Name poem experiments

Zigzagging through ziggurats,
Enjoying the feeling of smooth
Pebbles beneath my toes -
Hues of blue and red
Run into one another,
As I smile and turn the page
----------------------------------
My life confuses me-
A lot of a little, and a little of a lot
Remains fragmented in a spiral brain
Illuminated by a candle -
Lit to find what was lost
Yet burning long after
Night has given way to day

Nadaswaram Blues

Resplendent in her madisaar pattu,
The girl of only iruvatti-aaru
Looks down at her feet with no shoes
Red designs making maps with no clues
She's got the nadaswaram blues!

The maapillai sits in his yellow veshti
Yearly-morning cold makes him want to pee
shivering slightly, deep thoughts does he muse:
From now, his life he has to plan in irendoos
He's got the nadaswaram blues!

"Maatikitaan" the mridangam announces
Through the frills and the flounces
While unknown relatives sit there and snooze
It's a good thing, they won't get any booze
For they got the nadaswaram blues...

*dedicated to a friend of mine.. thx for the inspiration!

Glossary of possibly foreign terms:
madisaar pattu : 9-yard silk sari, traditionally worn by Tamil Brahmin brides
iruvatti-aaru: 26
nadaswaram: a musical intrument that resembles a flute, commonly the main piece played at Tamilian weddings
maapillai: groom (or guy gettin hitched at said wedding)
veshti: fancy lungi (A cloth, often of brightly colored silk or cotton, that is used as a piece of clothing, especially the traditional skirtlike garment of India, Pakistan, and Myanmar, says Answers.com)
irendoo(s): twos
Maatikitaan: hindi translation:"pakda gaya"; English equivalent: trapped. cornered..u get the picture(also refers to the beats played on the mridanagam at weddings)
mridangam: South Indian drum, the other main piece played at weddings

My Muse is Out

He stepped out of the closet
Straight into my head,
A swirl of pink and violet
While others looked on,
a mix of confusion and dread

He flits in and out, between my ears
Prancing about most outlandishly
He knows every hope, every wish, every fear
And when I struggle to make sense
He helps me out, by arming me

With a word here and an image there
He knows that he's indispensible—
A lance-bearer from yesteryear
And if my thoughts aren't all together
Still makes me seem knowledgable

I'm not like the others, he once told me
I told him it really was ok
It wasn't a catastrophe
And when I'm lost for poetry,
I'm quite glad my muse is gay

Insomnia

While I sleep, they're cows and elephants
Unnamed moving shapes, while I'm awake
Fear streaks yellow against the gray in my head
I wonder, is being awake the prelude to being dead?

Shadows surge, they merge and they grow,
Unnamed fears — possibilities of dreams —
Jostle for the space that keeps me awake
How many more mistakes will i make?

Sleep, once an unwelcome friend, now avoids me
The disdain of the healthy for the ill
I crave sleep. Yearn. Seek it desperately
Some help, some sleep must come calling, eventually?

On the road

A stranger in strangers' eyes,
I'm bent and I'm broken
I know where I'm going,
but where do I wanna be?
***
Dark shapes against a charcoal sky,
crossing bridges on a moonlit night
The wind whistles through my hair,
and the smog descends,
strangling everything in sight.

****
Heard but not seen,
The ghostly battalion gallops on,
The light flashes sporadically,
Lighting up each little rivulet,
That streaks past my face.

To the Brat, Happy 22nd

"Help me God! Please be nice...
A baby brother I do not want"
Prayed a little girl a long time ago...
Perhaps someone listened,
Yet, sometimes, I think, "Maybe not"
Babies are cute, and so was she
In a wrinkly, crinkly kind of way
Rotund she was, oh yes, no doubt
Though you can't see that today
Her cheeks were soft, her butt, softer
Diapers, still smelly, that I'll say
And then one day, there came a change
You know the kind, you know you do
(No, not the kind involing chai and kitlis)...
Indoor games gave way to drumsticks,
Coloured hair became the rage -- yellow, pink and even blue
K, ok... I know this is more than a little sappy,
Yet I'm hoping it'll make up for me not being there

Cliches

Why is it hard to believe
That child is the father of man?
Why is it so hard to see
What chips off the block might be?

A chip off the ol' block
Just as smooth, just as rough,
As soft, as hard, as strong
Smaller? May be, but rarely weaker.

The little things make the big.
The big beget the small.
The world runs on circles.
and circles go on forever.

Memories and a Laugh

"Baroda's hot,"
Ahmedabad's not?
Can't help it man,
That's all we got

No cash, no stash
no watermelon patch
The mango's alright
but it's just no match

To parties at Jain's
and Vodka'd brains,
talking crap all night,
calling people names

Cheese and bread
My fridge is dead
from midnight snacks
2A so often fed

But that's in the past
It went too fast
just wanted to say
I'm glad we had a blast

Now I'm stuck
I need some luck
I'm going under
Modi's truck

Send help my way
lemme have my say
I wonder what they'd pay
a poet for a day?

