TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES

take off your shoes
take them in your hands
and step barefoot
on the earth
take the universe in your stride
shift the weight forward
as the world passes by
at the hill
spread your arms
say hi
to the you – you were always
to the you – who is catching up
decide
to
smile
----------------------
monsoon answers prayers
touches
earth
arouses it
answered by love
and moaning and bursts of songs and greens of fragrances
a bacteria emanates that fragrance
a frog croaks a happy song
an ant flies her last flight
blind in love
a peacock spreads its wings

life engages life
life sprouts life
in a boat a flow
of mad bliss
draped in raincoats
gods cruise
into their own party
--------------------------
of another times
of another delhi
wrote a poem the other day
an old flame just said sorry
did a story on the dirty dingy ward of
premature born babies
headlined – WARRIORS AT BIRTH
--------------------------
i too
learn words are smart
punctuations to meanings
silences are so loaded with
--------------------------
( so far so good. how is it going? this letter. to you. sorry for all the nonsense. you asked for it.)
(and now the poem i wrote the other day)

24, MAITRI APARTMENTS, MAYUR VIHAR

lovelorn walk on a lonely raining delhi winter night

rain drips over my face
i exhale smoke
i smell the fragrance
and i touch you
touch the feel of u
feel the touch of you
every time i look out from the DTC bus
on regal bus stand
the charms of your smile
the warmth of your breathe
the island in your eyes
flash like billboards
across times (every time)
across crowds
across destinies
i spread my hand
my fingers reach out
to draw your face
in emptiness

long after you are gone
i touch and feel the
the emptiness sitting on the bus stop with the winter fog
and the cigarette vendor and the cold stray dog
i walk with my empty hands in my torn pockets
returning to my sleepless and cold late night
in bus number 035 and drop at mayur vihar
singing a very nasal hemant kumar
(isko hi jeena kehte hain to yun hee jee lenge/ uf na karenge/ lab see lenge/ aansoo pee lenge…)
not just in love
but also to keep forgetting the freezing
feel of a lonely delhi late night.

between cigarettes and you
life crosses yamuna bridge
and dda flats
coughing chowkidars
drunk driver
sleeping dog
cold tandoor
copulating bodies
humming radio
flushing toilets
disappearing dreams
job interview every next morning
letters to home
mentions in diary
stitched smile
three wheeler to smoky no where

chai boils over
as the filament of the heater breaks again
i will draw my last drag of cigarettes
between fingers
after lighting it from here
switch off the lights

melt into the dark silence of being
in rapt attention and with locked eyes

if its winters, love and solitude

the temperature is 5 degree below
than what appears in the morningers.

-----------------------