and lines do tell
she can stir the soul


Wet bodies
of bathing women:
full moon night


Measuring life with
ejaculatory rhythm--
envies sparrow sports


Shaking hands
couldn't part with the henna
on her palms


In the well
studying her image
a woman


Drunken with force
spreading the century's sore:
nine eleven


Post-lunch solitude
filled with thoughts that couldn't become
even a haiku

LOVE WAVES

1. Is it her quietus
that she roars in herself
like a sea
waves upon waves
leaps upon herself


2. Crazy these people
don't know how to go down
with the swirl and up
with the whirl but play
in raging water

3. Gentle like a dove
love was graceful a night away
on the white wave it's
a sea searching ways leaps to
eternity tonight

4. Is it the heat wave
or stupor that I see
shadows in the dark
and call it vision?

5. Before the foamy
water could sting her vulva
a jelly fish passed
through the crotch making her shy--
the sea whispered a new song


6. Swirling spiral
of her skirt spills tides of dream
and memory:
I breathe fire in the dance
forgetting bends and twists


7. Winter is caught in
waves of narrow discussions
under the blanket
my fingers move by nipples erect
without consummation