There's No Lines

Got to go to sleep. But today I'll post a strange poem first.
My entire family collaborated on this one, by each supplying a phrase and challenging me to incorporate these three phrases in a poem.

"There's no lines" ... Courtesy hubby Anto the sadist! This line gave me an idea for a poem, but then...
"Big Red box" - Luke the 6 year old!
"I won the silver key" - Josh the 5 year old sudden winner at Subway! So that's how this poem got written.

There's No Lines...

I took a house upon the hills
There besides the dark green woods
Ran a silvery rail line track
And a burbling silvery brook

I walked upon the lonely heath
And the shady sylvan woods
I sipped from yonder silken stream
Oh! What a blessed interlude

One morn I woke up, 'twas a fateful day
Evil hung upon the moor like gloom
From the window's hollowed eyes
A blood red ghastly sun did loom

The silver crucifix I glimpsed in cloistered hall,
Hung upside down now, with a gasp I espied
I couldn't breathe, frozen in awful  fear
For I saw...
There were no lines outside!

The rolling hills, the silent shimmering brook
The gloating green of gluttonous woods
Were cobwebbed with unholy drifting mist
"There's no lines" I cried, "oh! how is this?"

In despair I ran back to my door
Upon the steps a big red box it bore!
By dint of effort and strength of mind
I won the silver key to it, for 'twas hard to find.

And by the turning of pale silver crucifix
Which had hung upside down, the lock did click
Stunned by my vision I closed my eyes
For deep inside the box, a sight fearsome lies.

Inside was...
A moss overgrown grave of a demoness queen
Her eyes would madden your mind, and oh! slay your dreams
As she arose bifurcating the ancient ravaged ground
Baring yellowish teeth of bloodthirsty hound

Then,
An approaching mail made its last appointment
As with a long lasting screech it pierced this witch's veil
And tore time apart like a frail spinning top
Ricocheted negotiating its final spiralling drop.

The demoness queen howled once, twice,
Full three times thrice!
It opened its tunneling mouth, in a horrific trice,
in the clutch of  moment's unwary breath
Hurtled entire train and tracks, into gaping maws of
Most nauseous wraith

Swallowed by enormous ogress who towered
like certain death
Her skeletal form encompassing all four walls of space
East to West, from North to South
For one moment was both sun and sky blocked out

In the murderous darkness of unnatural night
In a red box, like blood shone her eerie eyes
Like coiled serpents pulsating, with slithering hiss
They spoke strangest tongue of hypnosis.

She was gone when I came to
My eyes had cleared and my head was light
The sun shone mild, its tints of yellow gold
The hills the woods and the chortling rill looked
Just as of old...

I weary and driven by an unpleasant care
Looked down to survey the heath below
And up loomed an engine with a piercing whistle
Setting silver tracks whirring it came in all aglow

Bright red barrelling in it came so big and strong
The shrieking tracks buzzed and hummed
A most gruesome song
Twin posts of mighty cedar, in burnished silver fell down in a lurid cross
The train derailed towards the left, and from the tracks,  veered off

I saw the grave it hit in serrated flash of lights
Alas! Once again, against the cowering skies
I witnessed the ogress of darkness open her door
Ten times blacker than ever human vision bore

And every light and every sight
Was wiped off my ken by her demonic eyes
I saw only in replay endless waking dreams
A long line of coaches forever going in
To the maws of darkness entailed to death
And erased away all tracks of it, upon the heath

To this day, the evil that laid bare the hills
Robbed the merry gurgle of wayward rill
Hung the mist of care on silenced woods
Never returned the lines...
On which crashed most ominous rood.

Never returned an engine of pillbox red
Perhaps it trundles on through the pathways
Of the dead
Upon stolen tracks throbbing screaming silver
For that entire branch line did disappear.

And green and swollen with its sickly knowledge
Trees in the woods whisper
As stories rustle and murder courage
A hideous murmer amidst brooding foliage
The tale of vanishing tracks and the train of
Crimson carnage
The sun flares, and glares singular eyewitness to
Long suppressed sin
And dull ghostly tracks and charnel train reflect only in
The copious funeral notes of a chuckling chilly stream.

© Amrita Valan 2015

Obsession

Obsession tires of me
A calming of age
Becoming
Signified.
I feel calm and free
Sweet dreams of starlight
Now go free.

I shall not stalk the skies for signs
My flighty bolts of lightning
Earthed into receptive
mother field...and
Scorched earth recovery
Revived by remembered rain.

Fallow fields killing dreams
Barren stony seeds
Concupiscence denied
Moving forward from
May to December
Is far easier in
Autumn.

Orion clutches his bow
Across tantalising star shot skies
I recall the best and worst
Of times...
Overflowing my
mind's brimming eye.

And ninety nine and one
Different reasons
Come home to roost
At last.

