A rainy day at Amboli

A watery curtain of Divine showerings

Keeping me from the horizons far away

Behind, a stream descending into a fall

Cascades of heavenly bliss through the day

Venkatesh Kumar (c) 2012

Up in Smoke?

I think of you in utter  anger

Still holding onto my calm

I had held you in immense love

But you caused me only harm

Feeling you always in my hand

O fair one, my lips you kissed,

Losing myself setting you afire,

All your guile how I missed?

Weaving a wily magic each time

As if to free me from some strife

Holding me in your evil spell

You almost took away my life.

I left you never to again think of you

Buried you like treasure under sands

Yet you make me long for you

When I see you in others’ hands.

Venkatesh Kumar © 2012

09.06.2012

Glitter

The sudden glimpse of a silvery lining,

Like love’s many a luminous smile?

No, the cheatful thunderless lightening,

Showing up all its gleeful guile.

Venkatesh Kumar © 2012

Lonely Path

Walking along a life’s empty path,

On a dull, wet and warm afternoon

Rain and shine playing hide-n-seek,

Drenching and drying all the gloom.

The weak sunlight showing up now,

Trying hard to swab the wet solitude

My thoughts wander back into time

When you and I had none to intrude.

The lovely downpour and a torn umbrella

The gusty wind snatching it the harder I clasp,

With you beside, those were the lovely rains

Four hands ‘gether the umbrella would grasp.

Soon the monsoon sun reluctantly hides

Slowly the afternoon gets dull and lazy

As the empty path too nears the end

All the past’s landscapes  turn hazy.

Venkatesh Kumar © 2012

hi: The Race

hi: The Race: Piyali returned home drenched in the rain. It was about 11.45 p.m. Her friends had forced her to throw a party as she received a SMS co...

The Race

Piyali returned home drenched in the rain. It was about 11.45 p.m. Her friends had forced her to throw a party as she received a SMS congratulating her on being the first runner-up in an All India poetry contest. The excess shots of tequila didn’t give her the strength to even change.

It was 9 a.m. the next morning when she woke up. The hangover, the half wet dress and the need for that addictive cup of black coffee forced her to get up ‘early’ on the Sunday morning. Before having a wash, she wanted to change into a fresh nightie.

Memories took her a year back ……… Piyali and Sujoy had returned from a late night party. Very fond of tequila shots, she had had one shot too many. It was raining cats and dogs that night too. Both were drenched and Sujoy unlocked the door of the studio apartment they were sharing. No, not a live in type of stay. They stayed together but, never ‘slept’ together. Piyali was too drunk to even talk, let alone having a change. But, she had woken up in a night gown!

The water was boiling in the coffee maker. “Oh me and my wandering thoughts” she murmured and made her a cup of coffee. She opened her laptop and logged on to her Facebook account. Congratulatory messages flooded her timeline. She was curious to know who was the winner. She searched and searched and finally she was able to locate the published result. “How can this happen?” she shouted in anger. “How could he be the winner?” . Sujoy Das Gupta – the name kept hurting her because he always scribbled some silly stuff and called it poetry and won. Only his stupid friends kept ‘applauding’ him. “ I have about 50 poems of mine, published in various anthologies around the world, and this moron defeats me?”

He had left the city without telling her, six months ago. He had deactivated his Facebook account also. She frantically tried to get in touch with him. A week later, she succeeded in getting his cellphone number. The lady voice at the other end said “this is Meghna Hospital, what can I do for you?” Piyali was at her wit’s end now. She shouted back “are you Sujoy’s wife or girlfriend?”. The lady “Oh, so the patient’s name is Sujoy? Sujoy what? By the way I am the duty nurse Rajeshwari and Sujoy was moved into our hospital this morning by his neighbours.” “Just tell me where the hell is this Meghna Hospital? And I need to talk to Sujoy Das Gupta.” “Madam, this hospital is on 7^th Cross, Malleswaram.”

“Bloody cheat” Piyali uttered with clenched jaws. “He didn’t pay rent for six months  and how dare he changed my clothes that night?”. Next morning she drove to the hospital to get hold of  this ‘son of a dog’. When she enquired at the reception, she had another surprise. “Madam are you Piyali Sengupta? I am sorry to say that Sujoy breathed his last at 4.30 a.m. today. He was admitted for a severe bout of pneumonia. He had zero immunity. He had contracted  Acqiured Immunity Defficiency Syndrome. He has left  a letter for you”.

“Dear Piyali,

I know you must be angry with me. I won’t explain anything. You have been such a sweetheart, but always hating my poetry. Hahaha. That night you were fully wet and I had to put you to bed only after giving you the change. I could not resist you. I was too weak to avoid looking at your voluptuous body. That was the most beautiful sight I ever beheld. I neither made any effort to stop myself. I am sorry. I love you. Would you want to marry a sick man? You know, I have been tested positive for HIV. I want to spend my remaining life with you. That's my only wish.

Yours

Sujoy”

Piyali fell on her knees and wept inconsolably. “You dirty creep, you should have known that I am HIV positive. How could you defeat me at poetry? How could you defeat me in the race to death? How could you, you heartless animal?”

Why this feeling of intrusion

Why these fly so fast  and perch,
Involuntarily, my  words, anywhere?
Why cause me the feeling of intrusion
Though no one has my presence to care?

Why your words hallucinate me
And take me to a nether land?
Where, what you spake permeates
And draws my words like a magician’s wand.

I keep losing self and words
Giving into the artistry of your ‘speech’
You lead me ever to ‘spell my mind’
Subconsciously, everything’s in your reach.

I wake up from the stupor and
Try retreating self and words
Only to see you smile on them
With unheard hum of a thousand birds.

Venkatesh Kumar © 2012

03.05.2012