Wandering, Wondering

Headlights reflect from far away
Pretending to be the sun
On a landscape punctuated
with green, brown and ugly white
Dickinsonian factories silhouette the sky
'Neath the morning's smouldering smog
Even neon lights cannot transform
A sweat shop into paradise

The Legend of Ulibak

She floated down the wave of consciousness
Barely aware of the blue tuna riding the microwave
Or the earthworm that glowed brighter than usual
Slipping, sliding, through the earthworm hole
She knew not where she was going, or why
Till she bumped her head against a talking mirror
And a laughing tree brought her to a stop

***

Suddenly it was clear; she knew that she would be
Ulibak, the greatest heroine, the Bakulis ever did see
Doodlebong supported her, even if he fell off the tree
A thought wave then hit her, Ms Yancha was near

So donning her cape of varying colors, she looked up at the sky,
Shook her fist at Lord Ne’erdonot, as nearer she did fly
She saw the sky turn dark, and loudly she did cry
“Oh! No, you don’t! Not another black sky!”

It wasn’t that her mind was fallow,
But there’s only so many holidays one can swallow
So she raced to the Lord in her wheel-barrow
She flew past, like there was no tomorrow

Sometimes, she wished she’d had a choo-choo
But, what kind of hero, would her gifts eschew?
Aurria flew by, singing like a great cuckoo
While Rubsh kept wondering, “What was I gonna do?”

Uli wanted to travel, to take an extended holiday
But there was so much work that she had to stay
She went back home with much dismay,
And thanked the Lord for his fish fillet!

Hauntings

In the moonlight, she stood still
Facing the ghosts that haunted her...
Why? She wondered. Why now? Why me?
Every time she thought she was rid of them,
they came back to haunt her, to ridicule her.
Why did she always succumb to their taunts?
The more she tried to run and hide,
The less she succeeded.
Nowhere to run. And no one to run to...
When did this happen? and, what had happened?
She yearned for a glimpse of her old self...
All she saw was a broken spirit.
When did the sheepdog become the sheep -
Ready to follow, forgetting to lead?
Was her spirit really dead?
Or, merely asleep,
waiting like Aurora to be awakened?
Would she ever be herself again?
She wondered...
And tears streamed down her face.

Faery Dance

Dark faeries dance in the pale moonlight
Bewitchin eyes a-glistenin in the distance
Wide open spaces, a starless nite
Silhouettes the dark faery's dance
The smoky clouds - a low umbrella
Fireflies flickering in the green green grass
A tinkling stream that cries Aloha
The perfect setting for the faery's dance
John's Wort and Thyme that grow on a hill
The unicorn that looks on in askance
These are some things that hold their will
And cause the dark faeries to prance
When night falls, the birds cease flight
An' the sun's gone back to his Heaven,
The dark faeries dance in the pale moonlight
They dance till dawn at seven.

The Embrace

The windswept hill beckoned.
The waves rushed in,
touching but the fringes of land.
Earth remained earth –
Arms outstretched, but standing still.
Water remained water –
Fluid, yet bound.
Together, yet apart, in spite of themselves
each, in their own place…
The breeze came through –
light yet intense,
touching, soothing, gently caressing –
And the hill failed to remember
the passionate sea crashing below.

Shadows

A shadow of love comes through
Not returned - the shadow is passing
You know how I feel, but
There's nothing you can do

The love you share, is beyond compare
I'm just a shadow in the wings
That's what you think... you know.
But remember, shadows don't disappear

They may, for a while, hide away
They grow long or shrink to naught
But shadows go wherever you go
Staying longer than you want them to

They don't dissipate or learn to hate
They're remnants. That's what they are -
Leftovers from a time that's past.
Yet, not in the present or the past.

So, love just is,
A shadow in the dark.

Things that flow, or don't

Words tumble, the season's first rains
Into a well - dry and waiting
Blank pages fill up. Lines appear
Pages become books.
SOunds-Words-Meanings.
One leads to the other.

The well fills up.
Like a heart thats' been waiting
for someone to love
Feelings, like water flow
One to another, they say
One to another and back again.

But what do you do,
When you've built a dam
around your heart, your page, your well?
Nothing flows, but in fits and starts
Both, words and feelings -
They tumble out. Surprise you.

All it takes is just one crack
Thoughts. words. Feelings. Water.
Trickles become deluges
The wall crumbles
Leaving you an open path
To a place you deny existence.

Voodoo Child

The voodoo child hangs by a thread
from an old oak tree
all sticks of wood and string is she
Listlessly gazing upon the dead...

Life's past her by,
the little lonely voodoo child
no one knows, no one cares
to approach her, no one dares.

A wooden face, a triangular head
hangs low for the world to see
just a little bit like you and me
curled softly sobbing upon the bed...

Life's past us by,
like the little lonely voodoo child
no one knows, no one cares
to approach us, no one really dares

The others see her and shake their head
As far away as Tuscany
to understand them, this is the key:
What they don't know is what they dread

Life passes her by
the lonely little voodoo child
no one knows, no one cares
they don't approach her, it’s just not fair.