The fallen mask

  

I lift shards of cracked mask

It fell off in a weak moment 

I persisted with my smile 

Hiding behind the perturbed look

The silt of vice settled within 

While I mingled into worldly ocean

The pretence of unblemished virtue 

Like the tides erupted on façade

While stealthily the deception fell back

Into the new depth of my placid bed 

Till the time my eyes could overflow

With the pent up brine within 

The mask was so wonted to mendacity

It could not hold the flowing emotion

And fell off insolently  in a glaring throng 

I was expected to smile then with the crowd 

Here I was full of audacious tears 

Startled,  I knelt to pick the shattered face

And lo ! The mask was transparent all over

 I had been  comfortable to hide myself  behind it

While my inner designs were stark visible 

Amidst the debris of my founded belief 

Lay the reflection of haunting eyes from behind

And I could see the treasures of my depth

Glitter in the piercing beam through the shadow

Of a fallen crown and a doused halo .

Delhi.

2190

23.24 hrs

12.4.25

 The way the car went to mechanic frequently was a bit suspicious.

It was a mistri car

The complete cipher

 

Like the tiny signboard

That arrives and vanishes 

In a flash on an express way

People brush past everyone 

In an overflowing throng 

Every small speck we ignore

In itself is stuffed with life

The town of a gritty resolve 

The street that awaits the child lost

In the puffing dust of the speeding lane

That sinks In the glitter of a metro city

Stretching to storm into a swanky mansion

Afar from the dedicated  street light 

Under which the resolve was constructed 

The sparkle blindfolds the eager sight

The signboard becomes invisible 

The life behind the beaten path remains unknown

The cipher is complete and infinity remains hollow

Like a loving shore and an alluring horizon. 

Yamuna nagar

2189

20.38 hrs

18.3.25

The spring pluck

 

Overnight rains have doused softly

The overflowing dazzle of summers

On the tepid shores of callous spring

Moderation, often felt like insensitivity ,

Finds no reason to explain his neutral ways

Deep inside he is both warm and frigid

Which evolves often as a dull spring

But then he has buds and flowers to speak

To the one who waits long enough with hope

Bestowed with bright petals worth the wait

The pluck on the index of nascent affluence

Pulls the roots a little towards the sky

To follow the vanishing dreams that rush

Only to leave behind their traces in a rainbow

When the sun shines after the overnight rains.

Rishikesh

09.04 hrs

2188

11.3.25

The upward drizzle

 

There is a thunder that dazzles

With every heavy downpour 

But only an invisible tip toe 

When heavens are filled 

With the drops from down

Stealthily slip with the upward drizzle 

To pour the agitated vapor within

The glittering treasures of core

Do not emit a flash to echo thunder

They merely dazzle with their soul

When the sun sets the façade ablaze

And when the moon churns tides

Like a sage lost within an infinite self

The inner horizon that recedes perpetually 

The shimmering bed rows the vapor 

Into the realm of upward drizzle. 

Delhi

2187

22.45 hrs

23.2.25

The falling sun on a barren branch

 

The radiant fruit of evening sun

That grows on barren branch

Slithers slowly down the bark

Meandering like a black serpent

Ready to hiss in the dark

And pour his venom in the sky

The thunder that bleeds tonight

Showers dew drops from above

If only I had leaves to garner them

And wrap the falling sun in my foliage .

Dehradun

2186

17.13 hrs

14.1.25

The dusk hues

 

When the growing grey of night

Grates into the pink of the evening

The wind softly blows her breath

To puff up the silvery dreams in sky

An evening star winks at the constant eye

The flock flaps back to the cosy strands

With a saved morsel for the sapling

The drops get annointed for the tide

The myriad hues of dusk softly merge

Into the viscous womb of a tarry night

The larva of another glittering dawn.

Rishikesh

9.1.25

07.43 hrs

2185