A Midnight Story

Tender nights and stormy skies
A quiet breath, so soft a sigh
Tales unknown, lures the mind
But heavy lids refuse to pry.

One of a distant memory
Another, a forbidden dream
Somewhere, a few foggy faces
Lucid eyes and voices honeyed.

Rain tickles the air lightly
Weaving my thoughts into sweet agony
Webbed and fuzzy, muffled and messy
Losing their warmth, the sheets around me.

A cool void laces my fingers
As familiar as a time worn lover
Tracing the curves of moonlit smiles
Are the iris depths of our gentle eyes.

I can feel the stirrings
Of a timeless yearning, when
That loyal shift of my well-versed heart
Draws me in as an artist to his art.

We play this game often enough
The dark our witness, silence its charm
Until a flash mars the scene
With thunder rising to its feet.

"I thought you wouldn't come tonight,"
We talk in whispers, thunder and I,
That I waited, it rumbles in delight
I shush it gently, caressing its might.

Outside the window, a torrent rages
The chill's gone, nestled in an embrace
Soon they come, so quietly uttered,
I smile when I hear my favorite words-

"Will you play tonight?" Thunder sighs
Coaxing me from bed, the request in disguise
I look over my shoulder, willing it to stay
And with the purest love, I begin to play.


(Images are my own)

Crossroads

An unlikely journey
An oft-beaten path
"Decisions, decisions!"
"Am I good enough?"

Don't give me a chance
To look into my future,
I know not if I'll accept
Or move on with a prayer.

For the beauty of the unknown
Is alluring, for sure,
But the fear of the unknown
Isn't known to give you more.

So I decide
To take in stride
The mist of my life
And the disquiet it hides.

Precarious as it sounds,
"Are you leaving it upon chance?"
 Isn't that what you call it,
That quest for romance?

I'm dancing on the edges of a crossroad here
The signs aren't taking me anywhere near
My dreams and desires are still gaining shape
Faith in the self is all I have.

(Image: A simple dream painted using water colours on paper)

Lines to Cross

Beautiful, isn't it?
  The desire to give our all?
Sad, don't you think,
  How we end up taking the fall?

Hold on, they say,
Give up, no way!
"Time is precious"
  But so is my mind,
       What's in a little foray?

Let it go,
Leave it behind
Oh, you silly sobbing heart
 What are you trying to find?
      It ain't worth it
   But still so worth it
Don't tell me I'm losing my mind.

Sucks, doesn't it?
  Knowing you didn't fight for the win.
Dramatic, it often is,
  This life, how it takes us for a spin.

Let’s Talk

A gift, I call it
The beauty of words
For whoever can weave
Magic like a bard.

It's a gift that belongs
To many amongst us
But few hear its call
And bare to it their souls.

And those who do
Do they know the true
Ways in which they now hold the glue
To make or break a bond or two?

If only one knew how words cut deep
If only they knew how silence doesn't heal,
Not every time, that's not what I mean
But perhaps when a kind word is all you need?

If speaking our minds made a fool of us
I'd rather look one than carry a farce;
If the burden of pretense only keeps you apart
Isn't it just easier to speak our hearts?

(Landscape captured in Laitlum, Meghalaya, India.)

Loving Me

What would you do
If you were asked to choose
Between loving me
And loving you?

Will you be okay
If you hear me say
I'm not for loving, not in the
One-in-a-million way.

(I used to be
Or so they say,
I still could be
If I just let myself stay.)

Would it be too much
That I found my own tune
To dance to and make love
To the freedom I feel anew.

I'll still want you
But need I shall not
I'll still hold you
And give you my all.

I'll still keep you warm
On nights dark and cold
I'll sing for you too
That song you say is gold.

Will I make it harder
To hold back on your love
If I do a little more
Than what I mentioned above?

I know I'll love you
More than what you have for you
But I know I won't let you
Love me like I want you to.

Maybe you should find
A soul that'd be kind
To your love, unwalled
A heart unlike mine.

Maybe you should, my love,
Give up on me, and
Pick yourself this time
Like I'd choose me.

