From the flat above music, strain of romance flows
as they grope each other locked in sweat and lust,
the insect walks to the edge of the window, elegantly lands
into the abyss of darkness, exiled from my vision.
Like the flash of tiger’s tail headlights of cars
hang from the corner of the wall. He comes in,
neck creased between soft breathing beads of moisture:
I touch the coiled warmth of summer trapped in there.
(Day 17 : ‘Tell me why’ poem for 2010 November PAD Chapbook Challenge)
He threw up food, thick mucus throttled his throat;
I made him lie down, floated flowers in a glass bowl,
lit an aromatic candle and fed him soup sparsely spiced.
Now he lies in deep slumber. I call out every half hour,
I hear my voice travel miles where he has stacked away
memories of me that he is willing to leave behind.
(Day 16 – A ‘stacking poem’ for 2010 November PAD Chapbook Challenge)
The branches dipped in the breeze, the sea still like her eyes
the day he walked away, the stretch between them
a ribbon of aloneness and dust storm where he disappeared.
His voice in answering machine cold fingers that press her throat in grief
the bell rings till they fall tired hitting hard the empty walls of his life:
years of cementing cracked like a field upturned by earthquake.
(Day 15: ‘Just when you thought it was safe’ poem for 2010 November PAD Chapbook Challenge)
Carrying the grocery across the street
she dodges cars standing nose to back neat,
the spray of rain water on the skirt
at the kitchen sink she scrubs holding the pleat.
The thick corn soup simmers over the stove,
aubergine purple like the fine down of a dove,
smoked with pounded ginger and cinnamon,
laid in a greased bowl with a dash of lemon.
She opens the blinds to the stars in the sky,
over the beeswax candle splutters the singed fly,
she sips gulab sherbet the hue of early sunset,
the chimes in the breeze a gentle dulcet.
( Day 14 : Crossroads Poem for 2010 November PAD Chapbook Challenge )
The black bead of eyes looks deep into me beyond me,
antennae sway in the static space to strike the right signals,
seeds like aquatic beings travel through darkness
to build genealogies and the brood of ashen crows.
The glistening coat at the neck a bleeding rainbow sky,
scales of moon for wings. During nights crows fly away
to their nests, but not you; you sit at my kitchen window :
the black bead of eyes look deep into me beyond me.
(Day 13 for 2010 November PAD Chapbook Challenge: make the title of the poem a question)
cushions are a s k e w
wardrobe r a n s a c k e d for the pair of jeans with a tear at the knee
he doesn’t eat vegetables,stuffs his bookshelf with chocolate wrappers
cans of Pepsi rolled under the bed
books left on the bed with spines bent.
I close the door of his room to the world.
Match the socks for him.
Clean his room a dozen times through the day.
(Day 12 ‘Forget What They Say Poem’ for 2010 November PAD Chapbook Challenge)
The spider crawls on the damp wall
after trapezing on a silk thread of memory,
voices are heard where doors closed on the blue room,
a bed so narrow that you had to sleep as if dead.
Nightmare zipped inside the pillow
bellows like a pregnant woman,
the skin of the womb of grief drawn thin
pushing at the wall to be birthed in the world.
The stars are not visible,
the night presses at the window,
pours into the corners of the room and
lies thick like tar that I cannot peel away.
(Day 11 – ‘No One Wants _______’ poem for 2010 November PAD Chapbook Challenge)
Dragonflies darken the sky a sultry afternoon
dampness hangs on the wall where you recline
you let the flower droop in the rancid smelling water
like the bright spotted caterpillar that looped into my room
your fingers trace my neck and I smell the dead flower.
(Day 10 – ‘Love Poem’ for 2010 November PAD Chapbook Challenge)
Morning appointment with the physiotherapist,
as he works on my father I cook breakfast,
On the way to work the driver listens to the radio
while I inhale, hold between one street and another,
exhale and hold again between this and the next street,
my lungs burst with strain, a bright light behind eyes.
We just cleared a signal
and my thoughts are with the bus cars ahead,
posters of new movies, vendors on the street.
Through the day meetings, hours at the computer,
post- it reminders of tasks make interesting patterns.
I pick my son from school, sip a cup of ginger tea
as I ruminate at the refrigerator the menu for dinner,
cook steaming hot pulaf – an early dinner.
Walk and exercise, pick grocery from the store down the street,
massage my mother’s back:
haven’t slowed down yet to complete this poem…
(Day 9 – This is ‘slow down’ poem for 2010 November PAD Chapbook Challenge.)
6 a.m.
There needs to be some understanding who does what
you get to make morning tea, I cook breakfast and lunch
you get back from work and fix dinner.
8 p.m.
You are in a meeting and don’t take calls
I roll rotis and make Kashmiri dum aloo. Then you call me:
Dearest, I’ll be home in half hour to cook dinner.
( Day 8 – Agreement Poem for 2010 November PAD Chapbook Challenge. )
My Garden 