CHIRANTAN 9 - SILVER MISTS

It was that age when evening silver mists

Spread their alluring perfume

Captivated my senses

Drawing faces in the empty valleys

Always shrouded in mystery

A vision of dreams answered

Just almost within my reach

Yet as my outstretched arms

Lengthened across the lake

Faded away into a teasing book

Quickly shutting its flapping leaves

And I

Lost again

Not knowing which page

Held the key to my lock

Of the caged soul that fluttered

Waiting for its soiree

To dance into midnight surrender

A whirlwind of untouched passions

Melting into a pair of nothingness’s

The perfect one

It is now the age

When mists spray the eyes

And slide on sloping deodars

A frosty white glaze

On the leafless tree

Of shattered dreams

Will there ever be a day

When the first moonbeam

Will melt the glaze

And clear the haze

As we stand face to face?

CHIRANTAN 7 - RIVETED

Each night as I sit in the hallway

Of long forgotten dreams

And watch the icicles of desire

Drip onto a lonely roadside

Giving life to those trees

Where your words hang

Words of promises, of dreams

Of shared lives and common themes

And I reach out to hold each one

Gently caress it with closed eyes

And a story springs alive

Of the time and the place

And the love on your face

When you said those words

Caressing words

Embracing words

Tickling words

Hopeful words

Musical words

Unsaid words

And silence between them

Woven into this rich tapestry

Of a life that would be

Now caught in the jagged edges

Of your material aspirations

And lost sensitivity

See how it flutters in the wind

Frayed edges of bleached dreams

Where did we forget?

The right weft and weave

The giving and the taking

Recognition and respect

The love and the tenderness

The holding tight and letting go

Now I stand there haunted

Chained by your woven words

Bound by aborted dreams

At the crossroads of time

Waiting for your return

In that deserted street

Of a life that isn’t,

Riveted!

CHIRANTAN 6 - LANGUAGE OF FOOTSTEPS

Do you know how we share

This language as a pair

The language of footsteps

That we two did create

It’s the language of love

Which no one can translate

Its soundless words dripping

With passion unique

And rich nuances of silence

Which only we can speak

Soundless, wordless

And formless too

No grammar, no punctuation

Just seamless communication

Born of the sounds

Which can’t be pronounced

Just heard in silence

Your arrival they announce

Emotions a lonely trough

Or a buoyant crest

I can tell by the sound

Of your familiar tread

With bated breath we wait

For the sound of footsteps

 To echo across the worlds

Where we live separate

I can sense your longing

By the impassioned pace

Laced with desire

Your footsteps make

And you can feel

The depth of my low

By the silence in between

As I walk on tip toe

At times it becomes

A laborious long wait

When the sound of your footsteps

Don’t echo at the gate

And when the bells of anklets

Create this alluring tune

You know that my footsteps

Beseech you to return

We’ve learnt the enchanting music

That our footsteps together create

This symphony of love

In which our hearts vibrate

For there is no one else

Who can so well communicate

In this language of footsteps

That we two did create

CHIRANTAN 5 - THE BRIDGE TO FOREVER

Evening’s tresses sprawl across the sky

And the dark dusky temptress tiptoes in

As a tide in the sea of our senses

A raindrop of synchronised thoughts

Moistens the dried up memories

The long lost fragrance of your body

Wafts up to our heightened desires

As oceans across we lie supine

On beds on simmering dreams

Which smoulder into a raging fire

And words in colours fly across seas

Sparkling with golden shared moments

Blue with the bruises of broken desire

Sometimes red with a passionate swirl

Taking the silver from promises baked dry

In the cold and lonely moonlight

At times a hint of green envy

As others claim your existence

And create this scintillating display

Of a bridge of dazzling fireworks

Across to the land of forever

Shall we join our hands?

And walk across this fire

No fear of the beyond

Let it be gaping emptiness

The absolute black end

Or a birth again together

To live with one another

Across this bridge to forever

CHIRANTAN 4 - AUTUMN

Each year autumn comes in its rusty attire

Wrapped in burnished gold

The notes of your fragrance

Glitter with the blush of our flaming bodies

As they wear the scarlet of your adornments

And unleash a fresh burst of passion

As we spread the carpet of desires

And catch the fallen leaves of dreams

Dreams realised with each other

Painted with immature hands

In the spring of life

Nurtured with hope

Through driest summer

To brim with passion

In ignited rain

And as autumn comes

A whiff of your scent

Unleashes freshly melted dreams

In this glorious season

Of true companions

Walking arm in arm

Through crunching leaves

Where you can hear

The whisper of my heartbeat

And I can see

The glimmer of your content

We were meant to be

Together through the seasons

Till we learnt to be

As egoless as the fallen leaf

As gentle with each other

As the warm autumn sun

As eager to please the night

As the evenings early surrender

Now that we have lived

These lessons in grace

We are the reason

Of this mature mellow season

In the autumn of our lives

Lies the autumn of our love

CHIRANTAN 3 - REMINISCENCES

There was born this enchanted moment

When the rainbow showered colours

Your eyelids danced with the sun

And magic fell in raindrops

As you tilted the umbrella

Harvested the wetness of our bodies

To marinate it with our fragrance

Swirled it in a jar

Full of molten passion

And created the perfect reminiscence

Of this is was am and will

Into the bottled ‘now’

The only perfume I wear

That stays on me forever.

CHIRANTAN 2 - CELEBRATION

i see wishes hanging from trees

where leaves once gathered gold

as autumns mellow sunshine

filters through the winter cold

reminds me of the shaded pine

where you clasped my hand

hesitatingly for the first time

and the fire in my heart

tasted wine in your blood

and millions of tiny lights

sparkled through our souls

gently you gathered a twinkle

the bud of your palms aglow

as my hands clasped yours

and they merged into one

with the glow of surrender

rememeber how then night fell

diwali lights of the mountains

scintillating hope doubly reflected

in the lake and in our eyes

and how you whispered

each diwali in one diya

this twinkling light will glow

and till you can discern it

our sacred love will flow

do you know, love?

since then my celebration

of this festival of lights

is just that  one lamp

glowing in your name

always and forever!