A capsized sails
Dipped in brine
And the pranks
That waves carry
Swells to tatters
Even as the breeze
Peeks from atop
And hisses to jeers
Emboldened by his escape
The wonted captive
Pilloried amidst the sails
That reigned over shores
And new lands till now
In a happy procession
Even as slip is a pretence
Of a novel move
And in a drought
The most thoughtful step
Heads towards futility .
Seeds – to be devoured or sown?
Enroute Kolkata
21.34 hrs
8.10.25
2318
The surfeit that rots on platter
The debris of rancid nibbles
Bought in excess by the doubting glutton
Tempted to stuff beyond his gut can store
Maybe a spice more or a pinch less
Strewn and flung across like garbage
Beware:
One lick has triggered an oozing flow
Flow of an overflowing motherhood
Just within a moment the calf is shoved
Far enough to foil his longest stretch
Compelled by the starvation for his share
Share in what flows entirely for his sake
And close enough to tantalize the udder
Delhi
2317
21.07 hrs
8.10.25
The adrift soul arrives with timid pensiveness
On vexed realms of the tethered shore
Fettered with a little leash and tormented
Tormented to acute agony without any respite
The waves writhe amidst a confounding choice
Whether the pain aggravates with strife to break free
Or to surrender to the intolerable affliction
The noose that binds the vessel to the shore is truncated
While the tides it smothers are rather massive
The calf that gives up in infancy grows strapped
Immersed in such thoughts my vessel nears the sand
Fathoming the burden of a buoyant voyage
The damp embers bask in the rubicund dawn
While the crackling pyre springs up to complete the tale
Like the ttwilight of an unending gory dusk
Everytime the sky turns red the mind tries to define
What distinguishes the first sight or the last sigh
Of a scorching vagabond day on a tethered shore
Rishikesh
2316
01.27 hrs
5.10.25
Crumbled to rubble after the slide
I breathe through crushed furrows
My lofty peaks once would touch clouds
The foliage that now is disrobed brutally
Held me together with intertwined strands
It tethered the reckless flow to the paths
And sprouted a chirp in her green palms
The path that once leisurely meandered
Twirling upon the brawn and brown bosom
Now bursts through my soul and gushes past
Amidst the naked and hollow growls
It rains incessantly as if in revenge
After a few thunder strikes and bellows
The trumpet in content is now a shriek of dismay
Then the fall with a thud on the abattoir
Crashes the complete essence of life
To be tied and walloped , denied the strife
Unable to escape the enticing vile of clever cleaver
All it took the mountain to slide in a pile
Was to trust the innocuous first crawl.
Rudrapur
23.38 hrs
2315
15.9.25
The piousness flows incessantly
All across the stationary Ghat
What emanates from the vale
Dips and Drifts through to delta
Only to shower back to the flow
Leaving the garnered silt behind
While the motionless mind besides it
Strives to shrug off the filth
Of collected soles and their debris
The invisible imprints on stone
That remain embossed forever
And the rubble and the crumpled paper
Are silently swept into the flowing prayers
But the bosom still remains depraved
Often capsized in a whirlpool within .
Sometimes when it rains through soul
It moistens the Ghat and fills the crevices
Sometimes it overflows to drench till the gate
Which makes up often for the parched day.
Rishikesh
2314
18.50 hrs
12.9.25
ग़र्क ए आब है हरदम मेरी रूह
यूँ तो मुसलसल झुलसना
भी देता है इक दर्द भरा सुकूँ
उफ़ान पर अक्सर है ये मन मंज़र
शब भर शबनम बरसे निगाह से
फ़िर भी नज़र है हर तरफ़ बंजर.
दुश्वार है वक्त कि तल्ख़हीओं को सहना
धूप में तन्हा सुलगती सीढ़ी के तले
याद में ठंडी आहों का पिघल कर बहना
जलमग्न निरंतर रह कल कल स्वर श्रवण करती
ले जाती बीच प्रवाह के प्रफुल्लित मन के चरण
ढाढ़स बांधती अपनी बेड़ी से स्वच्छन्द मनोरथ का
साहस ही है करता हर इच्छा का वास्तविक रूप में भरण।
सदैव अद्रित उर पर प्रतिबिम्ब नभ का श्रृंगारित होता
स्वर्णिम रश्मि और व्यथित तिमिर का मिश्रित बिछौना
समान धारा में लीन पूजा पुष्प और विसर्जित चिन्ह
पौड़ी बोध कराये ये जीवन तो है केवल क्षणभँगुर खिलौना।