I see constellations of
Conflagrations brandishing
Courage
No longer cold cruelty
Indifferent

Black rind pepper slate sky
White dwarves swarming
Its ribbed velvet oblivion
Challenging us to overcome
Fresh obligations

No more day dreaming
Night skies
nightmares tidily raked
Cornered, tethered to
Obsidian stables.

Let them paw and whinny
Their cloven hooves can't
Bother me anymore
Even in sleep.

I kiss the spiraling milky horns
Of fluorescent unicorns
in unbelievably bright
Universes.

And my eyes behold
And hoard distant
Star light
Of all Times,
And
Every Space
Conceived.

Coming into my
Own, ...at last
Obsession
Bereaved of its
Best victim.

Sweet reckoning,
A  loss of certainty
outcomes undecided
And
A wondering
Acceptance
Reborn.

© Amrita Valan 2015

Angel Flake

In my vain dreams I am not
an ordinary woman
But an extraordinary angel
Beautiful divine
An avenger of mortals
From my clouded pedestal.

My laughter is soul food
My gaze absolution
Elixir upon which weary
man may sip after crossing
A desert or quench
his dying thirst...

I am unreal.
In real live streaming media
And endless action replays
I fail the ritual test.

I'm  plain shallow vain
Thoughtless,
Frequently unkind
Verbose and silly,
A boring little
Mousy monotony!
And I smile...Yes!

Did I see you search for ear plugs?
Are you leaving my page in a hurry,
Shaking your head
In disgust
This isn't poetry my friend
But my scales of artifice shed
Disguise and defence
Discarded

I want to be weighed
On the scales of justice
And willingly
I find myself
Wanting
To fall then
Upon mercy.

And this is me
At my best
Contrite and elegant
I will make eye contact
And confess my truth
And shame the devils

I am not your angel
But I did wish
To fetch you a
wisp of
Heaven.

Its my smile that
Trembles on
The verge of
Fearful precipices
Which you hold
Precious
Because it wants
To be seen for
What it is
Loved
Just as is,
Where it is.

And this honesty is
My tiny crumb offering
Angel cake or manna.
Perhaps I am
A little bit flaky
After all
But an angel,
Nevertheless
And I am yours,
Without pretence.

© Amrita Valan 2015

Queen of Whims

I'm a little too exotic
Living on planes
Whimsical fantastic
Kind of just, a little bit quixotic
And my castle is really a fairy bower
Up in a cloudscape, of ethereal towers,
Watching you go by in your sleek silver jet
Ebony silhouetted
Against sunraddled skies...
I make love to my Muse
And contemplate
Your phony lies.

I love my weird-dom
For I'm its wayward queen
I inhabit an entire race
My subjects are whoever
I choose,
From wherever I've been...

And I always aim to please
For I'm but a figment of an
Erotic dream
That dived into hidden depths
Of your unplumbed wishing well
Too far out of your depth
So let me remain unseen.

And so content with caprice, I  fluff
Up my cotton clouds
Cushioning airy floors of ecstacy
The sun's last rays reach out
To touch my soul
And  in soft vermilion
It coronates me.

And you my friend take yet another
measured sip of
your vintage wine,
And lower your canapé
Into its tarter dip,
And jet away from me
In your show off speeding bullet
The fake king of paper empires
Auctioned off in
Three strikes of a mallet.

So I will remain, a piquant dream
In prudent heart
An uncrowned queen
You'll forever miss...
When you have been
Everywhere else except
The shores eternal,
By the ocean of bliss.

© Amrita Valan 2015

Kiss or Kill

Ok. A little hot and steamy. But then its raining (frog princes) here in India. 

Kiss or Kill

A sudden glimpse a fetching glance
Did it put you in rarest sweetest trance
And was it so ordained to be
That by your velvet kiss
You shall slay me?

I rose to the charm of suave sonorous tune
Swaying sinuous shimmering shape
My kiss was your consuming breath of life
And Magus, 'twas you
Who flung off your cape.

And I, a Corralled serpent
In tortuous motion
Played your game of soft emotions
And when our magical chants were merged
Oh what an entwinement emerged.

Cobalt diamond backed and coral red
The soft satchets of exhilaration spread
Even the skin of my soul was shed
To fit the mould of our writhing bed.

The visible light was far too bright
Serpent's gem exploding blinded sight
Yet opened up the third magical eye
And it's command was to bid goodbye

Kisses like sulphur hot and heady
Pendent upon my forehead
blazing steady
Pungent sadness purging madness
Your wicked kiss, would
Kill a lady.

© Amrita Valan 2015

Boomerang

Maya Mahant for the weekly challenge that you proposed thank you for the honor. I would like to tag my dear friends Kemi Bonuola Anushka Ramchuran Aditya Sharma Akeem Adetayo Oyalowo I'm assured it can be properly credited poems of another poet, doesn't have to be a personal effort.

