A Taraxacum Dance

Dancing arms flung into the wind
twirling gracefully a lone dandelion seed.

White skirt fully extended, a single
long black leg pointed.

I am a dancing alone,
but I have a partner -
like that tiny puff on the wind
I dance with myself,
for myself.

Every turn is ecstacy,
the spinning sensation
drawn through me,
and I am caught
and carried on the wind.

My Lips are Sealed

I take out my needle and thread,
with careful hands I push the end
through the eye, drawing the length.

I silently sew my lips together,
needle piercing flesh, white thread
becomes red as it is pulled through.

I lock my secrets away, my voice,
I close out the world, nothing gains
entry, tightly stitching closed my mouth.

Making Music

Inspire me -
your intimate instrument
I was designed
to be played
by your hands.

Bound in temptation
I linger
anxiously awaiting
your next touch.

Fingers brush skin
a dancing rush
of sensations.

There are sounds -
expressions I make
that can only be coaxed out
by you.

No More Dresses

They called me Jimmy,
the boy with no hair,
the girl with no dreams,
but I was more than that.

Daddy loved me
but dismissed me,
we never were ones
to talk, just silence.

They never asked,
I never told, but the eyes,
all those eyes,
wondered aloud - Why?

I didn’t want to be
a girl with no dreams,
not allowed to dream
because I was a girl.

I wanted freedom
so I made a bargain
with the ancient gods,
and traded my hair.

They called me Jimmy,
I never missed being a girl,
but I could still see those eyes,
wondering aloud why why why.

United We Stand

I tripped over you one night,
lying on the floor, a single eye
opened, dragging in breaths.

I lay in the darkness beside you,
curious as to what I'd come by,
staring as if I could see you.

We existed on that hard cold floor,
for days on end, time stretching out
and slowing down, losing count.

Finally you spoke to me, and
the darkness wasn't just a place,
it was a voice, a feeling.

Your voice kept repeating, echoing
my thoughts, how we managed
to find each other in the vastness.

Then our fingers touched and sparked,
light began, and I saw you there,
as you had been, waiting for me.

Light grew until we stood
in our own sun, shining, bright
and with eyes that could not look away.

Thermal

The nursey fence cried icicles,
and our breath hung in the air
haunting us in exhaled heat.

We walked quicker for the nip
in the air that pinked our cheeks
and sought a way past our layers.

The sun rose but never showed,
concealed from sight -
the warmth of the day never was.

But the light was there in your face,
and the heat in glaces that past between us,
though we never touched a gloved hand to hand.

Life in Print

Two lines of five and you were but the last,
trees of pine stand non linear.

The trees are tall and graceful --
pretty even in their own way,
but they don't offer much in the way of comfort,
needles provide scarce shade,
so they will make paper from you.

The paper will be recycled,
printed upon again and again,
and how you see yourself will change,
maybe even one day it will show you the truth.

One of my favourite hindi poems

A golden cage may entice a person for some time but then there is a yearning for freedom… and a nostalgia about the bygone days when freedom was taken for granted. Here is a lovely poem by "Shivmangal Singh Suman".

हम पंछी उन्मुक्त गगन के

-शिवमंगल सिंघ सुमन

हम पंछी उन्मुक्त गगन के
पिंजरबद्ध ना गा पाऐंगे,
कनक-तीलियों से टकरा कर
पुलकित पंख टूट जाऍगे।

हम बेहता जल पीने वाले
मर जाऍगे भूखे-प्यासे,
कहीं भली हैं कटूक निबोरी
कनक-कटोरी की मैदा से।

स्वर्ण-श्रंखला के बंधन में
अपनि गति, उड़ान सब भूले,
बस सपनों में देख रहे हैं
तरु की फुनगी पर के झूले

ऍसे थे अरमान कि उड़ते
नील गगन की सीमा पाने
लाल किरण-सी चोंच खोल
चुगते तारक-अनार के दाने।

होती सीमाहीन क्षितिज से
इन पंखो कि होड़ा-होड़ी,
या तो क्षितिज मिलन बन जाता
या तनती सांसों की डोरी।

नीड़ न दो चाहे टेहनी का
आश्रय छिन्न-भिन्न कर डालो,
लेकिन पंख दिये हैं तो
आकुल उड़ान में विघ्न न डालो।

[Source : http://www.geeta-kavita.com/Default.asp]

The Wind Blew West

I sit in the ledge of the window,
looking out at the trees,
how I love their sway in the wind,
a warm cup of peppermint tea
steaming in my hands.

A longing pulls through the panes
and I stare out the glass wanting
to join the wind, to fly boundless
to scatter the leaves, to caress the grasses,
to whip and twist around branches
and brambles, to gust with enthusiasm.

I sit in the ledge of a window in the
shadowed and forgotten dining room,
looking out at my father and brother
playing in nature, I long to return
to those olden days, long forgotten days
of breezy freedom and mused afternoons.

Introspecting Time

Time is my scorned lover -
Stalking me,
The restless pacing
of her tick-tocking
echoes
in tone deaf hollows
of empty ears.

It is the moment
before explosion
Breath held,
Uneven strokes
of hands unwinding -

This tick seems to stick.

Wheels and gears
keeping an unseen rhythmn
of a numbered space
in walking time.

Stretching out in
obscene dreams...
And yet -
it all passes
in a single burst of breath.

Under Empathic Skies

I am sitting under the night sky,
on the glider in the back yard;
the night blooming jasmine bush
is bent in arches heavy with scent.

