Bhuvaneshwari Shankar's Blog, page 6

[Ghazal] To Love

The queen moon is silent tonight
She is a dying ember contrite, tonight

Now, no longer am I his delight
He will lie in her arms tonight

Behold the myriad lovers under the stars
Their eyes shine and lips profess love tonight

 Trapped in a virginal tower of white
I write verses to the god of love tonight

Wherefore do you wait, Ilakea all red eyed?
Don't you know he is not yours tonight?

[Poem] After all the Goodbyes have been Said...

After, all the good byes have been said, why do they linger still?
He begins in right earnest on something new
If he lags she pitches in, with a bad joke, even a miscue

After, all the goodbyes have been said, why do they linger so?
Do either of them know
The sleep they seek
Would elude them still
He would keep the clock company
And she would stand sentinel to the stars

 After, all the goodbyes have been said, why do they linger on?
When the moon becomes the sun
Is it always day in their rosy world?

After, all the goodbyes have been said, why do they linger still?
Do they fear waking
Only to find that it was all a dream?

[Short Story] Many Tales to Tell

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Every few minutes he changed the songs in his play list, tiring easily of each one. Either he didn't know the whole song, or the lyrics were bad or it was too tough. <br /><br />He felt his mother's touch on his shoulder and saw her looking down at him in amusement. <br /><br />'What is all that frustration for? <br />You are going to break that iPod today. <br />Don't think, your father will buy you another one all that soon.' <br /><br />Seeing her laugh only heightened his anger. <br />He plucked the headphones and flung the iPod along with it on the sofa. <br />'The cultural programme at college is starting tomorrow.<br />The music competitions will happen day after. <br />The seniors said, that they are banking on me. <br />And I am not even able to decide on the song yet...'<br />He gave her a blank stare. <br /><br />She sat next to him, and gave him a hug and he slumped down on her lap, even letting her ruffle his hair, which he was very protective of, ever since he joined college.<br />'Oh! you remind me ever so often that you are still that little boy, whom I desperately wanted to grow up. <br />But, it is nice to meet him, every now and then.' <br />He sat up suddenly and glared at her.<br />'Ma, cut the crap ... <br />I think I'll go out...' <br />She jumped up and stayed him.<br />'Hey, calm down... </div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5804r-0-0"><br />I have saved some of the new songs ... you know... those that you haven't heard ... I am also sure you will find something interesting...' <br />Mothers know their sons best and he did find that magical song. </div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5804r-0-0"><br />The beautiful love song, sung in his earnest voice moved almost everyone in the audience. <br /><br />'My nights grow listless without you <br />My heart grows agitated with out you <br />My peace deserts me without you...' <br /><br />Every girl there felt, that he had actually sung the song for her. <br />He was the most popular guy in college from the next day. <br /><br />The song helped him meet and marry his future wife. <br /><br /> II<br /><br />Arjun stood in the kitchen, cooking an elaborate meal of dhal and parathas. He fortified himself with a steady supply of tea that simmered on the smallest burner in the cooking range. The kitchen was an absolute mess, but he had won the cleaning lady's heart with his generous tips and his kindness. <br /><br />Now that he was alone, he wanted to make the best use of his free time. ‘Freedom from bland cooking!’ he shouted or rather sloganeered as he slathered more ghee over an already soggy paratha. <br /><br />His mind kept reminding him of what lay in wait that evening. <br /><br />Marriage, he agreed, was good yet there were many sacrifices, some of which, he missed terribly- like his friends or the late night parties with them. <br /><br />He hated having to behave so responsibly all of the time. <br />‘Come prepared with some songs…’ his friends had ordered, they were equally eager to meet him. They specifically requested for a song that was taking the Internet by storm. </div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5804r-0-0"><br />It was a song of joy, a song of liberation, a song of celebration. <br /><br />He worked up the mood to sing it with the right amount of gusto. <br /><br />He sang it loudly and experimented with a few moves that could go with it. <br />In his enthusiasm, he failed to notice the generous drippings of ghee that had enriched not just the paratha, but the floor as well. <br /><br />He felt his feet slipping and fell with a thud, the song turning into a whimper in his lips.</div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5804r-0-0"> </div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5804r-0-0">He could never recall the events that followed clearly, but he found himself being helped by a contrite tearful wife, who looked at him, her eyes brimming over, with love.</div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5804r-0-0"><br /> III </div><div class="_1mf _1mj" data-offset-key="5804r-0-0"><br />Years later, when her children grew up, she would tell them her love story animatedly. How her husband, their father had loved her the moment he set eyes on her and how he had wooed her with his song at the college cultural show. She would tell them of their first fight and how, when she had returned home plagued by pangs of guilt, she had found him slumped on the floor, crying his heart out for her <br /><br />‘Oh! my wife has gone away to her mother’s…’ <br /><br />She would also tell them of her firm resolve to never leave his side, ever again… <br /><br />And that, my friends, is how myths are born and propagated.</div></div></div>