The rain boomeranged and banged down bulging bandannas
Abandoning its last restraints
In colorful clothes drenched by ribbons of absolution
Walked the eeriely bedraggled.
I watched and munched my krispy kreme in the company of many hungry kids, vying for Saturday night treats from easy loving parents.

The rain catapulted slingshots of venom till
Glass turned to moist hubris.
It was not going to be a merry traipse across
Town to ferryy my twins home.
So I made the best of it with another tea
Smiled and chatted up a little girl
For company
We three learnt a lot about giraffes and zebras
Till the angel of rain hath in mercy made its pass

We were going home and the cold weather was wonderful
The few items bought gave us good vibes
Wafers and cupcakes to down
With Hershey's syrup
And a huge holographic chart of animals.

Reaching the wet squishy stairs and splashing into
Each puddle!
Singing a song that just simmered and murmered and bubbled
Climbing into our pumpkin shell so cozy we call
It home
There we were  all inside now
One happy mamma and two precious gnomes.! 

This nice book of life's fairytale begins and ends
Looking up at the ceiling over your mahogany coffee table
Ten feet away or so a sorry skeletal being in clothes of see through glass roam from.door to door.
Picking up a little of our litter hoping it will come of use
A half eaten banana in its peel a semi rotten vegetable an apple rotten at the core

The rain beat her down, berating us all,
Discrepancies between the well fed
And those walking dead
The rain streaked us in incriminating colors
To protest at the blood
splattering on our door jambs
The brown varnish peels and melts
In sanguine strips of disgust
Tomorrow a maid on her knees
Will wipe it clean
Tonight the rain does duty washing
Oozing scabs and streaming open wounds
Down strorm drains
We teach our children to be strong
To be proof against all these disasters
These unnatural calamities
By being resolute
And begging for krispy kreme donuts
As the see through woman watches
Through Alzheimer panes of glass amnesia.

© Amrita Valan 2015

Boom

Maya weekly challenge poem 2. Thank you. I am not sure if I'm supposed to do this for four days or just once but here goes.

Boom😃

She swallowed, but her mouth was dry with fear
Upon her hair, sticky though salon groomed
The flowers already sweaty drooped like heavy tears,
Her stomach churning with fierce hopes and dreams
She smiled an uneven slash a painted pout
unseemly smeared upon her lips
Failing to bloom in her frozen eyes.
Unease writ clear though her posture lied.

She clumsily entered into the ballroom of her dreams
Where dazzling angels in flowing gowns floored mere mortals
Streaming in, cheeks and face glowing bare shoulders
Shining like polished alabaster in baroque dreams.

Her heart thumped too loud announcing her
Fright and emphasizing her mousy insignificance.
Cinderellas with Godmothers make
Good fairy tales
But don't make for a suitable entrance
at such illustrious balls.

Beige and brown blur, as she danced when finally asked
Collapsing with triumphant heart dizzy with silent joy
The caged topazes of her eyes finally lit
Like Venetian chandeliors set
With semi precious stones.

That night her hand was sought by one
Whose Heart danced with her delight
And the saga of forty odd years was laid in stone
Once upon two score years,
At a Vanity fair ball.

Tonight she rocks a grandson upon her knees
Still relates that ancient tale,
the family legacy and talisman of continuity
Of how Grandpa was won by her simple charms
over more elaborate Angels on parade.

And has a soft throwback that releases those
caged topazes once more
to wondrous melting amber shades
Another sinuous long embrace with his manly shadow
In her long gone static past.
A silent movie reel that loops back in endless thread.

Time the devourer sits devoured in her emptied
Coffee cup.
She has still some time left
To kiss his funeral urn
Longing for their mortal dust to rejoin and rejoice
While pretty angels roam in lust eternally.

©Amrita Valann 2015

Week 3 Maya

Seriously depressing Maya but you asked for it!
Day 3 of the poetry challenge, and thank you again. ..

Just Desserts

A lifetime dreaming dreading the big time
Counting the costs yet courting,
Till you've run the course nonchalant
The chips are down but not your courage
Broad shoulders have taken care
Of those who needed you
To lean on
Early strength derived from instinct
But the wear and tear
The fade and burn of years
Have taken a toll
Of far too many worries and cares
And courage lost
In the narrowing zig zags
Of zero predictability.

One vital exam abandoned
A stressful job deserted
Soon the will corroded
Dull grey gold flakes of cuspian rust
Cover and choke aspiring flames
You see even the master material
From which steel is derived
Needs alloying
And then is it indeed stainless,
Without early care in handling
Without the allowance to let a child
Be one
An adult cannot be made.

So
Just desserts for the deserter
In this high stakes game of
Life
Having bypassed the second
And third arterials
Mistaken too many chance opportunities
For a risk and gamble,
Now nothing left to gamble
And everything left to win
But my chips
Are worthless.

© Amrita Valan 2015

Soliloquy

And happily I must write
This ink should not be depraved
Into deep indigo reserves
Of my degrading pain.

