Hoopoe calling

The London sun dripping ice.
Winds cold with a fervid bite.
Days dark, hazy nights darker still.
Smoke and mirrors. Front page.

Summer afternoons, bare feet on grass.
Hot 'Pindi sun beating down on a thin lass.
In the lawn reigns a mourning Cypress, so apt.
Hoopoe calling. Marigolds shining. My back page.

For Nyx and Chione‏

Would not have Nyx and Chione
wished too for love, light and joy
For doesn't darkness forebode sadness
as does cold; death and loneliness

Yet out of night births day, brightness
And dreams, love's pleasures, friendship
The cold bearing one who initiates into
after-life mysteries; makes songs, music

Still, even goddesses and nymphs succumb.
They yield, conform and in loneliness; spawn strife,
pain, death. The other, one who prophesies,
holding tight to deference, the social moral order

On Wings Perfumed‏

The Greeks would
scent the wings of doves
send them high flying above
fragrance scattered, air perfumed

I, too breathe you
out in scented breath
swirls infused and fecund
with you and with I

Not just for me now
do you here remain
For all of heavens above
and earth, we imbue, as one

No, I am not yours, not I
nor you mine ever or now
But of the heavens above
and earth; released you and I

Together

Scooping light out of glittering sea-spray
We will walk on soft, speckled sand
We will go through sunlit country lanes
plucking flowers; wild,fluorescent, grand
We will sift through dreams and in between
On their pages touch a note, a letter
While love will carry on its way; for you and me
And together we will cry, chasing a never-ending ever after.

For I Have

For I have soared into the eye of the sun
Submerged into the fire's heart

Made a deal with God's own Word
A pact with the devil incarnate

To feel tears drop into my heart
A smile clasp around my soul

To have and also to hold
to love, cherish and more

To let go before tongues get tied
Leaves crumble, colours wane

To love and love in spite of, any way
notwithstanding, regardless, in vein

And love

Under a faint, trembling light
confusion paces hard

Brow creased in frustration
certainty's knuckles rap

Hope with a mocking bow
flings scorn at want

Faith with a blinkered look
sways dazed, le moribond

And love; stumbling, plunging
has been found hung

Riding gossamer butterflies;
in supernal seas, sunk

Benaam

Bunn'te huay taage'
ukharti hui saanson
mein paiwasta, madfan

Rakhte safar baandhte
par'rao rait se chalni
shakista dam kham

Baange darra goonjti
raahon se lipti
khaali, gumm summ

Muskurahat phailti
aankhon mein simti
purryaqeen, mubhamm



Glossary
Bunn'te - knitted
taage' - threads
ukharti - breaking
paiwasta - attached
madfan- buried
Rakhte safar- ready to depart
par'rao - tent city
rait - sand
chalni - riddled
shakista - broken
dam kham-strength
Baange darra- the marching bell
goonjti - ringing
gumm summ- subdued
purryaqeen - full of faith
mubhamm - uncertain