The Pianist and the Ballerina

He tunes his piano
She ties her pointés.

He sits on his stool
She takes center-stage.

He plays the opening note
The spotlight flashes on her.

He can only hear the crowd's loud cheers
She can only see eyes upon her regal body.

He glues his eyes to his sheets
She fixes her mind upon her movements.

His fingers move mechanically along the keys
Her limbs sway to the tune of precise timing.

He has played this score hundreds of times
She has rehearsed her steps to faultless perfection.

He lets his memory guide his fingers
She lets her limbs free to do their own work.

He steals a glance at her
She opens her ears to lilting melody.

Those sheets of music cease to exist;
He's busy composing his heart's birdsong.

She is no longer a puppet in the audience's hands
Her soul leaps joyfully towards new-found release.

She is his music
and he's her dance.

Addressed to No One Anyone Knows Of

You can
piss on my feelings
all you want;
and get away with it.

You're a giant
and i'm a peashooter.

You're friendly popular
tried tested and trusted.
(Or so it seems.)

I'm the caustic irreverent
'rebel without a cause'
(Or so the world thinks.)
My existence itself is profane.

You can easily dismiss me
with a languid wave of your hand.
I'll be swatted away like a fly.

But each blow of yours
hammers steel into shape.

One day you wouldn't be able
to wish me away,
not when there are many of me.

I'm scared of falling in love.

I'm scared of surrendering
my whole soul to the most powerful
illusion that ever fools man.

For me falling in love would be
seeing a mirage of an oasis upon
the desert of my lonely heart.

I'll trudge several painful miles
to go the distance towards this
beautiful projection of all my dreams.

I'll grow weary with each step i take,
till i find it's never been there.

Sallekhana

I've tried to describe the Jain ritual of Sallekhana, which is fasting to death. The vow of sallekhana is taken when one feels that one's life has served its purpose; when one has no wishes/ambition/desires left, and no responsibilities remaining in life. It is also allowed in cases of terminal disease or great disability. The purpose is to purge old karmas and prevent the creation of new ones. If you want to know more about it, you may read 'The Nun's Tale' in a book called 'Nine Lives' by William Dalrymple. You may also see the wikipedia page on Sallekhana. Here's the link- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sallekhana. 

Sallekhana is not suicide. 

Sallekhana can never be 
a violent reckless freefalling 
plunge into that self-destructive 
hellward spiral born of despair. 

Yes, Sallekhana is a fast 
unto death, but is death the End? 

Isn't the human body a mere 
vehicle that takes the soul on 
its journey towards the greatest Truth? 

Can one life ever be enough 
to know all there is to know? 
For the body is an object 
that will slowly come to ruin. 
One day it will fail to serve you. 

Death by Sallekhana is just 
like phasing out an old car as
lovingly and gently as one 
weans a babe off the Mother's breast. 

Predator

It is a starving animal.

It's mean angry and scary
when lean with hunger.

Purity of purpose
has sharpened its senses.

No smell or sight or sound
can hijack its attention
away from prey.

Even when hunger
burns out its insides
it's never too weak
for the thrill of a chase.

It needs to strike with ferocious deftness and
inflict pain by ripping tender flesh with dagger claws.

It needs to watch its prey's futile struggle
till it goes slack in its jaws.

More than blood it needs to taste power.

Poets United Mid-Week Motif ~ Equality

The colour of your skin is a
function of sunlight and genes.

It serves to protect you from
the harshest rays of the sun.

The contours of your body
are a map of your homeland.

They tell the tale of survival
in various rugged terrains.

Be proud of what you're endowed with
and enlighten those foolish

frogs confined to wells of
stagnant notions of beauty.

Remind them that Nature made all with equal love
and show them the vast sea of diversity.

Aurora (alliterative) Australis

In the coldest corners of our world

on the longest darkest winter nights

Celestial flames lick the sky in twirls. 

Fiery red and green dance violent whirls 

against velvet black backdrop unfurled 

by God for this dazzling play of light

in the coldest corners of our world 

on the longest darkest winter nights.