HOLI REVELRY

In their drunken chant
lurks divinity, the joy
let loose in rhythm
roses colour the spirit
drowsily lost and regained

--R.K.SINGH

SOME CINQUAIN POEMS

The sun
on a mountain
grave illumines the path
to divinity unrealised
in soul


The rains
cry to meet earth
fall from sky day and night
remind love always yields to arms
open

Let's know
dirty water
kills everyone no need
to blame only her if he too
is wrong


My voice
brown like autumn
crushed in noises I can't
understand days pass in colours
buried


Someone
opens the gate
stealthily lets the cows
in to graze lawn and make our house
widow


The leaves
fall and rust with
ashes heaped up by wind
in the lawn rises the pale earth
for breath


His talk
farting of horse
galloping, leaving track
of every thought and strategy
behind

Let's see
ourselves in them
linking our happiness
to theirs, cease dehumanising
god's gift


Shaping
true reality
hidden in outer world
intricately patterned like our
body


--R.K.SINGH

FOUR POEMS

1. HELPLESSNESS

I have no magical power
to change my restlessness
into glory radiating
peace or purpose in living:

they give me no room to better
men or myself but condemn
as one hanged for nothing:
poets are no living lessons

I stand aside ruminating
what I couldn't do or be
or await miracles through
circles and zigzags of the mind

even corrupt faith and curse
destiny for the maze
of my own making and yet say
I know the spirit's upward fire


2. I AM NO MOSES

I am no Moses receiving
God's message in lightning or thunder

none recognise me in the dark
nor can I see any without light

the cyst on my neck constantly
reminds me of my ugliness

the whitening chest and pubic hair
teel of the death of my potential

the earth needs timely spell of rain
and elements saved from human fears

I must redraw my dreams and visions
to brave life and the intriguing future


3. I WANT TO FORGET THE MYTH

I don't endorse their pact
to squeeze adulation and

control faith of the masses
to shed blood and spread darkness:

Idols may draw crowds to kill
and the spell may not last long

the temple doesn't attract me
I want to forget the myth

after the fascists owned him
Ram has ceased to be God


4. I CAN'T SING AND PRAISE

I couldn't make my bedroom church
reading psalms and Lord's prayer

the light of my lamp and
the portin of my cup couldn't

lift my soul mired in passions
and silence of the morning

the confessions couldn't remove
my anguish of ages

nor the tears and cries strengthen
faith, hope, and love-- the rock

slips the grip for enemies
within don't halt my body

glues to the ground seeking
darkness of the womb and joys

ever restless the child doesn't
grow and the father fails

in verses I can't chide fears
my face I dispise, can't find

freedom from the chemicals
sprayed in the air and the smog

oppressing my breath, the sun
fails to keep the covenant

the terrors of death are real
the traps overwhelm, I can't

escape my own creastions
the bed, the flesh, and serpents

that seize the house of God
I can't redeem, can't save

the soul in battle with me
in bed I can't sing and praise


--R.K.SINGH

I CAN'T HELP

Goes awry
the electrical circuit
in the brain cells

in my drugged sleep
I utter explitives
unmindful of

the victims:
I can't help my sensory
overload


--R.K.SINGH

WAITING

In the fog
seems smiling, ghost-like
perhaps half-dead
on the groaning ground
awaiting stretcher