REALITY BITE

The face can’t lie…

Sometimes, I try

To hide my wrinkles,

Ungainly spots of aging,

Epidermal rotundity,

Obtuse cheekbones,

Flatly nondescript nose,

Thick lips closed like doors

Not used to opening

Too frequently for smiles,

Testy eyes that seem to be losing

Interest in pleasant guiles

Sometimes, I try,

I still do,

But fail to weave

My prosaic features

Into a piece of poetry

When my face

Comes into full public view

© DEEPAK DARSHAK 

DELIRIUM: A RETROSPECTION

it was so much  

like going away

from myself,

like deserting my habitat

To find shelter on

A shaky isle of cacti

Array of words

That filled in my blanks

Created mirrors and

looking into their

spooky depths often meant

facing a lump of  

bamboozling estrangement

© DARSHAK

THE CORE AND THE PERIPHERY

differences are

volatile,

they will disappear

one after the other

in a fleeting succession

icons of

the quintessential indifference

will, however, stay on,

playing with generations of

small and big differences,

judging their value,

feeding on their intensities,

and

creating new ones   

to supplant the evanescing,

aging, decaying players in the game of

differences

(© DARSHAK)   

COMMON SENSE

It’s not difference…  

It’s indifference

That matters and

Makes the real difference

…..One that judges the worth of

All differences,

Gauges their relevance,

Sets tune for

Their choruses,

And

Creates scope for

Many more to

Crowd our little, lonely planet

© DARSHAK 

THE ROSY DISTANCE : A DOGGEREL IN EXILE

Rose! Rose!

Lovely little rose!

You are so close

That I sometimes feel like

Getting carried away

By your fragrance,  

But there is an obstacle

That keeps me off

By a distance

Rose! Rose!

Lovely little rose!

My heart knows

Without a pretense,

You could have been
Closer, much closer perhaps,

And quite within

My own fence,

If only

You hadn’t had

Such a big, bulky nose!

©DEEPAK DARSHAK 

AWAKENING

the ballads

I used to ink

with my sweat and oil are

getting eaten up by

termites, or turning into

anonymous pariahs  

  

to avert their extinction,

I’ve started taking lessons

on how to disintegrate

my decadent oeuvre into

smooth slogans and

elastic, reader-friendly taglines

 © DARSHAK  

MULTIPLICITY

the mirror has

multiple depths

to play with

my eyes

each plunge into it

leaves me

with new marks of

metamorphic isolation

© DARSHAK

DIDI AND GOGO

From one tree

To another,

They would travel  

Searching for roots

They were leaves

That

Refused to die and

Preferred instead to stay   

Hanging between  

A thirsty autumn and

A wanton spring,

On an isle of

Broken dreams

© DEEPAK DARSHAK  

LIVING…. THE TEMPTATION!!

Living the way

We did, was

A big, feisty temptation

Life was painful,

But we couldn’t leave it,

We never wanted to

Living the way we did,

Was the hope that some day,

life itself would bring in the remedy to

all the pain it had given 

© DEEPAK DARSHAK  

RETICENCE: STRATEGY OF THE HARD-HEADED

A barrage of sly pejoratives

was unleashed to find holes in

his patience

He sat in their heart, soliloquising,

blunting their fangs with a reticence

That was impermeable

© DARSHAK  

REVERSE VIEW

yes…

we are different

not because

we can use pens and pads

to create amusing contours of

life , its rugged topography,

its climes , its everlasting flow  

it’s because

we know the skill of

repeating ourselves

without sounding repetitive

© DARSHAK

MNEMONIC DISSOCIATION

barren witticisms,
inane jokes,
tiring pleasantries,
insipid pokes….
mind the careless maverick goes on 
buying all sorts of stale, old,
unprocessed food for consumption

to avoid diarrhea,
a friend suggests,
I must clean up
the memory box
at regular intervals
© DARSHAK