Those arms

If only I could walk into those arms
As I used to
If only I could rest in those arms
As I used to
If only I could feel love in those arms
As I used to.

Arms that used to be mine
Their warmth reserved for me
But then they were let out
Ever since I've let them be.

Now when they circle me
Other arms come to intrude
Their ghosts I've failed to slay
They sing doomsday's prelude.

Time takes wings and flies
And moments chameleon like
Change colours from day to day
Past truths but dreams today.

Wish I could walk intothose arms
As I used to
Wish I could Rest in those arms
As I used to
Wish I could feel love in those arms
As I used to.

Relearning

Yes, I was a fool, till a few days back

I cried for men and birds and bees

I moaned in pain for felled trees

And as I writhed I heard them laugh

Their jeers I bore, their cheers abhorred

My mind soared for I was sure

The world would right itself once more

A fresh breeze would unfreeze cold hearts

Would bring in Spring, and as solidarity bloomed

We’d behold on the face of a dark sky

Rising of a shinning New Moon.

No, it wasn’t a dream, a firm faith

Held in heart and mind religiously

I did not heed the warning signs

Nor felt threatened when mountains

Stood in my path.  Like a river

Serene I flowed, round that obstacle

Jumped over boulders untold

A journey to a destination

The ocean waiting with open arms:

When did waters dry? Obliterated

Paths lay stretched ahead, unknown,

Do I walk along, or run in fear?

This time I’ll stand unmoving

Dead as a dodo, or live unmoved

An ascetic in transcendental mood.

Two sides of a coin

She walks into your arms: you blossom
Sunflower like, turning to your Sun
Her smile shines in your eyes
A thousand twinkling stars at night
Illuminating the dark of your thoughts;
Her frenzied tunes your feet command
They tao, and dance and sway and twirl
Like a loan leaf  in rushing winds swirled:
That is life; that is Spring
Untimely nightingales sing.

Come Winter months: a climate change
Glaciers and icebergs and tsunamis-lashed
Lands that freeze, thirsts unquenched
Parched throats, begging arms
Vainly waiting for alms
Yet Sun's not down: a storm of dust
Partial eclipse, mind's mirage
Obliterates light in a blink
Emerge anew, emerge renewed
In one more life; another birth.

Heartless World

Come, we'll enter my sanitized laboratory.
You see this jar?
 That's a human heart preserved;
No, it beats no more, yet you see it bleed.
Those scars, you say?
Some slashes and nicks left by
sharp edged words and thought.
The deep, dark gorges in between you see?
Nothing much. Marks of arrows that struck
That heart when it beat, strong and vibrant.
No, not shafts from enemy quivers
Acts of friends and lovers, sharper, more deadly.
Do I mourn for that dead heart?
Not at all; I'm glad it's gone,
Space around to breathe  once more
Voices free now, to speak.
You say you'll pay a fortune for it?
Alas! I must refuse that offer
Humbly I'll say "It's not for sale"
I keep it as constant reminder
Of perfidy suffered, of copious tears
When hearts longed and dreamed.
Today the world's wiser by far
And heartless too.