I hop on somewhat lame
Curious smile, slightly puzzled eyes
Skip the irksome puddles just for you
I dance in a dizzied frenzy
my own deluge
Of rain.

And every soul
I meet on this rain washed morning
I doff my mental hat
I respect you for
Being alive
Despite the sheer sin
Of mortality.

For not seeking bribes
Beyond barriers intrandescent
For salvation looms
Like an army
Of the hideous dead.
Hydra headed hope
Leveraging nonsensical
Negotiations.

For you my friend
Are the same strange
Journeyman as I
We are here on the beach
Of rot and decay
Collecting portentious curios
Our peculiar sea shells
Salvation in many avatars
And reincarnations.

And in the midst of it
watching immense waves
Of Towering rectitude
Break in beauty
On mighty shores
The inner mystery
Remains
A kernel on the sand,
Forgotten forever,
to collect.

I let it go, amicable
Salt water sprinkles my
Cold cheeks
My paisley eyes give in
To the glory
Of an experiential God
Sinking into a setting
Sun
Rising fresh anointed
To make another morn
For us
To live
To know
To learn.

© Amrita Valan 2015

Weekly Slop Challenge: Effigy Eulogy Sidle

Weekly Challenge Eulogy Effigy Sidle

How shall I sing your eulogy?
For you're not dead to me
But a vital living presence
That infuses my heart
With a hundred dying hopes.

And though I build and burn
Straw effigies
Saying what's gone is gone
And what's left
Is nothing
Of any use to me

Yet sidles in somehow unknown sighs
In leering tongues
Of  lonely flickering uncertain love
That merciless refuse to die.

Those trampled embers light up
Against stern cold glass
Of strict watchful eye
Ready to stamp out rebellious flames yet
Again, and again
But unafraid of me
Wicked wayward winds,
You never cease to sing and praise
His fame
Ceaseless to fan truant
Futile flames.

Secret stone age
Effigies of those,
Whose unwritten eulogies
May not be named.

©Amrita Valan 2015

Paradise Now

Poetry eludes me
I see meteor showers light
Up my inner space
I am at a beautiful place
Where I haven't been before
A new land of serenity
And acceptance.

So finding the poet at
Peace, poetry plays truant
In wily mischief,
Dear Muse do you then
Amuse yourself
With my grief?

I promise not to
Trouble you
If I can help it then,
For suddenly I spy
Hell turned upside down
Into a makeshift
Runny sunnyside
Heaven.

No pretences
As you like it
No primped up palaces
For unthawed ice maidens.
But a whimsical merry inn
On the tumbling pathway.

Beauty and not
Defences,
No barriers or absolutes
No must-haves
No bucket lists

I Have it my way,
Or like it just as it is
If I cannot love
the place I'm in
Watch me!

Strum up a soft tune
Roll out my daft drums
I'll give you a quaint beat
That will curl up
In your heart
My cozy question mark...

Make some sweet happiness
All salt and tangy
Topsy turvy stuffing
On the outside,
An outsized grin!

I won't waste my life
Or your part in mine
Building great walls of
Greedy expectations
Or
Worrying about it.

No can dos
Are cliffhangers,
Challenges
To scramble up
Sliding down
Like a charm,
No regrets if I can't handle it.

Poetry
Rides ever so high
Apocalyptic Rider in nocturnal sky
Out of sight never out of mind
I'm unafraid to leave
Your ink laden hand my unseen friend
Dips into my dozing heart
And winnows my overpacked brain.

You're just trekking up higher cooler
Slopes
Looking down at me
With mocking glimmers
Of compassion
Imagine new magic
For me, beloved dream
When I catch up with you,
For I will
Finally.

Hand in hand
We walk the halls of Paradise
Ours
Free for the taking
Willingly.

© Amrita Valan 2015

For Biley 15-07-2015

Sumit De Bhaumik

Wanted to write a few lines for you.
Just a few.

Remember childhood times
Memory rushing in
Like rays of light, through doors
And windows of my mind.

The different houses that we stayed
Bore unforgettable imprint
Of our growing days
Each house is a home that I revisit
For the joy and love we found in it.

New Alipore
Floating paper boats below with you
Mayfair road
How you draped in white bedsheets
With daddy's Eveready torches
Tried to frighten me,
And succeeded too!
How we played barbershop,
And you neatly
Removed my fringe, lingers on
And hopelessly I grin.

The balcony where we played with the "chik",
Rolling them up and down and up again
The cadbury stored in the fridge for later
Always missed by me, very soon after.

Rishra days!
And by then our world enlarged
To include so many many friends
The fun times we have had
Thanks to dear mom and dad
Growing up in a safe fairyland.

This poem is become more a roll call of events
That we both recall so here I smiling send
Happy birthday wishes dear brother again,
And May God bless,
Surround you with the love of
Family and friends.

