Alone yet along

The smiling incense
Of the biting lie
Engraved the innocent heart.
Inflicting pain in a silent cry.
Tearing apart the conundrum
of love, hope & life
Was but the scorching denunciation.
A putrid smell filled her soul.

Stars & dark on the green meadow
The breeze stayed afloat.
Far away in a different land
The depraved emotion of longing
rose to amorous heights
concealed in a friendly demeanor.
Alas! She moaned in a hushed sob
as the cryptic messages tormented her soul.

The soundless lament of a broken heart
shrilled though the pervasive sky.
No shudders from the vociferous hoar.
Abandoning reason & purpose of love & life
she sank in the numbness of deceit.
DID NOT WANT TO PUT UP A FIGHT.
She had lost without an enemy in sight.
All that in the name of eremite capacity (space).

Jaded & crippled like a weary soldier
she saw the sun set on her love.
The love demised in her.
It succumbed to the deceitful charlatan.
Faithless & hurt she wailed aloud inside.
No words, just pain filled the air.
Broken though strong, she shattered.
Lonesome, she drifted away from death.

As the mist covered the sea
a new morning settled over the city.
She knew that the scars will never heal.
Chasing all the fears
she followed he Sun to warm her heart.
Wiping away her tears she knew
‘Though she will be with him
She will be alone forever though along (with him)’.

Reality but Dreams !

[This shares the emotions of a woman waiting for her beloved knowing somewhere in her heart that her love was not honest to her. Her thoughts automatically animate into visions which could be real but when her wait is sure to extend she decided to culminate it herself. It is a poignant situation because of its ending but her visions may or may not be true. In the last line the warmth can be understood to be from the blood or the fact that atleast she is sure that the pain she feels is real.]

The cushion of the wind
Surmounted to char the plagued heart
As the dusk turned deep Red
The colored lips chapped
Eyes gazing out through the window
Caressing the mountain road
No one to be seen
But the creeper & the green.

She heard the chatter (in her head)
Of the far-off crowd
The laughter on the wine & cake
The clink of crystal glasses
The jingle of the silver on juicy steaks
As the light breeze moved the drapes
She woke up from a dream she thought
Or was it true?

An hour passed like a snowman’s year
She sat on the couch
Still she could hear
The rhythm of the brass
And the deafening cheer
As a couple vanished
Into a silent dark
Jazz played quietly as the scene grew stark.

The sheets folded under the skins
Wood felt the shiver
As the hands clinched tightly
Her bosom grew fuller
In the spirit so knightly
The smitten peaks grew louder
She could now hear nothing but their breaths
As she closed her ears with a shudder.

This is not true she shouted
And heard the phone ring
“Honey! I will be a little late”
She was silent
“Don’t wait over for dinner” she heard before the voice went blank
She stood numb & cold as the iron that slit through her wrist
Now she knew atleast the warmth settled around her was real.

The Secret Chasm

Bewildering amongst the chatter
Of the old Kolkata street
Promised for a better tomorrow
On the asphalt turf
The little heads creep up & down
In the din of the Howrah bridge

Floating in the music of classical heart throbs
Enchanted by the concrete caverns
Pitter-patter with the falling rain drops
They hide under the shady plane
Chowringee Lane just means a path
A deafening crowd is but a political propaganda

What stands for fun is a free meal
Or chasing kites & dogs with friends
Hide & seek is what life means to them
As they remain hidden from all eyes
Except when they pass a windscreen with a duster
Or steal a laughter in the sidelines.

Surmising through the childhood years
Every day they live amongst moving shadows
Which never notice them
Lightning their footpath homes
Are none but their twinkling eyes
Conjuring a dream every now & then
Though it is a struggle to keep alive

They cook, they sweep, run & sheep
Work every day to survive
Years fade like billboard ads
Cleaning, washing & doing all what’s there
To find, if there exists
A way to the Secret Chasm.

Pepper & Green

Surfing through the narrow lanes
The dusty streets & crowded window panes
Honking motors fill Chowringee Lane
Cotton sarees & Rabindra music
Still form the backdrop of Kolkata strain
From somewhere I smell Pepper & Green.

Blazing loudspeakers & shinning posters
Conjure the neighbourhood streets
To a political battlefield
Cars & buses & horses & trams
Are what bubble on Park Street jams
On a noisy evening filled with fish curry smell
The ‘phuchkaas’ invite the crowds on the side streets.

The bustling traffic quiets down
To the concert music of Ray festival
”Nandan” waiting to be decked up
For the maestro’s (Tagore’s) birthday
Dressed up in anxiety & glee
Part of the city peeps out to Hugli

Early morning is fresh with the new catch
Fishes, crabs, squids & prawns
All decorated near the sidemarket of Howrah
Decadence & panache is what fills the painter
Who stands freezing this all on his canvas
The moment melts to office hours
And rushes to a quiet afternoon.

Sun sets peacefully near the Victoria Memorial
When the Queen’s Road fills with tourists
Flip-flopping on horse carts racing through the Red Road
Is the reminiscence from the past galore
All settles to a quiet night
But Howrah never sleeps

As the city drapes a new blanket
Of an intermittent laughter
Tickling from the street side dwellings
The beetle breaks in the (beetle) cutter
Of an old Bengali home
While a classical song
Pulls the city hum to a quiet slumber
The city still feels like Pepper & Green.