Birthday wishes…

My father, Striding across the beach at dawn The plank of wood his surf board. Making sand castles with tunnels Waiting for the waves to re-load My father,  Indulging whatever the new fancy was. Waiting for me outside school. Calling out my name just because He liked to, the reason was moot. My father,  Laying…

The dying.

I often worried that when the call came, I’d be at work But the afternoon my mother dies, I am resting at home after lunch. So I tell myself to snap out of it And later as we prepare my mother, I think  this is the only time I will see her like this, because…

Full moon again

Again it’s just the two of us And you hide behind the clouds And as I pick my way on the terrace Your light still shines through,  Cutting through my firmament  The Kamini smells just as sweet The baby lemons nod in the breeze The darkness in my heart complete But not all darkness is cloying …

Kalapokhri

It poured, the sound of rainpounding on the water reminding me of rain drenched swimswhen days were fat and full. I threw away the bracelet that day, let it sink in the dark waters of Kalapokhri Not wanting it manacled around my wrist anymore. I am swayed by my thoughts. That swim in circles, memories…

Grief

One day I will cry. And I will cry a river Cascading over landscapes unknown Thundering over rocks and stones Carving a path of its very own. And when the tears finally meet the sea,  It will be on a widened estuary Peaceful and calm, no deltas for me No dredging on the edge to…

To Rubic (on turning 30).

Can mere words ever be enough for a son who taught me the art of taking myself less seriously, and made me a child again! The son who filled my world with fresh pots of paint colours I never knew existed bleeding into my grey refrain. Those unforgettable drives, longer swims, “the dark room”, getting…

Voices

I hear you, little brook as you babble  in my ears, I hear you too, little girl, crying in your mother’s arms, I hear you, lawyers, strident and demanding.  Some voices are pleasant, and some  can be soothed with toffee, some carry  on like there is no tomorrow,  Some silence themselves to echoes that are…

Thoughts from a hospital

At least now that I am not chained to the bedanymore, I can have more lucid thoughts.I walk this room, stretch myself and again countthe days till I can go home. Outside,people come and go oblivious to my eyeswatching from a window aboveas they go about their daily lives…Standing in the shade, looking bored, chewing…

On the 30th year…13.05.2023.

In the end it was easy to leave you. Your body burned on a raging fire and I was told to not look back, Although I would have, had I been told that ghosts would then follow me home. I would welcome those ghosts, Offer them tea or something stronger  Only for news of you….

Wretched.

Deep in the night the quiet voice of my father speaks A voice that carries into the dark cloud that feeds into my days, how wretched I think I must be,  That even my own mother couldn’t love me. “I always said that it was not the end of the world,  but I possibly never…

To Ipsy, sometime later. #glopowrimo #promptday30

Today’s prompt (day 30 and the final one of this challenge) is to write a palinode – a poem in which you retract a view or sentiment expressed in an earlier poem. So I have chosen a poem that I wrote earlier this year, based on another prompt where I was to give life advice to…

Muri Ghonto * #glopowrimo #promptday29

Today’s prompt: write your own two-part poem that focuses on a food or type of meal. At some point in the poem, describe the food or meal as if it were a specific kind of person. Give the food/meal at least one line of spoken dialogue. I. There’s a lot to be said about the…