© Amrita Valan 2015

At the Zenith of my Life

At the Zenith of My Life

When towards the end
The darkness besets me
Darkness unlike another
The womb life giving
Reminds me
Light is a blinding madness
And escape beckoning,
I am my mirror now
Knowledge reflecting,
From every pore
From every wrinkle
The crows feet, the laughter lines,
Each varicose vein
Each mark of pain
Is knowledge,
That sets me free.

It senses another light beckoning
Accross these higher levels of  darkness
I kiss the nadir of earthly dreams
To touch the feet of life with love
To say adios with gratitude
A somber delight
A lightness earned
I now reach for  its zenith

In the cries of
The gathering bereaved at departure of dear loved dream
For that's what those days now seem
Of empty yearnings and swift unraveling

I am alive in each lively spark
That tosses my shell to cinders
Watch out for the innocent lovers in the park....
None may tear sweet joy asunder.

As at a multiplex
Five different dramas and comedies and satires play
I receive funeral wreaths
And scent succulent flavors of the barbeque next door...
Party on
The night I'm gone
In unconscious
Gleeful commemoration
Of life's song.

The universe is offering alms
Sorrows expirations
And it's almost on the tip of my tongue
The frozen shower of ice cream cones that thaw in warm palms...
Expiate in exultation. ..

Remembrance is such joy
Hold it lightly, it's but a toy
New stories start every day
And the child in us must be forever gay....

Even your tears dissolve in the sea of lives
Nothing melts me
Misty eyes I see you
And again I will
include all of you who are
Present at this mourning

I'm upon mountain peaks of peace snowboarding through glacial valleys that lead on
Through this mysterious wormhole which brought me in
And will wash me out
Of Life's
Orchestral symphony.

Like tumbling waterfalls
Crystal foams
I will bubble my flecky songs
The breathtaking beauty bursting upon
One feeble breath and then it's gone
Without alas or sense of loss
Beauty up in the air
Spinning a crazy coin
For a moments delightful toss...

Believe me that body was encumbrance armor donned
in battle, diving gear to sustain unnatural breath
If you are looking for the light
Rejoice like children ...
Clap and sound applause!

I've escaped the smothering gravitational mothering
I'm in forever's empty embrace
I'm in breathtaking free falling flight...tunneling through new visions of chilling grace and space.

© Amrita Valan 2014

The Evil Plant

The Evil Plant

There was a tender stalk of green
Growing upon evil lees
Of dank dark banks
far from deep blue seas
Leaning upon the leering trees
Its roots were touched by fungus
Speckled mildew ate its leaves
It's stem so brave yet wilting
Its poisoned flowers hid in unease.

The clouds they went by rolling
The thunder crackled deep
The lightning scorched it every night
When it couldn't sleep

Forsaken by sweet meadows
Cast off from lush gold fields
Never to touch the briny sea
But to drink from bracken deep

Oh sweet plant you're fine where you are
The night is mighty with many stars
They each shine through the thick of space
For a heavenly moment of  fleeting grace

Those balls of fire that blaze so bright
Overreaching burn out in the cold blue night
Let the bracing wind tilt up your flowered face
Let those who'll win be a part of such an empty race

The salt water of treacherous seas
Shall be drunk by them to the very lees
And you will still be affixed to backwaters brown
Where your tenderness dissolved shall drown

Let go and wave and nod and sway
The world shall deny you right of way
Fix your roots to the barren path
Smile and accept the wrath of Gods

And silenced sylvan limpid stalk
Whisper your dreams to one day walk
The will o' the wisp of wind may hear...
And carry you into hearts you hold so dear.

The search for love is lovely
The searchers often get lost
The way is forgotten
In the maze of doubts
And overwhelming costs.

The search for love is noble
fraught with loneliness
And those who obtain
It
Have shown much grace.
And
Those who obtain it
Have been given grace.

The tender stalk upon the marshy banks
Rooted to her patch of sorrow
There to finally collapse and fall
Is still in love
Lonely bitter but unafraid
with a bitter sweet tomorrow.

© Amrita Valan 2015

A Poem in my Heart

Poem In My Heart

Open roads softly
Open up to me vistas
Of wistfulness
Roads to nowhere
To unknown places.

I who have never been anywhere or seen anything
I have peeped through peeled eyes and eager palms and gentle skin of heart
felt sensations foreign to me.

I have seen a river
Broad and deep and calm with sun, setting into sinking branches dipped in it
Like fingers seeking benediction in hallowed waters...

I have had such a longing to kneel as if in church, by the grassy banks of rivers that turn and return to your  mystery....

I am  sitting in God's pews
Putty in his hand trembling upon beauty of his altar,
Where he sets his stage of splendor.

I'm in the czar's crystal palace of ice sinking shivering towards deaths chilly arms
And freezing in abandon....
Then
Thawing in release...
It  was winter,
Now its summer...

Its spring flowers upon unknown indolent  hillsides
Its haunting autumn music in mysteries of tumultuous blue skies
Its lush green reveries of silent summery twilight....

