AMERICA (AN OLD PIECE OF MUSIC REITERATED FOR THE HARDCORE AND THE RENEGADE)

AMERICA!
If this may please you,
I am ready to twitch 
My flabby old waist
To your wild tunes

AMERICA!
I am ready to surrender
All my haggardly notions,
My muffled passions,
Ossified slogans of protest
To the grand cacophony
You reify

AMERICA!
If this may please you,
I am ready to lose my blue and gray
Into the pandemonium of hues
You signify,
As I know
I am no longer anything deeper
Than an aging nincompoop, 
A garrulous braggart with a fad for

Racy hyperboles

AMERICA! 
There is no need for you to fear,
I am only the ghost of a rebel
Lost in a cave
Located far from the world of voices
That matter anyway

(©DEEPAK DARSHAK)

LETTER OF THE HEART

  A letter

  Zooms out of

  The alphabet, asking me to  

  Feel its spread for

  Her presence   

This used to be

The first letter of

 My love’s name

In life’s

Another time zone

Years away  

© DEEPAK DARSHAK 

QUESTIONING FAITH

My faith denies

The immortality of gods,
Their totalitarianism,
Their tyranny,
Their omnipotence

My faith says that
The gods too grow old,
They too die like us,
It stops the gods from
Poking their nose
Into the frontiers of my life,
My faith
Grants me the freedom
To depose them,
To replace them,
To choose them,
And to create new gods
If it is necessary anyway
To fill in the void
Caused by their
Prolonged absence
© Darshak

CARNIVOROUS COW

a drove of cows in our neighbourhood 

has tasted human blood

we are afraid we may
Soon see a new species of 
carnivores stomping around 
our houses to trap and 
get away with our gullible kids 
© Deepak Darshak

THE SKILL OF SAYING NOTHING

it’s needless to 

scratch your hair and 
dig up your mind for something big 
all the time

learn to say nothing albeit 
musically, with a measure of
charming precision, and you may 
end up receiving accolade 
from everywhere 
for your great rhyme 
© Deepak Darshak

A BIRD’S FANTASY

Her throat was

Possessed by a monster,  

But she had

A big heart to sing with 

In her caged isolation

All through the night

The music came from

A deep longing 
To reach the sky,  

There were stars, the moon, 
And the glow-worms and the moths    

Making the audience,

There were cascades, the cliffs, 
The thickets and canopies far and wide

Building the venue 
For her performance

The night sang with her

And she felt she was free 
She was free for ever,

From the compulsion of 
Having a vulnerable throat

That could be possessed, 

And the fear of a monster

Chasing her  

© DEEPAK DARSHAK