Tenderly carrying precious bundle
Carving memory keepsakes.

Reliving moments extracted
Out of own memory’s purse

Another tall loving chest
Cozy comfort of being held

Past present crisscross, a train
Arrives whistling, as one departs

Morning hours do a quick getaway
Afternoon hours purchase headway

Life zigzags forwards, backwards
Forward move leaving footprints backwards

Wolf At The Door

 To keep the wolf from door 

Dragged self daily out of door

Moist eyes, heavy heart, leaden feet

Led me away from you, my baby

Piteous cries filled snowy mornings

Drowning car radio bearing me away

Maternal love died many deaths

Withering flowering between hope, despair

Regrets, few, abiding grievance one

Precious time savoring you lost forever

Left you daily to keep wolf from door

Dragged self daily out of the door

Loss and price was too dear to bear

Eyes still well up for times not there

Maternal love did suffer a great blow

You and I are not close any more

note: for both working parents:)) 

Formed concentric circles in sky banded

Commotion set in motion, mood matching

Strife in home, virulent contagion catching

Repercussions rippled refracted inside

Cracking open sinewy blood ties, untying

Pristine relationships hitherto, now sullying

Emotional tsunami breaking free, hurtling   

Caught unawares at the edge

Absorbing, backed into hedge

Hedge caved hurtling beyond

Ripples, into the black vortex

Malevolent clam eye shucked

Into the dark funnel, plucked

Concentric ripples, chuckled

Stubborn spirit did not buckle

Came to in room of cadavers load

Frosty room, human hors d’oeuvres

My hardy stock demurred, quite averse

To them join, soul went into limpet mode

Family located, rushed, identified cried

Few wondering about will, else implied

Sifting chaff from grain, I thus separated

Biding time before getting self resurrected

Wake, gala affair with my money, nothing lacked

Kin sobbed, rejoiced as thought of fortune jingled

Eulogies, some genuine, crass many, few singled, with

Embalmer’s pact, kept body intact, I made a comeback  

Genuine ties were joyous, wonder struck

The perfidious were mad, thunder struck

Funeral director, rubbed hands, cluck clucked

Chortling, I stepped into my limo and left

Every full moon night she wails

For her lover

~~ 

Lovers Tryst 

Drenched in love

Soaking moonlight

Technicolor dreams

Lined silvery bright

 Hotfooting in thick mist

She had kept her tryst

Cupid had shot her a grievous blow

Had felled her by an alien elbow

 The elbow had belonged to an Adonis

Crestfallen he’d cried mercy, blown a kiss

Tears streaming she’d suddenly smiled

Falling headlong in love sans any guile

They kept their trysts where they’d first met

On full moon day by lake and branch lunette

They made plans and wove golden dreams

Eyes ecstatic despite inimical bloodstreams

Six moonlight trysts later this was their seventh

Families sworn enemies and their love at zenith

 Fearful fluttering heart desperate searching eyes

She waited for lover with prayer on quivering lips

Midway to rendezvous brother and lover clashed

Steel to steel rang out that fateful perfidious night

They slashed one another, life ebbing out of both

She languished on tree trunk waiting for betrothed

Thus she awaits her lover every full moon night

A piteous wail rising out of waters silvery bright

Unrequited love never allowed her soul to depart

Eternally waiting for lover, fate had pulled apart

They say souls of these ill fated lovers do meet

Every full moon by shimmering lake and mesquite     

 ~~

Mesquite: hard wood (tree)

Lunette: crescent

 Picture is frfom internet-disclaimer

Every full moon night she wails

For her lover

~~ 

Lovers Tryst 

Drenched in love

Soaking moonlight

Technicolor dreams

Lined silvery bright

 Hotfooting in thick mist

She had kept her tryst

Cupid had shot her a grievous blow

Had felled her by an alien elbow

 The elbow had belonged to an Adonis

Crestfallen he’d cried mercy, blown a kiss

Tears streaming she’d suddenly smiled

Falling headlong in love sans any guile

They kept their trysts where they’d first met

On full moon day by lake and branch lunette

They made plans and wove golden dreams

Eyes ecstatic despite inimical bloodstreams

Six moonlight trysts later this was their seventh

Families sworn enemies and their love at zenith

 Fearful fluttering heart desperate searching eyes

She waited for lover with prayer on quivering lips

Midway to rendezvous brother and lover clashed

Steel to steel rang out that fateful perfidious night

They slashed one another, life ebbing out of both

She languished on tree trunk waiting for betrothed

Thus she awaits her lover every full moon night

A piteous wail rising out of waters silvery bright

Unrequited love never allowed her soul to depart

Eternally waiting for lover, fate had pulled apart

They say souls of these ill fated lovers do meet

Every full moon by shimmering lake and mesquite     

 ~~

Mesquite: hard wood (tree)