My heart beats a tremulous saga of stories I have heard of beautiful places
Where I haven't been born
Yet my soul beheld....

My evanescent soul

Which radiates infinite spokes into eternity ring of life
And spreads out in sweetheart rippples of ecstatic gratitude
in this endless cosmic pool of
Countless chances challenges and charms
Which I bathe in
Immersing never to resurface
to dive into the very depths
Of my enchanting life....

© Amrita Valan 2014

Sorry

Sorry

Sorry sorry for the dirty grime
This story was a crime to
begin.
I am confused when I remember
But mostly I'm ashamed
And sorry It began.

I am wending my way
Through prophetic blue lanes
Lonely winding skies
Patches of sweet sunshine
swirl like lovely dreams
In a mist
But now I do know
What's not for me.

Never want to be a bother
I had rather quietly disappear now
I'm not disappointed
But I know
how I wouldn't do for you.

Couldn't be the one.
The cold wind stills me inside
To a hush.
I don't exactly love you.
But oh!
How you're valued.

When love has ended
Good opinion is either mercy
Or travesty.
I don't know.
I will keep yours
If I can.

And I know I need to
Dive down deeper into me now
Where my core values are.

I need to always keep shining
My limited light.
Against the confusing majestic darkness
Be my own star.

© Amrita Valan 2015

Illusions and Delusions

On this week's topic:

Illusions and Delusions

And heaven was just a story
In her head
Ghost written by parents
Now long dead
Who wanted the best for their
Little girl
So they told her tales of
Everlasting paradise.

Shuffling on tired feet
Panting forwards, they stole
Across dark borderlands
Patrolled and guarded by
Bayonettes and mines
But the hungry don't count
The price of salvation.

They mistook the land of
Bondage and avarice
With the land of dreams
Nightmares wrought into
Flesh
By honeyed streams.

Now she sleeping dreams
On illusions and delusions
And they make her toss and
Turn
As her babies scream.

The road was a satin stretch of fast
moving cars
Each carried a wondrous portentious passenger
And her shrivelled hands stretched out
In empty hope
Perhaps an angel of mercy would notice her!

The illusion of beggar maids and beaten mendicants
Mothering dust bowls of dreams and hapless
broods
At night the stars winked and sinned against
her yet again
Conspicuous conspiracy to fuel her empty dreams.

Illusions and delusions lie dreary at death's doors by day
Hand to mouth and thirsty throaty pleas
These twin gargoyles of deception crouch to kill
By first arousing then dousing hope.

The corpses were carefully removed
one bleary winter's dawn
By municipal workers in masks and gloves
And has she finally reached her hope?
That parental fairy tale of promised paradise?

I do think illusions and delusions may abound in the
ever-after too
Oh what lies beyond the dread glooms of deepest blues?

© Amrita Valan 2015

My Legacy

Weekly Challenge

My Legacy

Let my legacy be
A quaint sea shell
In a tiny treasure chest
A drab thing of brown and pink
And no use at all to you.
Locked up with other little things
Of no account
Forgotten on the way
Let life and love occupy
Your minds
But on a rainy day
I hope when you've nothing
Better to do
An idle hour or two
Gazing at gray clouds
And heart beats like
Thunder
Pangs of memory
Like love may crackle
In your ribbed cage
Of strength
And may you remember
To take me out then
Dusty and unused
Brush off the cobwebs gentle
And kind
And let a little lustre
Shine through
Oh then remember me
My darling loves
And how much
I loved you.

I hope then for a single
Moment in time
And not as heavy baggage
For half your life
You remember me
With sweet smiling fondness
As a dream
Yet more real and true
Than the hardest facts of life
You face
And I hope it strengthens you
Hear my softest love
In loudest thunder
My dearest ones
And then
Bid me adieu.

© Amrita Valan 2015

Seperate

You are too late in bringing
Your olive branch
Too late in applying
Your healing touch
and the gentle heart you hid so long
And well
Your stony pretence carved my heart's hell
Now forever it dwells in secret places

Your concealed heart
Can't make mine its
Friend.... For it has healed
From the cards you dealt
And wounds were sealed
With suave skin shields
Smoother than a baby's skin.

The bleeding stopped long ago.
At first the scabs were tender
You left it too long to scar
But now those are silver stars
Of endurance
Angels from hell
who taught me fortitude.
And a few still remain
Deep etchings of pain
To warn my heart
May still hold some rain.

You want to pull me to you
But I have closed that door
Forever
It is an entrance
I can't define
As mine
Any longer.

But you know my mind too well
How easily it swells
Stubborn impetuous loyal
And think I will stay
And dwell
To be yours again.

You should be told
How it is my friend
How when I've drawn a line
I can't cross those borders again
Soft memories of scabs remain.
Too sore and septic
To assimilate.

Forgiving people who cannot,
Find heart to forgive anymore,
Find out that once they have
Closed a door,
A dream is gone
A world up in smoke,
Empty, devoid
Black hole
Room lost in forever,
Lies behind
Its tantalizing
keyhole.

