FATE THE GRIMALKIN: A MISSING COMPANION

My witty grimalkin,

The purring dream companion of

Solitary hours

Purchased from a vendor of thoughtful pets,   

Has been missing

For quite some time                                

If you see it anywhere,

In any street, in any thoroughfare,

Kindly inform me                                              

It has a tendency to wink

At every passer-by,

And throw a mysterious smile,

When addressed by its pet name, Fate   

(© DEEPAK DARSHAK: MAVERICK MONOLOGUES)

A HOUSE IN THE CLOUDS

a house 
in the clouds, 
the Moon 
within its reach, 
trees and twigs hanging by, 
a crowd of colourful ecstasy
basking in the blue aura of
a tender, young dream
gazing down, 
eager to welcome visitors 
emerging from 
the belly of 
searing waters below
(© DEEPAK DARSHAK)

SMILES!

Smiles!  Why are you so unpredictable At times? Why do you stay for a while On some lips, And longer on some others? Smiles! Dear smiles! Why do you show up so easily sometimes, But take ages to appear otherwise? Pray tell me if You have become too diplomatic, Or I’m too naïve to understand  Your labyrinthine, meandering arithmetic!

(© DEEPAK DARSHAK)

BESIEGED

we were 
still thirsty, 
guarding a crop of

dry longings,

famishing temptations,
tired eyes, 
gestures sweating, 
when 
the monsoon romance
came to an end   

rather abruptly

‘You are under siege’, 
a wanton gust

blowing through our lane

whispered, 
‘put on masks to 
stay alive, 
the city has 
a viral emergency!’

© DEEPAK DARSHAK

REVERSE VIEW-II

‘Debilitated gasp,
Diluted guffaw,
Yawn of persistent ennui

In retrospect, 
The stuffed shirt tries
To understand
A register of elusive tricks,
Hearing his sigh,
Singes of graying
Fixation, obsessive memories,
Forgotten heartbreaks

This day,
These hours, and
Loss of once personable
Smiles…
How real it looks!’ 

 (©DEEPAK DARSHAK: MAVERICK MONOLOGUES)

SOLITUDE

Sometimes, 
Loneliness has 
No frontiers

It becomes a journey
Without rules,
Undertaken to cross
Some frontiers
Within
(© DEEPAK DARSHAK)

MADNESS

In the cuddle of
An unbridled joy, 
I ignored the altitude, 
I forgot the fear of 
Fall 

I knew I could
Talk to the clouds,
Touch the sky
With my smiles,
Stop the breeze
With a throatful call

(© DEEPAK DARSHAK)

FOR A CHANGE

For a change,

Won’t it be better

To snap off all ties
And stay away from the world, 
If people around you feel

You can be approached

Anywhere, any time
With a sweet tongue, 
Designer smiles
And lots of soporific niceties?  

Won’t it be better

To disappear
Without giving anyone  
The key to your whereabouts,
If people treat
Your company as

A cozy apartment where

They can sit, relax, talk

Endlessly,
At their own sweet will?

At least 

For a change, 
Won’t it be better

To become a stranger,  
In your own land
Just to discover

What you think you are,
And to avoid 
What the world 
Wants to make out of you?

© DEEPAK DARSHAK: MAVERICK MONOLOGUES   

PRACTICAL WISDOM

In the garden of
Banished angels,
I saw many flowers,
Smiling,
Laughing, 
Guffawing

Passing by,
I felt tempted
To touch them
For a while,
But withdrew

I had heard
They were
Made of fire,
And I didn’t want
To burn my fingers
In a fit of
Careless fun

(© DEEPAK DARSHAK)

MERRY-GO-ROUND

Merry-go-round,

Merry

  

The point you leave is

The one you reach,  

In between,  

There are troughs and vaults,  

There are bonhomie and brawls,  

There are whispers, howls, somersaults,

In between,  

There are times  

When you soar and sink,

When you go yellow, red and pink

In a dizzying succession

Merry-go-round,

Merry…

Let me stay away

From the memories of flimsy feats,

Let me map out

The galvanising volley of motions

Caricatured into a tautology of existence,

Let me ride on new rondeaux

And explore moonlit barns

Filled with dream harvests

Merry-go-round,

Merry

The point you leave is

The one you reach,

In between,

There are wilds,

There are crisscrosses,

There are jigsaw puzzles

We have to pass through

(© DEEPAK DARSHAK)