I sway to and fro lazily,
my eyes search the midnight blue
sea of dancing stars,
and it begins to rain.

Warm fat drops plop
onto my skin, sensational
contact like clouded tears,
the skies see my lonely.

I hold myself rocking,
promising myself you -
waiting because its only you,
and my mind wonders when.

My second skin clothes
weigh me down,
my slick skin and hair
hold me in.

Tonight I bathe in the mourning
of darkened skies, witnesses
to my reaching arms
that close only around myself.

Breaking the Box

You know not what you have asked,
I think as I sit in front of that box,
my hands slide over the antique leather
feeling the aged cracks, I’ve packed it
well with memories, those I couldn’t
face, the ones that were eating through me,
the things that are hard to say in the light,
that find a way to bleed through bandages
at two am when I am alone.

I finger the brass lock, flirting with it,
the idea of chasing after you, down
that darkened road, I feel your thunder
rumbling the floor, I see your lightning
flashing through the panes, ride the skies
you whisper, wanting me to let go.

A tear glides down my face,
I feel a little darker now, a little
seeping now, because this box
doesn’t exist, I only tell myself
it does, I only grasp at control,
its so easy to flip, so easy to slip,
so easy to let go, and for you -
I would peel back my fingers
from the ledge as you jump
through your window, and we
would fall and fall and fall together.

Summer Day Dreams

I sit on the glider under the water oak,
the wind runs through my hair, tugging
it playfully, honey suckle scent
infused breeze whispers
to me about you.

You lay down across the glider,
head in my lap, eyes looking up
and smile as I flow my fingers
through your hair.

I sway the hinges
we drift in our own world,
one that exists between
our eyes, and I hear your voice
as you sing to me softly
and the clouds roll by.

Pursuit

The horseman rides
into the south searching,

Seeking to claim
what he lost –

a woman, the woman.

Mythological ties,

How dare she
think to break,
she is his
prize to be won,
win he did,
yet she ran.

Alpha male,
the libertine comes
into the night
whiskey breathed
his eyes raking
Its not over,
Its never over.

Destined

I finally believe in happy endings,
all it took was finding the one -
the man I have dreamed about
for so long though I dared not
let myself believe you existed.

Oh but you do, and you are standing
before me, saying those words
that I have waited my life so far to hear,
to believe, to embrace.

I am light headed, giddy,
overjoyed - elated!
but mostly I am yours,
so very very yours,
and I could never belong
with anyone else.

Aeolus

Father 'Wind' came to me today,
as I walked along the path alone.

Blow away the nothingness,
I asked him and he smiled.

He blows the hollow sound out,
and wrapped around my shoulders.

His hand beneath my chin,
keeping my eyes on the clouds.

He rocks me as his babe,
twirling my shining locks.

He comforts me in whispers -
softly blown lullabies.

Make me whole again I say,
and the wind blows hard.

Happen Upon his Words

He has a vicious capacity for language.

words are his weapons --

and he is well armed.

Drop a jaw with turn of phrase,
she never knew what hit her...

smack dab in the middle
of her fractured heart,
fragilely beating to the rythmn
of his name.

She watches his lips
form her death and rebirth.

Fragments of One

My eyes hold yours
across such distance
and still I know -

What echoes in me
echoes in you
darkness flows in the mind
in words we both read
in those looks we share.

I have died with you
in every death attempt -
we have lain on the floor
together in spirit
never knowing the other -
bought each other
in blood and tears.

Some nights still
we are on seperate floors
reaching for the other
never quite seeing
we are always together
in the darkness
that comes.

Matter of the Heart

I am lost in the strands of your hair,
the way words formed on your lips,
the way my name sounded in the tone
of your voice, the name only you call me.

I am undone when you said those small-
huge words, "Be mine forever", like a movie
response my heart jumped up and down,
it cried yes yes yes, the words echo.

I am breathless when you described
the feeling of coming home, a moment
shared between only us, intense
and deep, two naked souls.

I am dreaming of those early days,
of walks on the beach at night,
the simple way you said you would,
it was always meant to be with you.

I am glowing at the sound of your voice,
at your gentle reassurances and strong embrace,
at the possibilities that stretch out before us,
at that thought of being with you always.

Petrichor

The rain has come
and cooled the ground
renewing the colors,
everything amplified
in wet.

Oh those shady days
of cloud filled skies
and leaf papered ground,
I exhale out the previous days.

How lovely the trees
darkened brown bark
wetted rich colors,
brilliant green leaves
glistening with gloss.

I smattered with residual drops
sit in dampened discarded leaves
looking up at the sky, lulled
by the cooling breeze.

High Tide

I close my eyes and see -
myself as I am, you
as you always have been,
it is night, the moon
is cloudhidden, the stars
but whispers reflected
upon the dark rolling ocean.

Every moment you make -
deliberate, the slipping
of lace from my shoulder,
satin from my thighs,
brush of your warm hand,
my heart is beating faster,
but time has slowed, lulling
like the waves.

A lifetime of pleasures
exhaled at the touch
of your lips upon my skin.

The urgency of lips upon lips
in kisses that steal the breath.

The waves come harder
and faster, though time
stretches out, the world
is only this, only us -
only this moment;
the moment too intense
to stop, to pause, to hesitate,
the moment we claim as ours.

We become one,
you, me, the sea, the sky
moving in unison,
Inhale each other,
exhaled into the sky,
pushed back inside
with rhythm of the waves,
tumbling through you,
pressing you further
into me, two lovers
caught in the play

of wave and wind.