Tattered Dream

my tattered dream
like grasping cobweb
clings to lashes
stings my eyes

187

Night and Day

for few fleeting moments
they meet
in dying sunshine
falling shadow
for like night and day
they are destined
to be forever together
forever apart

186

Seeta

at the edge of the forest, she stands

where Lakshman's chariot has just left her,

her eyes speaking of  pain 

of a woman betrayed,

she, the one born of earth

beloved princess of Janak's kingdom

married to that epitome of virtue,

the Maryada Purushottam,

the king who could do no wrong,

she the one, who had loved him enough

to trade her palace for a jungle hut,

who had not forgotten him for a moment

in the captivity of the demon, Ravan,

I see her as she stands there

in her desolate destitution,

stripped of all but the life

she carries in her womb,

heirs to the man who abandoned her

for the sin of another man's lust,

I know then, no matter 

how many centuries have gone by

every woman born on the soil of this country

is cursed to carry

 the agony of this unhealed wound

 in her heart, forever

185

Birth Of My Poem

Birth Of A Poem
================

when words gather
like heavy rain clouds
and in the regions of my heart
I feel
fluttering wings of a restless flock
caught in the hunter's net
I know it is time
for my poem to be born

***
when clouds let go
and falling waters
meet the waiting patch of thirst,
ever so gently, the soil frees
fragrance of her satiation,
when in flurry of flight
a flock of pigeons
leaves the silence quivering
birthing of my poem
feels somewhat like this

184

incognito

unclaimed by my voice
abandoned by my lips
your name wanders incognito
in the silence of my blood 

183

Your Name

shunned by my lips

unclaimed by my voice

your name lives on
in the salt of my tears
in the warmth of my breath

in the silence of my blood

182

Be With Me

be with me

for I can no longer bear

false bartering of bright conversations

be with me

for only you can hear
words woven in my silence

181