On The Clothesline

Each item like clothing 
Wrung, shook, neatly pinned
One following the other
All shapes, sizes, tinged

You expect a hollow aftermath
Windows flapping against walls
No footfall on the bare floors
Doors banging in atrium halls

Thoughts move more freely now
Unencumbered, unfettered
Gliding through ventricular spaces
Speak easy, let it go

Love's Last Rites

I lay you to rest, alongside Gershwin 

Along with my Rhapsody in Blue.

There in amidst moments in Thumri. 

In Dadra, Khayal, and in Ghazal

Auden steps in, stops all the clocks.

Winehouse walks out back to black. 

And still no Cadence just Vamp till cue 

All encore the Prelude, my Canto Ostinato 

Glossary

Thumri: (in Hindustani classical music) a light romantic form.

Dadra: Hindustani classical rhythmic cycle

Khayal: a traditional type of song from the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, with instrumental accompaniment and typically having two main stanzas.

Ghazal:  a lyric poem with a fixed number of verses and a repeated rhyme, typically on the theme of love, and normally set to music

Cadence (music): a melodic and/or harmonic configuration at the end of a phrase, section, or piece of music

Vamp till cue: A jazz, fusion, and musical theatre term which instructs rhythm section members to repeat and vary a short ostinato passage, riff, or "groove" until the band leader or conductor instructs them to move onto the next section

Prelude: musical composition, usually brief, that is generally played as an introduction to another, larger musical piece

Canto Ostinato: obstinate song

The impossible man

The impossible man for
The impossible girl
Shapeshifter, magician,
Phantasmic, set in stone
And that's just the girl

What say of the man
What indeed. Illusory,
A dream disjointed,
Inert. The girl's mirrored
Image lies upturned

Smoke and mirrors

Whirling and stooping

Swooping and scooping

And at a beck and call

Swooning and dipping

Slipping, tripping, flipping

Always at love's call

Smoke and mirrors now meet 

Me; as I crouch behind latticework

I build my fortress of filigree 

With my dance of light and facade 

And throw red herrings into the sea

Shout to the big bad wolf 'en garde'

Blind devotion, complete compliance

Acquiescence too soon, no indeed 

Absolute devotion in obsolescence

Eyes deny recognition, touch remains 

Unknown, the voice resonates

No more. I exist once more. 

My Pentimento

Higher and higher I jump, harder, pushing you down deep
No, you cannot be seen! Especially by me!
I wrap you tight in wool, in wood, hard steel
I bury you in a jewel inlaid coffin. 
Oh be happy, I am singing lullabies to you. 
See how they soothe! Listen, listen close and forget.
I push you out, far into the sea. 
Why haven't you capsized and drowned?
Memory rub worked on Anakin 
So I scrape, erase you out
I drink from the Lethe
Bathe in salt but you stick 
Yet you peep my heart, you weep. 
My indelible palimptest, my mellow
My obdurate, my pentimento unobscured

Serendipity

Oft have I seen you, near and far

Sometimes playful, often shy

Yawning, stretching, waking up

Rubbing your eyes, squinting at me

You giggle, you run, bounce around

As your half blond half black curls flounce

Twitching your flowery dress, little girl pink shoes

Little bucket in hand, watering my plants

I  sit and watch and I wait

Oh how I have waited. And I wait.

You give me enough but never quite enough

As they say there's no such thing as serendipity

Blind man's bluff

Blind man's bluff

Snakes and ladders

Hide and seek

Noughts and crosses

Hopscotch, 'without rock and 

Against time',  dodge ball

Trial and error

Hit and run

Sometimes you fly

Sometimes you burn

But you learn

You eventually learn 

Inside Me

Inside me is a word I cannot pronounce

A picture I cannot see

A song I cannot hum

Inside me is a face I do not know

A memory I don't remember

A wish that is not mine

Inside me is a world I do not inhabit

A space mine but not mine

A void devoid of me

A whole symbolic, anomalous me

Of quarters, halves, entireties

The aggregate, grand sum total of me

Till Then

I suppose it will all make sense one day
It will all come to pass some way
The heart will prevail, mind will repose one day
The whole will abide some day

Off kilter, a little off centre till then
A little broken, little chipped till then
Off key, perhaps adrift, askew
Skewed as per requirement till then

Fit to purpose, made to order as such
As intentioned, as intended as such
Intrinsic, fundamental, in full essence even 
My soul, spirit, life blood as such 

The Mis-measure Of Man

The mis-measure of man 
And of woman
Ensuing expectations
Hopes, dreams, feelings
And then the fall
The crunch, bone-shattering
Sickening, the after-shock 
Love; a dizzy spell
Until the resultant calm
The quiet hush, peace 



December 2014