[Poem] Hymn to Defeat

                                  Image was found at http://dods.gamebanana.com/maps/664

I walk this road
Alone
Axing
Beastly foliage
with bare hands
If I fall
I crawl
With the insects in the dust

I walk
Clawing at cobwebs
Mummified in grey tendrils
A noose gripping my throat

In dark caves
I cower 
Fear laughs
And swings from the roof
Or hovers
Overhead, leering
Waiting to taste despair

Yet

There is no turning back
There never was
Will each trudge
Towards the Promised Light

The landscape shifts
Paths become roads
Roads turn to ruin
Dust powders buildings
Rust and grime reign tall

[Poem] Contemplation

Waves
Abundant
Buoyant
On a waterless sea

Floating on the breeze
Euphoric sometimes melancholic


A music
Born of the soul
Fathered by emotion

They swim and float
No ebbs
Only tides and more
Storms rage
And cool winds moan

From your eyes
And mine
I can barely taste
The spray
Carried by the wind
No oceans hold
Nor land
Only the air
The devout messenger
Deliverer
Unto devout hands

[Poem] Miss. Love

I am a wraith
Fanning away at your bedewed forehead
A gentle breeze in a window less room

Sometimes
I am
A shy head shake
A fleeting thought
A fluttering heart beat
A tingle down your spine
A joyous song
A smile that weaves your lips
Uninvited

I am a mist
Rising and falling
With each breath
Living in utterances

I am shadow
Sinking in your silences

I am a fog
Engulfing your  contours
I fall as tears from adoring eyes
Only to dart back quickly
And snuggle deep
Amid your supple lips

[Poem] Anomaly

The giraffe sits on a car
The Sun hangs dangerously low
A clown grimaces at passerby below
Rabbits swing threaded to a pole
A whale halts poised over an antelope
Ambulances wait patiently behind busses and scooters
All At the local toy store

[Poem] The Neem Tree

                                    Image from:http://dristals.deviantart.com/art/Dy...

I sit here
In this plush hall
Wooden panelled
With leaf inlays in gold
Sofas of rosewood and teak
Covered in leather
Await invasion
The carpet is green
'Green is good for the eyes'
They say
I wait, desperation mounting
For you.

The search began with a dream long forgotten
Of that summer...


In the duclet shade
We played
The sweet wind blew
It rained tender yellow petals
and berry showers of jade
'They are grapes'
You proffered
In recall
They taste sweet
We strung them together
in crooked necklaces
Jagged embellishments
that fell
Crushed and stained our clothes
As we knelt down
And I learnt to write
My first words
My first times table
The world echoed with our laughter
                                     Image from:  http://evanyia.deviantart.com/art/The...

Under the neem tree in the yard
 If I could stop time
I would stop it then

Since
Now, that you are gone
This desperate pilgrimage
To kindle a crumbling memory

My search ends
I know all is in vain
When
The manager laughs
He stares at me strangely
When he hears the year
'We took down all the trees
A long time ago'

I whirl around dizzily
To find the spot
  From which all my memories grow

A sudden fear grips me
And I begin to see the dead
Animals, the dead tress in a
Dying Planet

[Poem] Colours Of my World

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[Poem] Empathy?

I see the tears in your eyes
In a broken voice you share your pain
I offer comfort
My words sound hollow
Even to me
For within me too lies
A crater
A void
Where pain and self doubt
Rage
My eyes rain tears
And hurt wrecks my heart
You are of this earth and so am I
I can neither feel you pain
Nor halt its return

Yet, I say the things you want to hear
Hoping, praying
it will bring you lasting cheer