Autumn bloom
The falling autumn sun
on my back ripcords
the colours into a bloom
as you enter
my garden
woody with the notes of my perfume
bottled in the roots, resins, russets:
r a m p a g e d,
which trips you afresh
with wilderness
of a love sown jade
as I cough a pinwheel of petals
in a pink cascade
to remind you
that the day’s done.
***
Carrot Politics
With its blind faith to the sun
the carrot plunges deep, so deep
it has nowhere to go.
The heights thus forsaken
bulges it into a saffron weed
pulled and dangled
at best
serving a piece meal
modi fied.
***
Lozenged Love
On that rain swept day
turning from the ATM
Strepsils in my tongue rolling
I manifested that boy from our school science fair
who had braved our convent-bred meanness
with his rhyming ink
gurgling in my throat
which I gulped whole
with the lemon lozenge.
I grinned with the hard deposit
choking my chest taut,
which his libertine mistook
for my coy fortitude,
Asked if I’d like to grab some coffee,
the weather playing perfect ploy?
My veto slipped by that sweet soothing pill
weighing my guts down further by an inch.
We were asked to move from blocking the way,
as he began tallying his balance sheet of success
indexed by a Merc keyring
spinning on his finger,
with excitement compounding
and his eyes that blinked—
Ka-ching! Ka-ching!
How could I stomach this fast-acting pill, I thought
shining translucent,
reduced thrice small?
But now the hesitation in my throat was cleared
as I fumbled to find back my loyalty in words.
So at last when he insisted I must have something to say,
I popped that one question
burning within me
since juvenile years:
“Do gulped down lozenges grow trees from the ears?”
***
Image Credit: Ajay Sharma