Somehow we are together still
By some miraculous act of will
I respect a man I know
I cannot be yours
In my mind
I let you go.

You think I don't cry
Or that I have a heart of stone
To stay in our house
But not call it home.
I cry tears of rigid crystal
Deep inside my shredded heart
And they are all embedded in red flesh,
Knives digging deeper with
Every thrust.

And I had rather this worn out heart
Should jag and sliver and tear in two
Than ever I should come
Back
To that long lost softness
Past, that was
Meant for me and you.

Do not cry for me
I just know you do
The dreams are walking
Maddening
Memories in my head too.

A kindness to both of us  then
To ignore,
The walking dead
Till they walk no more.

But someday I will thank you
For being both unkind and yet so kind
Your tortuous games of mind
Will not allow me guilt
It was a crooked house you built
But as I grow older
From the sad windows of my
Empty castle
I see how you longed to be a prince
How we now occupy separate turrets
From where monarchs we survey still
Hushed independent plains
Rooms with severed views
My perspective has changed
You master your domain.

Thus far ....my story has been
Told
My years are grown up now and
old
And  I feel the safe fortress of
My doubts stronghold
I will be
Uncrowned
By your heart of gold.

© Amrita Valan 2015

Dont Give Your Heart....

Don't Give your Heart....

Don't give your heart to just a pretty face
A pretty face doesn't shine always
Swift the lucre dissolves to dirty grime
Life makes us sweat as we do our time.

And Time plays cheap tricks on easy hearts
No crime this,  but our just desserts
To be naive and a gullible fool
And just crave the glittery shine
Colored candy cotton wool.

Oh! learn to lean into the inner mind
Cherish the creases such lovely lines
That her anxious cares for you define.

Yes, and if she cares a jot for you
And not how she has you wrapt
around her fingers,
That will  never snap,
To make you jump at her bidding
Then that face of hers is
Every inch worth your reading.

Not passive or babyish or bland visage
Not a coy plasticity of vague mirage
But a clear mirror of love light
you must understand.

Lovely is the dark shade of even most sunscorched trees
Tired wilted bowing in life's listless breeze
Shelter you craved that cradles you
so unstintingly,
Never scorn it for a youthful blossoming limb.

Hold her hands that's rough yet ready
Her blisters tattooed third degree burns
Of servitude, chiselled and branded
with the loads she undertook.

Pleasant are sugary coquettish interludes
Of  pretty flowers wilting in temptation's bough
But only love carries the magic wand somehow
Only love knows the straight yellow road
To wonderland
Where Time itself is helpless to take its toll
And stands forever transformed into stillness-Now.

Love will withstand all test of time
Make plainest eyes and gaze
A poetic charm
Of times thrice, trine
A placid lake of bottomless depth and ease
Matching your moods rhyme for rhyme.

And there's such prettifying in a loyal face
Heaven itself would fall in a daze and praise
Give all your heart to that gentle grace
And happiness on earth will blaze
Ever and ever
And all your children's race
Will imbibe the magic of your days
Of Endless love
Truer than all worlds, religions,
Faiths, true above all
Time and space.

© Amrita Valan 2015

Turn of the Road

For a long time I did what I do best
I wrote about my feelings
My happiness or
Pain.

But a turn in the road
A change in the wind
A new directive
Bends my mind
Something calls me
To challenge the waves
Too long in the darkness
In blind emotional caves
Something says that my own trivial
Troubles
Are not even worth another dust mote or bubble
I must be mindful and watchful
Revert the gaze
Too much suffering
Needs to be erased
Lack of food and shelter
Lack of time to rest
A baby ignored
While her mother slaves to death
See the resilience of the human mind
It will not back away
Everyone has a dream
And everyone hopes for a better day.
I won't cry for my troubles are the least
Lend those dreams a wing
Rise to be a human not a dumb
Insensate beast
They're angels in disguise
They flit without their wings
Shorn of their power and every material
Thing
They're test laboratories of this evolving universe
And they test what really matters
And its not atoms or molecules pulsars and quasers
Every time we lend  helping hands and everyday we are kind
We create a wealth of love and hone our human minds

We are perfection, we are all angels in disguise
When we act out of our conscience like
Cosmic Magis.
We can be God we can choose to be divine
Every time we see suffering as Ours
Not as yours or mine.
Every time you bend
to carry the cross
Your shoulders lend
To lessen another's loss
Write another poem sing another song
Not for your glory
But to lighten a load
Or right a wrong.

I am at the turnpike
There's no one here but me
But I can choose
The way I will go
The road no longer unidirectional
But bifurcated and every artery
Leads to bleeding human souls
Every story needs to be told
And I will take care
to take my turn
No longer linger
At the crossroads turn.

