Summer

The parched earth pants in the heat of pent-up desire

Under a canopy of palaash, their pining hearts on fire

The heady fragrance of jasmine and luscious summer fruits

Stokes flames of passion in the musk-scented woods

Long sweltering days end in warm sleepless nights

Filled with tender dreams where longing lovers unite

In a burst of joyous tears on a blessed rainy day

As the many months of yearning melt in a gentle embrace

The sweet reverie is broken by the silent whisper of dawn

And a fleeting bliss wafts in with the cool breeze of morn

But soon the day smoulders under the dour unforgiving sun

And awaits a word from grey clouds that presage a union

Through aching days, lonely nights, and burning tears of pain

My love, I wait for you like the summer waits for her rain

The Ship of Theseus

I am at a place that's close to my heart

The street that I grew up on as a child

The old dust of feelings forgotten

Is raked up as memories run wild

Here is where my house it stood

I played with friends in that park

A block away was the ice cream parlor

To where we'd sneak out after dark

This corner on rainy mornings

My mother and I awaited the bus

And here was where my friends and I

Would hide to peek at my first crush

But my home or park, parlor or corner

Not one of those remains anymore

So I wonder why I call it my street

Like the Ship of Theseus in the Greek lore

Perhaps, I can't say I've lived here either 

For our cells, they renew every seven years

So if I'm not that person, this isn't my street

Why do I stand here welled up with tears?

A noble soul

In my garden this morning I realize

The universe has many a noble soul

You need look no further for proof 

Than to my humble shrub of rose

She had great fortitude to bear 

In silence the harsh winter months

Come spring, the only food she gets

Are vegetable rinds and rotten humus

But she bears no ill will toward me 

No matter what things at her I throw

She greets me with a smile this morning

Holding in her hand a beautiful rose!

Hunger

By man's hunger for power are many

Civilizations laid to waste

By his lust for love are relationships

Made and broken in haste

His hunger for wealth, it sows

Discord in a warm hearth

In our thirst for knowledge, do we

Plunder the pristine earth

Lucky then, that woman on the road

With a wailing infant on her breast

Doesn't have the will to hunger for

Anything more than a loaf of bread

Out of phase

We stand together on the ocean shore

The evening is awash in a golden glow

We watch the waves put up a splendid show

Oh, why would the heart want anything more? 

At a distance, one wave begins to rise

Her crest adorned with a smile of glee

She feels one with the limitless sea

A surge of joy lifts her to the sky

Closer by, another wave hits the beach

Bearing a load of unreasonable hope

Alas, he is broken by the rocky shore

And he washes back dejected to the sea

As he recedes, he meets the rising tide

His force brings her happy flight to rest

He doesn't mean to, but breaks her crest

Into the bitter foam of a broken smile

They wash to the sea and rise as waves

She leaps forth again to kiss the sky

He wants to fly with her, share her joy

But yet again, they are out of phase

As they rise and fall forever in agony

She wonders what pleasure He finds

In pairing things of opposite kinds

She smiles at His sense of irony

We silently stare at these waves from the shore

And watch our friends frolick in the sand

Lost in your thoughts, you hold my hand

Oh, but why does my heart want something more?

Words

After a stroll in the garden one fine evening

I lie in your lap under a moonlit sky 

I look at you and feel such a lightness of being

A sweet poem flows from the depths of my mind

Then I imagine a man thousands of years ago

Who after a day in the woods hunting big game

Would've expressed his joy at being back home

By grunting a few times to his voluptuous dame

Aren't we glad for beautiful words in our time

That draw out our sublime threads of thought

Into the loom of language with the warp of rhyme

And weave exquisite poems of silken cloth?

Would you have known the depth of my devotion

Had I grunted a bit instead of singing a poem?

Would my mind have birthed the finer emotions

Without the trellis of words to support them?

Then I find you looking at me with such tenderness

As you run your fingers through my hair in a caress

I see in your eyes that there is nothing else

You want more in this world than my happiness

I drown in your love, you haven't said a word yet

Let alone weave a baroque poem 

Oh, true feelings of the heart are perhaps felt

No matter how or whether you say them

Broken

It has not been very many days 

Since I was kissed by warm ocean waves

But my tired mind, like a broken pail

Hasn't held on to the joy of a single wave

Poured into me are rivers of love

From my kith and kin and the Gods above

But my heart is like a broken pot

Even a drop of that I can now feel not

Much have I tasted the Lady Luck's kiss

But why do I still feel something's amiss?

No winds of hope can lift my broken wings

Oh, why is my soul made of such broken things?

Were we once part of a beautiful whole

That was then taken apart, soul by soul

And strewn across the earth in a jumbled mess?

Is that why we feel this incompleteness?

 

Perhaps that is why we seek new things and places

We search for friends among strange faces

We yearn for the thing that will make us whole

But only a fortunate few find that kindred soul

Who walks into our lives when the time is right

Like a drop of the sun that makes all things bright

Who brings to our lives the balance we need

And a breeze that makes us float carefree

Who fills our hearts with unbounded joy

And gives us wings so our dreams can fly

Who sees into our souls beyond the skin

Whose touch awakens the child within

When they hold us close, promise to never let go

The nomad in us feels he is finally home

When they hear our words that are never spoken

That is when we become truly unbroken

A soulmate, for many, is an unending quest

But if we cease, the heart is never quite at rest

The yearning, the seeking, and the joy of becoming

One with the other, is it the purpose of our being?

Perhaps we are pieces of a jigsaw puzzle

That our maker breaks and rebuilds for his thrill

The lucky amongst us, wedged in place, feel complete

Whilst the rest of us search for our matching piece