PRUDENCE

In a lonely corner of 
The backyard, 
I've kept
A jar filled with
Tears, 
Blood,
Sweat and 
Smiles,
To crystallise

To feed my solitude,

I may need them,
while going for 
The Sun lost in 
The tunnel, 
Defining the course of 
My next journey 

© DEEPAK DARSHAK: MAVERICK MONOLOGUES

ESCAPE

One-letter isolation of
The middle name is
An escape
From the invasion of
A reckless blue

My debilitating frame
Can't bear
The burden of
A hundred namesakes
Doing things I never do

MY LANGUAGE

My language is ill-tempered,
Touchy,
Choleric,
Impatient,
Caustic...
Inside me,
There is a searing wild
That beats me persistently 

Trying to go away
From it,
I feel ensnared 

As

The noose of belonging 

Tightening around, 

Tells me
I’m my own language
© DEEPAK DARSHAK

CREATIVE PREVENTION

Morning,
Noon,
Evening,
Night....

Each canto of my POEM
Needs some makeover
Every day
To avoid the deadly trap of
Monotony

© DEEPAK DARSHAK  

SOMALIA 2016: A REQUIEM

Suffer! Groan!

Whimper! Scream!

Hapless humanity!!

I’m afraid  

You may have to

Face this trial

Alone once again

Look around and

You will see the world

Getting crowded by

Rhinos and hippos,  

Sans ears that could

Hear your furious cry,

Sans eyes that could

See your starving dreams,

Sans hearts that could

Feel your pain  

(©DEEPAK DARSHAK)

MOTHER

“When will you

Stop spoiling your sleep

To mend the cracks of

My life?”

Mother!

Every time I ask you,

You hide my question

Behind a veil of

Dense, disarming smiles

Today, 
I will ask you nothing,
But go out and get you 
The best pair of eyes,
Ignoring 

Your apprehension
That this may 
Open a new hole
In our shattered 
Domestic economy 

(© DEEPAK DARSHAK)

TODAY...

Today,

I left home

Without my checkered knapsack

Containing palpable threads of

My destiny

That connect me to myself

Without my pen

That writes down

Tiny letters of hope

On sundry sheets of

My papyrus present

Without my specs

That spare me

Blurred stumbles through

The labyrinthine paths of life

Without pen drive and cell phone

That make me

Feel empowered

Within my tiny territory,

lending it

A technological countenance

Today,

I left home

Carrying nothing

Save a bunch of

Pedestrian abstractions:

Some worries,

Some anxiety,

Some passion,

Some excitement,

Some eagerness,

Some resentment…..

And all

I could have,

Without feeling seized

By a noose of smugness,

Popping out of

A long nightmare

Today,

While trying to

Recall the forlorn

Tunes of

A cheerful yore,

I avoided mixing with

The crowd, hoping to meet

Freedom which I felt

Would recognize me

Rather easily without

The burden of

Dependables I had valued

So much

So far

 © DEEPAK DARSHAK : MAVERICK MONOLOGUES  

WORLD POETRY DAY 2016

Sometimes appreciated for their beauty, depth and paronomastic guile,

Sometimes lambasted for their abstruseness and rhetorical flamboyance,

Sometimes idolised for their dauntless experimentalism, finesse and brilliance of style,  

Our bubbles of fantasy,

The slices of our unbridled fancy,

Have a say in building an everlasting creative legacy,  

And a definite role to play  

We the bards,

We the rhymesters,

We the versifiers,

We the balladeers and minstrels,

We the weavers of dreams,

Keep searching through umpteen wilds

For the best clay and

And the finest reeds  

To build our tiny huts with,

Remaining largely forgetful of our

Own significance,

Till a day comes every year in March,

Which our fraternity celebrates as

The World Poetry Day

© DEEPAK DARSHAK  

The Hope Beyond...