© Amrita Valan 2015

The Lobster and the Crab

The Lobster and the Crab

Lobby the venerable lobster
Thought he was
Master of the Universe
But he had got it all backwards
As he clawed the oceans apart!

And each time he tried to make his move,
He found himself back by another foot!

The crazy crab laughed sideways, his weird and crooked grin
But then he was most sideways in almost everything!
so he scuttled across the tepid ocean floor
Dancing and dashing busily from door to door
Neither back nor front locomoting
He was forever sidewards shunting.

But Lobby thinks he is superior because
"He never ages!"
That's right;
His body can never grow older, because it contains magic Telomerase!
So yup, he is a Swanky stinky sea God
Unless you simply caught and ate him,
like any other herring, shrimp or cod!
Or say he contracted the disease of  lobsterlivia
Which means excessive self love or megalomania!

Now Karma the crab was aggressive, he fought to win a wife
But ever after he mated, he built her a nest and guarded her eggs with his life.
A tad quarrelsome with buddies and mates
Yet socially savvy and very up to date
He lived in groups and liked to cooperate
Until death whether t'was a natural fate
Or served  as minestrone upon a soup plate.

Lobby unless reduced to thermidor, or
Boiled alive by greedy humans in a jar
Preferred a hermit life by the ocean's floor
Eating the yucky skin he shed
Or even another lobster's flesh
Quite in a waste-not want-not way!

I think I prefer Karma and his simpler caramel soul
And oh he is sooo tasty in stews and
casseroles!
Mouthwatering in crabmeat  curries too
And patties and crab cakes of heavenly hue!

As for Lobby the lobster, though he is far costlier
To eat something that could have perhaps lasted forever!
Phew !
To tuck into an insect that eats the dead skin it moults
And thinks of itself as a marine God,
Well to even marinate it, my heart revolts...

So- gruesome Lobby pink red and gorgeous
I prefer the crab clad in
steely grey and slimy green and black
And rather dolorous and totally drab
But to me, the colorful canny lobster
Seems a creepy cannibal mobster
I suspect that he or she could be a tough
Gobstopper...
So I shall pass this dish, would you like to have her?

Oops! Him.

© Amrita Valan 2015

The Dolphin's Tale

Another one for the kids...

The Dolphin's Tale

The  shark was eating cornflakes
He preferred them with milk and honey
The dolphin showed up to wag a beak
And told him it was funny

A change from pure protein then
Asked the dolphin in eager vein
The shark choked in rage and lashed his tail
Oh if you're going to sulk, then very well!

The dolphin dived away and did a few somersaults
But to the shattered shark he had put a halt
Who could not down another spoon
And swam off in grave depression

Meeting with a wily whale
Sharkey happened to relate his tale
Together the decided to do him in
Stop the dolphin's wagging chin

So they artfully pursued the playful dilettante
Who was performing mid air stunts
Going round and round in mid air
Stopping only to see them stare

Howdy shark and wassup whale
The elegant dolphin greeted well
Shark shook a fin whale gave a vacuous grin
Asked the dolphin to join in a meal

Mullet mackerel herring cod and squid
They offered him mixed with chewy weeds
They politely asked to chew well before he gulped and swallowed
As those were the table manners to be followed

The dolphin tried his best to nibble with his teeth
But soon the whale offered some serious meat
upon Dolly's unwary plate
A sea lion with salmon in its mouth as bait

Poor dolly choked and churned up the stuff
And warbled away in a most shameful huff
To see sharky shake  and sweetly laugh
As Willy the whale made mocking Poofs!

So be very careful not to mock jeer and laugh
At the diets of others even if its just a fad
I think the dolphin's tale has made that clear
If not,
May we serve you a honeyed bear?

© Amrita Valan 2015

Sunlight

Sophia up on high
Resolution of all doubts
Focusing all our dreams
Mitigating our fear.

There's a blind spot in my eye
And however hard I try
I will never know every how or why
Of the factorials of my life

The sun messages us through rays
Warmth from its core of strength,
Emulate me, no longer to yourself lie,
I too, have blind spots in my lucent eye.

Those dark sunspots that cave you in
Are just blemishes on the skin
The surface of the dream.

I feed your flaming heart
Dark coals glow in mirth
Reach out your sunflower stalk
Heads high, forever walk

The trail blazers are ever lonely
They speak to a silence only,
Weaving dreams upon the air
Sun gazing without a fear.

To be the white dwarf of distant afterlife
I will explode, light up the skies
Giant supernova, that no living man will see
Yet floating around on eternal cosmic sea
My light caught in the lens of alien heroes,
Forever and ever will be.

Perhaps you will stare again at me
Through strange eyes of future telescopes
Tell me please then why,
Don't you dare,
To burn and embrace black space
Into  blazing promise of hope?

Mankind you're my seed
My sunflower deeds of days of youth
I lend you sunlit hands as golden safety rope
May you forever dare to grope...
Through weary veils of murky darkness
And be my distant starlit hope.