Sunday, May 29, 2011

Evening Show

The pixels on the giant screen
dim with each passing frame,
the flick is ending, time for a fare
through black & white lanes, again.

Evening show tickets with me;
I burned the extra cals,
to reach the box seat
reserved for veterans and
the local political analysts.
This neighbourhood theatre is crowded,
screenings round the clock;
action and a few stunts in the morn,
love stories follow post noon and
hope n family flicks at primetime.

The show goes on even as the
actors fade before the horizon.
White dots appear on the dark screen,
a sign of life, but ushering death for a change.
This cue to leave and the white paint
from government lights mark my return route.

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Fort Bastard

The fortress crumbles,
under her own fat, neglected bling.

I see her green, black n red
veins protrude out in an evil twirl,
varicose has gripped the pillars
which once held up the lofty
buyers-world in a spell, the seller's market.
They now crumble as rust eats into
the downed shutters of the courts
which once inspired awe, then lust.

Now a haunt where old men sit
and smoke away dreams;
the rush, only from pyre fumes
climbing up the decayed escalators,
to the sunroof that splashes an eerie Neon
onto the alleys of a dying bastard.


Spencer Plaza in Chennai is fighting a losing battle, it’s obvious. A fight for survival as its world slowly shifts to the road across.


The plaza's oval central sun-lit lobby, where one side reminds us of the first Spencer building, which was built during the time of the Britishers

Monday, May 23, 2011

Armour of God

His armour, forged with the
wisdom of God, written by man,
bestseller down the years,
a gift from a mother.
Battle ready, his power, the will
to trample snakes and lions,
the moment he covers his prone
flesh and soul with a
promise, a Psalm for the
mortal warrior, but unlike Achilles.

Carrying a buckler, made in love
by his woman back home;
shield from an ore from the mines of Luke,
the voice, his holy guide
lighting a right path across
Edom and many more of 'em battle fields.

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Heat Healthy

The warmth from the lap
of an unknown mother,
kept me awake as
stories flashed by in colour.
 

She, known for feeding
her sons with resolve
from the full, burning breasts;
I met her this day,
after four long years of
hide and no seek!
 

The game which I started,
with the morning gust,
that hit me with all its might,
uprooting my veins, for months at times.
 

But today... I orphaned myself inside an
AC cab waiting outside a train station!


The day-time train trip through Tamil Nadu in a non AC compartment: A burning experience, but no time to complain because I was alive amongst the "real" people of this country. Check out my observations during the journey - 

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Chrome Plated Dreams

The tips of my fingers resonate
this morn, with the music
from her silence, which keeps
me in a cell with no windows.
Only small peepholes,
the eight bright ones offered
by Chrome; they ain't sport
today though, no painkillers.

My eyes follow the plot still,
pipe dreams a few open;
while my shackles are loosened
enough to let me scroll
from one vision to another,
in search of that glare from reality.


Saturday, May 07, 2011

Sweat Equity

The meat of the moment;
reality, the heat of life,
was lost among the humming
birds of a concrete tree,
who huff and puff
to vent their cold frustrations
on the prone men
hunched o'er tragic mirrors...

Women too! Forced to
do justice to a devil's contract.

I would rather sweat, shovelling
love near that familiar tree
whose mangoes once trained
me to aim high and higher, sigh!

Thursday, May 05, 2011

Good Mourning!

The knock on the door
from a surrogate,
paid a lower wage
for her act of pity
on the man who eats less
and tweets more, lately.

Wake up call answered
with a smile, an apology,
and a promise for amends follows;
the employees are happy...

... I rush back to my
bed of nails, mails waiting.