(Image: Yet another travel capture of a favourite flower)

Winter

Mornings like these
Take me back
To autumn nights
In quilts of patch.

Wrapped in you
With the breeze wrapping us
Humming along to your thoughts
Merrily under the stars.

Happy was I, naively so,
Watching the sun brighten the shore
Tea in hand, coffee in yours
Scented by the land,
I couldn't have asked for more.

There's the mist, here comes the chill
Reminding me I have spaces to fill
As I swing alone on our porch today
Sweet melancholy no longer at bay.

Mornings like these, take me home
To another life, another norm.

Colourful was my palette how,
Leaving it with only now
A little grey, a little blue
And a lot more lonely,
Without you.

(The frozen Shungetsar Lake captured, in Arunachal Pradesh, India.)

Whose life is it?

Why is it so hard
To live our lives in part
Empathy, with part detachment
Part indifference, and part attachment?

What’s the mystery behind
Living a life well-defined
(Don’t you wanna know, defined by whom?
Well, not by the self, as it should.)

Birds of prey circle over us
Watch your step, they taunt in glee
One wrong move (wrong by whom?)
A taint of shame you can’t flee.

There’s no winning
With some, we must accept
There’s nothing to lose
In losing them, let’s keep our respect.

We can’t please everybody
Rather, we may irk a few
But if you make your life all about mine,
Isn’t the onus on you?

A Dusky Dream

It was dusk before I knew it,
Fading lights and scenes around me
A crick in the neck brought me back
To earth from the sky well above me.

I had only gone to the terrace
To be soothed by the afternoon caress
Of mellowed sunlight and balmy breeze
When the swing gently swayed, the lure of a knowing tease.

The sky beckoned next
Or was it the whisper of the trees?
Could’ve been the birds singing overhead
Or the clouds that were turning pink.

I knew not where to look
It was everywhere my eyes wanted to be,
Thought it wiser to fall into a dream
Where my mind could see all as it ran free.

The lull didn’t last long, for my heart woke me up
“Watch,” I was told, “It’s the moon”, for it had also woken up.
One half of silvery beauty, other still asleep
Never has it been so radiant, with the sun still vivid.

The luminescence haunted me
As did the bottomless vault it lit
I couldn’t fathom the reverence it educed
Yet I was snug in the comfort of it.

Tomorrow I shall bring my brushes and paint
My canvas with the canvas of nature as my muse
Brilliant greens kindling a changing sky
While I wait on the swing for the stars to arrive.

(Photograph captured in Leh, Ladakh, India, a place abound with surreal landscapes.)

It’s Time

It’s been awhile
That we drove for a mile,
The sun shining bright
And the full moon high.
Do you remember me
pointing out to the sky?
As you rode through the night
Letting me fly.

It’s been awhile
Since we danced to a song,
Barefeet in the dark,
In the shadows we belonged.
Don’t you have memories
Of stolen moments as these?
Where the song played right
Along with the night.

Time heals, but does it really
Fix the broken or soothe over only;
Timeless, they say, some stories are
Could ours have been too,
If the end wasn’t near?
Oh but, how would I know,
Since the end is here.
Oh but, what would I know,
Now that the end is here.

For Keeps

It must be luck, or a sweet hand of fate
That gave me a life with the people I met
The ones who found me at my highs, at best
And stayed through the worst, often called a test.

But a test is not what I need to prove
The unflinching loyalty that has often moved
Mountains of hurt and oceans of worry,
Along with faith that dwells in me dearly.

They say I’m good, that I listen and I get it
I don’t make it hard, our minds easily meet
I ask the right questions, and say the right things
Yet another conversation with the happiness it brings.

Little do they know how they leave me reeling
From the fact and the wonder of our souls belonging
Of the right to call them mine, how I wish to keep them so
I’m the one who’s humbled, blessed a little more.

The content that you speak of
The resonance you appreciate
The comfort of an understanding,
A beauty our bond radiates.

I cannot be grateful any more if I tried
For the friends who are nothing short of a gift to my life
Their adoration and love, so unwaveringly alive
They’re my joy, my spark, my charm and my pride.