Lunette: crescent

 Picture is frfom internet-disclaimer

The Said Unsaid

Abandonment
threat or action
play havoc
fear palpable

perfidy
heartbreak
stick stones
ingrates

You wished to let
your hair down
I looked at my shorn
locks and frowned

The crown on my head
had ripped- blood that
Escaped you’d swabbed
Scabs had hastily formed

My forlorn revelations
Had stolen the twinkle from
Your children’s eyes you’d
Said as I’d copiously cried

I needed a comforting console
You, ever practical calculated
Which was current buttered
Side of your life’s bread roll

I thought you were caregiver
by own choice, I had neither
Asked nor questioned why
As you happily played mother

Careless threats to abandon me
Away from home while I slept hit
Home robbing me of my childish
Dreams and much needed shuteye

In trying times extraordinary
I was left to fend for self by close
Ties, as my misery ship tanked
Courage’s flag did fly high

Flesh and blood are meant to
Guide one through thick and thin
But when they join crowd to wield
a stick –that had made me sick

Yet fully abandoned was not I
My beloved took me by hand and
Helped me flee from misery extreme
Revealing a skylight to fly away free
Yes, fully abandoned was not I
Fully abandoned was not I

PS: dedicated to a  dear friend in Delhi

pictures are from the internet

Old vinyl crooning
Young aunt mooning
foaled calf half falling

Hastily slithering snake
Scared kids ready to stake
swollen monsoon, a lake

First tingle of mingle, alien thrill
Two bodies merging in collision
Childhood going over the hill

Sweet ginger tea, marzipan candies
Interesting tobacco cartons, shiny tins
Hookah’s gurgles, skinned childish shins

Mysterious rendezvous by smoking Uncle
Neighbor’s daughter hastening on cycle
Sniggering kids, money in fists, lots of caramel

A funereal funeral in breast beating procession
A wild woman in throes of ghastly possession
A face peering through half drawn curtain

Staccato howls, enemy planes’ banshee prowls
winter’s discontent, dogfights, brandy laced chai
Chilblains chased by warming bricks me and my

Heart and mind zoned out, bodies entwined
Strangers knotted arranged in holy wedlock
locking horns, emoting cloud nine egos shorn

Residual memories’ indelibly blinking
Trail of yore plane’s tail lights winking
Magnetic bits bytes unwind triggering

(pictures from internet-disclaimer)

Unkind Time repetitious
Pregnancies oborted
agony for company
Hope Teetering on brink

My advent uncorked
Pent up feelings, dammed
Gusher bombarding
discomfitting

Surviving on fours, twos
firmly my way, suffering
Stoically cooing geysers
graciously

School garnered privacy, with
average stature face unthreatening
I existed nondescriptly, happily
leadership material, none!

College was another kettle
came into own mettle
statistics numbers, my thing
I, wizard

Scholastic laurels
economics my forte
teaching my niche
parents preened

marriage and
dilemma, identity crisis
pretty things lacklustre
men thralled, courage mustered

Clueless parents
played cupid, stupid
I wined and dined numbed
My predilection,hidden

Grandparental dream bit dust
fresh branch on family tree
twig dried, clan cried
desperate measures ..

grafted fruit hung on family tree
A miracle of science, nature
The stork made delivery
One fine day, nine months later..

~~ ~~ ~~

“Even a family tree has to have some sap.”
-Los Angeles Times Syndicate

picture from internet

Ailing in mind n body, heart was full of love, joyous
Your poor misguided father engaged a super nanny
knowing only strict discipline, admonishments many
Bereft, my motherly arms ache for you, sweet baby moon
Bloodless lips quiver wanting to sing lullabies and croon

Evading martinet’s well meaning eyes, a mouth that hisses
I rock gently covering your pretty face with maternal kisses
Be courageous my sweet baby and grow straight as an arrow
Know your veins carry blood of martyrs as does your marrow
I do promise we’ll be together soon baby, one shiny morrow
Seated on fluffy clouds colorful rainbows of love, no foes

Destiny dealt a blow as there is many a slip between cup and lip
War took you and your dad away from me, giving my love a slip
I count my days on prayer beads, dreaming of your loving arm’s grip
Thwarted weeping maternal love knows no respite other than this
Do return garbed in glorious regalia of valor on a homeward trip
We’ll spend quality time reinforcing bonds of love and kinship

 
I shall cosset care for you spoil you rotten with abandonment
Living as if there’s no tomorrow in love’s lost enjoyment
We shall engage in childish play missed in your growing years
Will share joys tackle your pet bugaboos and suppressed fears
Pray, make me proud even though I had no hand in your growth
Know all occurs at God’s will despite lion heart, will and oath

War has gobbled loved ones and I bide my time forlorn and dejected
In twilight years we are like so much flotsam and jetsam rejected
Lackluster eyes await news of missing loved ones with hope flickering
Constantly shooed off streets I hang doggedly nearby dithering
I’ve never demanded, complained about hardships, your will defying
Please God grant me one glimpse of flesh of my flesh before dying