On A Sleepless Night

And so I sit here by the windowsill

The night’s dark and chillingly still

Gazing up from my ivory tower

I see the faded moonlight shower

I wonder why I toss and turn

Have I got a guilty conscience?

The world deludes

All sleep eludes

I wait, and I wait

As my head hits the bed

For the blanket of slumber to keep me warm

To keep me safe from my raging storm

I wonder when I’ll fall asleep

Wonder if your word you will keep…

July 18, 2007

Put Me To Sleep, Mother...

In the space, she lay at the heart
Sinister loneliness moving like a dart
Acrid walls looking down upon her
Her life, she recalled, seemed a blur.

And now again she called out
Accosted by another dizzy bout

“Put me to sleep, mother,
In your lap
Drug me into oblivion, mother,
From all that crap
Release me, mother,
From that addictive trap

I was breathing my freedom and my flight
And you think mine’s a sorry plight?
How do you say that I lost myself to this rapture?
That my life’s in smoke-tentacled capture?”

But nowhere was mother to be found
In helpless agony, her head she did pound
Nothing could she do at the eleventh hour
Deserted her trapped daughter in her ivory tower

Muffled yet loud
The sobs reverberated in the room
Soft as the cloud
Her pillow solaced her gloom.

Her hymn floated and hung in the air
A dying song, audible and bare
“The world could be pink
What do you think?
Or is it blue?
Could be any other hue!
I see you through the purple haze
The needle pricks and my eyes glaze…”

Her pupils hoped for a purple haze
Her tower engulfed by a golden blaze
Life dropped, thudding to the ground
Silence killed all other sound.

“…Put me to sleep, mother,
In your lap
Put me to sleep, mother,
In your lap…”

The Montane Solitude

Quiet as dead we lay,
On that dark solitary night.
Thinking of life at play,
And of our melancholy blights.

We talked that day,
Of stars and mountains far away,
Of fate at play and
Of life; so akin to fragile clay.

Jolted and turned to frays,
We had to go, part ways.
But with hands resting underneath our heads,
We were counting silent stars instead.

I said I talk to the moon
And you said, “Talk to me,”
I said the stars are my only friends
And you bore me a, “What about me?”

I looked into your eyes so brown,
And held your gaze for a little too long.
Hot in the face, you looked away,
Unsure of keeping the promise you made that way.

In our fears, in our fights,
In the taste of tears on those lonely nights,
Standing on the vertigo heights,
Anxious for our fledgling flights,

We took the plunge,
Unafraid of the cheating grunge,
We buckled over, we knuckled under,
Defeating the afflictive thunder.

But now,
It was time to leave; upon us it dawned,
You on your way, I on mine,
Both leaving the mountains behind.


Music: "Porcelain" by Moby!

Her Honour I Stripped...

“Come, ill set you free”
Called out a whisper to me.
I heard a wailing scream,
I perceived it to be no dream.

Beads of fear on my forehead,
I did not dare leave my bed.
Shivers running down my spine,
I vision her dead body so supine.

To me, the banshee calls out,
“Death is near, no doubt.”
As I see her spectral face clear,
My dark heart fills with fear.

I see my dark deeds,
Filling my mind.
Time
I cannot rewind.

She screeches in anger
About her broken trust
And of how I thrust
My dagger inside her


She spurted black blood,
In a torrent, in a flood


With a malice so pure,
To make sure
I plunged it so yet again,
Her senses she’d never regain.

The beautiful ghoul
Has come to take my soul
My body she will burn
My soul she will churn

At the Gates of Netherworld.

Insomnia

Sleep unfulfilled of a restless night
Hair thinning in an eternal fight
Salt and pepper on my head
I toss and turn all night in my bed.

The 9:24 local in my reach
Money, money, I inwardly beseech
From the torture, my mind and body bleeds
Five mouths, and I’m the only one who feeds.

The limping man, old and blind
Of my lesser struggle does remind
I stand between sanity and madness, a thin line
I feel like molten gold without any shine

No wonder insomnia strikes in such alacrity
When, with eyes wide open, dreams this city.

Two Cups of Coffee and An Empty Mayonnaise Jar

In his rickety rocking chair
Sat the old man
Half naked
Without a care

The old woman had long passed away
And now,
Twenty-four hours seemed too long a day

Mouth parched, lips dry
All day his heart would cry
Eyes set on the two coffee cups
He would be reminded
Of their downs and the ups

The mayonnaise jar stood
Without much sheen
The coffee cups froze
In silent mourning

This trio told the old couple's story
To them, they attribute love’s allegory
They are sorry for shouting out,
The stark memory

A letter of apology
A letter full of love
Sweet nothing’s
Whispered in the ear

In the empty mayonnaise jar
Would the letters find their way
‘Twas all in the bygone days

He reminisced how
The fight ceased
The other one appeased
Aloud would the letters be read
Over coffee and soft, warm bread

The mayonnaise jar full with words
Of each others unspoken thoughts as birds
Each word held the thrill
Of either wish fulfilled
Planting of the kiss
On a frowning brow
Oh! How every moment he missed!

Stranger

And yet another one bites the dust
I see people come and I see people go
I stand watching with hopeless trust
Around me
A residue of memories, revolving so fast, so slow

‘Savour the moment’
Cause it’s not always to be
It’s no random lament
I know it’s not meant to be
It’s not setting me free
Oh, let me be!
Struggling to free
From a love that’s chained me

A wound, so deep that cannot be healed
With a kiss of love, is sealed
The rapturous dream ravaging my senses
The truth jolts me from my pretenses

The bee of truth has a fatal sting
You’d wished for the fateful words
To have never touched those lips
It’s too late now
To seal those lips with a blissful kiss

What good is a truth that bereaves without a death?
Left me unshielded; high and dry
And as I stand unruly, facing harsh wind and sky
Tumultuous thoughts jeering me by
Hissing at my foolishness,
“Don’t you dare fall in love and then cry!”

I think of the lone ranger, who met known strangers,
“I’m just a traveler who met you on your sojourn,” said he,
I gave myself to him, blissfully unaware one day he would flee.
It’s just a lovelorn youth’s lament,
Not ready to learn, is her imprudence adamant.

A ruthless maneuver by life,
The void you left is now filled by a hounding strife.
With you gone, I feel a waste,
My sinful folly, of having been in such haste.

The rain can’t cleanse me of your touch
I ask the waters to burn my skin
The calmness outside,
Leaves me churning within

I don’t belong
Who am I?
I am a stranger longing for love
A love that’s lost.

I knew a person once
Knew, well enough, only to know
That he’s a stranger
My stranger, a lone ranger.

And you should never love a stranger…