The phone perishes…

Voices live on

In the air,

Hanging somewhere,

Hoping to access  

New stretches of

Connection  

CANOES

We are canoes,

Locked into

An indecisive race,

Each trying to

Reach the shores 

Before others

In our imagination,

We create our

Spectators, feeling

Their loud, rollicking

Presence,

Though, in reality,

They always remain invisible!

(© DEEPAK DARSHAK: MAVERICK MONOLOGUES) 

MARCH ON, ULYSSES!

March on, Ulysses!

March on

Ithaca is already yours,
But you have got to

Conquer the vast world beyond
With your genius

And your tireless will to

Realise your quest

March on,
For you have to go

Countless miles,
You have to

Leave your winning stamp
On the large continents of literati,
You have to undertake

Voyages tough and challenging
As you have done

So many times before

March on, Ulysses!
The road never ends,
The paths trodden by you

Umpteen times,
Still look untrodden, fresh,

Starving for your footfalls,

Willing to have fresh milestones,
And then, there are new ones, too,
Emerging and waiting

For your trumpet calls
To strike their turf and

Awaken them with the strides of

Glory and pride

March on, Ulysses!
O the idol of

A million flowering promises!
March on,
And you will always find me

Accompanying you
With the curiosity and

Zeal of a true admirer,
As a well-wishing phantom
In all your campaigns,
Waving hands in joyous ecstasy,
Smiling, cheering up and

Greeting you as a part of

The roaring crowd
On your journey back home
After every outstanding feat

March on, Ulysses!
March on

(© DEEPAK DARSHAK: MAVERICK MONOLOGUES)

SUN-FEAST

The rivulet 
Prepares to sink into 
The Sun’s 
Vermilion belly

 
Soon,
Its wide tail 

Will be left behind
To capture
New footprints 
Emerging 
On its 
Silicon expanse 
© DEEPAK DARSHAK

PIGEON HOLE

Pigeons! 

Forgive me

My purse has 
A hole 
(which I failed to notice earlier)

And I am left with 
No extra pennies 
To buy feed 
For you
Today
© DEEPAK DARSHAK: MAVERICK MONOLOGUES)

PARADOXICAL CONDITIONING

Between what

Something seems to be

And what it actually is,

The difference is too real

In a world crowded with

Masked entities

But let’s not forget

We are all players,

Actors and actresses,

Thespians and clowns and fools

In a grand and everlasting theatre,

Where the reality becomes

Poignant, biting, unbearable, too,

When someone thinking of

Some other person or thing

As a victim of differential reality,

Fails to realize that

He/she is not immune to it

Himself/herself’

 (© DEEPAK DARSHAK: MAVERICK MONOLOGUES)

DAWN IN THE HILLS

Dawn-burst!

Flutter of sunny   

Longings 

Rendezvous

With thrashing

Altitudes

Feast of tranquility

Stalactites whispering,

Sighing,
Trapped in  

The depths of

Freezing seclusion

(© DEEPAK DARSHAK: MAVERICK MONOLOGUES)

AVIAN FANTASY

Eyes

Love a

Tryst with   

This territory of

Vernal

Rhyme

Poetry

Beating  

Through the

Flight of

Mynas at  

Their carefree

Prime

 

(© DEEPAK DARSHAK: MAVERICK MONOLOGUES)

A WILD TRYST

That was

Stupidity

Perhaps

But this is

Brutality

Without doubt  

In a wild of

Marauding man-eaters,

And their nerve-racking howls,  

We are scared, hapless spectators

Watching a pack of hard-headed cannibals

Eat up our entrails

(© DEEPAK DARSHAK: MAVERICK MONOLOGUES)

ASIDE

Slowly but steadily,
I am learning to smile
Toothlessly,
With a modest guile

And for my familiarity with
This life-skill,
I’m thankful to folks
Who are used to
Surviving in
Atmospheres of co-option,
Where
Big, hearty laughters are
Strictly prohibited

© DEEPAK DARSHAK: MAVERICK MONOLOGUES

THE GIANT AND THE TRICKSTER

Somewhere 
In the hills,
A Blue giant 
Sleeps 

Dawn the trickster
Turns his sigh
Into orange-gray clouds
Wandering around in the sky
(© DEEPAK DARSHAK : MAVERICK MONOLOGUES)