Love

I wouldn’t have known

And nothing could’ve taught

Me what to call love

And what to not

I would’ve gone on

Miserable or mindless

Hysterical or hapless

Forever if you hadn’t, I guess,

Barged into my court

With a smile and a question

And made me and my poems

Your own without correction 

I like to think I was broken

Just as I know you were

But that’s just me

Romanticizing my hurt

I was blank, unwritten

Barely literate, barely smitten

I hadn’t experienced love

I hadn’t been bitten

Like I am now

Like an uncultured ape

Who found a princess

And his mouth agape

When you gave me your all,

Entrusted me with yourself

That’s when I grew

Up and I could tell

The difference between

My infatuations and love

That’s when I knew

I was a frog in a well

I had only ever fallen

 in love with myself

Only ever smelt

What I wanted to smell

And then be surprised

Hysterical, miserable

When it wouldn’t turn out

The way I foretell

And you, you put your everything

In a box and shipped it to me

You told me you were mine

Forever in heaven or hell

And I knew, 

I knew what I’d never

I knew love,

I knew being together

“You are mine as I am yours”

To feel it alone is nothing at all

But in the sharing of that belief

is what I know as love, that’s all

O’ my fair bespoke one

Little woke one

Bespoke one

O’ my fair

Dear dope one

There’s a truth in your loving glance

Never going slow

Ever glowing so

My fierce lady

Love your MO

There’s a light in your fighting stance

Dig your gig

Supersonic Mig

No small talk

Let’s talk big

There’s a sword fight in your romance

Lights about me

Is it something to do with silence?

Or is it the dark outside?

Why do I often find myself

In these nights about me

Maybe if you were awake

I'd tell you an old story

Watching clothes dry in the wind

Swaying tights about me

Instead your empty coffee cup

And a straw that touched your lips

Are my silent company tonight

With distant lights about me

What is Love?

Nobody can be perfect

But some bonds

Between atoms 

with complementary

Valence electrons

What counts is not

How much you have

But who has 

What you don't and

What you have to have

You are useless alone

You dunno how to do shit

But the two of you

Will figure it out

If your valency fit

She will, won't she?

She would try to stop you

from touching her face

She would threaten

to leave just once

and then she would, in grace

She would let you say things

but doubt if you mean it

And if you did

she always hid

that she'd really seen it

She always knew, more than you

how much you thought of you two

She knew her limits,

she knew your powers,

and knew of the future too. 

And then she took on a plane and left

and promised to come with an answer

and you waited

breath abated

on jumpy toes of a dancer. 

Animals at it

British, bow-tied
birds do it,
bees do it.
Even educated
fleas do it.

Soft and suave
snakes do it,
shrimps do it.
Proper party-going
chimps do it.

Center-parted
cats do it,
crocs do it.
Rich, reputable
frogs do it.

Gloriously gentle
swans do it,
hen do it.
And then the shrieking, cursing
men do it.

Love at first night

Who have I got
to sit and talk shit?
None worth a shot
but I'll find my fit.

What have I got
to make me smug so?
Eyes and food and thought
and work to lug for.

When have I got
what I wanted square and straight?
Never but even for naught
it'll have been a good debate.

Where have I got
my ace hidden away?
Same as my golden pot,
I call it Near Future, pray.

Why have I got
my scars framed on the wall?
It's a map of my mind,
my kingdom of rise and fall.

Stop with the questions already
Let's just get climbing and scratching.
I'll be heady, you keep me steady
and let's get grinding and hatching.

Risky

It's risky, you know,
you and me.
And I don't know
what you're thinking

My heart's just chugging
on cue, really
It feels a bit
like sinking

Is it my love
turning you off?
How long am I
to keep trying?

All I'm saying
is, honey,
I don't know
if you're mine

Things in my backyard

The future, lying around wasted since a long time coming.

Nonnet

One swing at the eye and one dead bone
Send a swift kick up the thigh for
deeply moving, screeching groan
Connect a tighter one
to the bleeding nose
to train a spy
to never
pick the
phone.

Watch the spokes

It's no wall to keep you in
but a treadmill
to keep you running,
closing on itself,
and you, you're the mouse

Of coins and choices

How does it turn,
who rolled the die on your name?
Were you there when it creaked and stopped?
No? Me neither what a shame.

Who blows the wind,
who stocks and switches my dreams?
Whoever held a river in his palm,
who ever cut the little streams?

Is there a source,
do we walk to it or away?
The landmarks can see you
turning night and day.

Yet nobody loses
for long around here
The winners are easy to tell
but losers, don't fear.

You will live as well,
you will have your girl,
and money to feed her ass,
and vase and crockery to hurl.

Beware, what goes around is lost.
And although you've all along tried,
the toss that turns in the sun does never
know or choose the winning side.

gardenal sin

and then He shouted, the apple was a curse
your race shan't ever be pure
the fall has begun to an end much worse
than death, for knowledge hasn't cure

your sin is tall, your love the deepest pit
my guinea little rodents, look, that's it
creation is for me, you are blasphemy now
get off my lawn, go, don't fake the bow

the apple lay still, a brain whirred on
lone and bereft but a hefty intellect
and as if a spark then hit right home,
Newton got up and took a bow and left

Up, Up and Abe!!

The shoelace stuck to the ground all taut
      while I lifted off in the air.
My arms rose bare to a pose mid-air,
      "Superman!" shouted someone I swear.
But my other foot was there weighing heavy on the lace
      and the ground ran bam in my hair.

Heavy lights

not a fist and not a thigh
nor a twist of cracking dry
bone or muscle, neck or thumb
could i wrestle out of a numb
nerve when i saw the light
curve to me on a road too tight

dear harlot in the parking lot

o' fluffy lady
not to sound shady
but can you try and mime
your savage love this time

o' fine tempest
may i stress some rest
from humping on a rhyme
and caress you this time

o' beautiful dame
whatever your name
take another dime
and just talk to me this time

listen to me and nod
and nod real slow
then get up and dress up
and hug me and go

More Delhi

Cute cats with clean caps
Dying dogs with dirty dots
Eerie eyes on sneaky spies
and a lovely bout of wind

Fake tags on glossy bags
Scratchy skin in scratchy rags
Lowly brags of creepy drags
and a flaky leaf that sings

Bars and whores and cars and crores
Chattering brains on battering trains
Insipid and vicious, timid politicians
and a raindrop on my skin

Loudmouth jaats and foulmouth tarts
Dinner-table starts and god-blessed farts
Hurried up art in rained up carts
and more Delhi under my chin

the pineapple pirate

sinking ships
with
stout fat pricks
that
never know why
they're
dying just shy
of
moatfuls of gold
that
wait since old
for
pirates to lay
their
metal and clay
on its
shining studs
and
clang their buds
and
dance and swim
in
bottles of whim.

oh!
i know why
the
moat went dry
on
them so close
with a
cruel fire hose
and
burnt them toast
just
beyond the coast
of
murmurs and riches
hidden
doors and switches
scary
invisible ditches
and
mad barking bitches.

the pirate dead
had
an artist's head
it
loved to write
sure
however trite
an
inspiring sight
but
an awful plight
for
the pirate himself
as
he sought an elf
to
get his sock
out of
the writer's block.

the pirate's men
the
stout fat hen
had
no great ear
but
when they hear
the
pirate screech
his
romantic streak
in a
poignant pose
on the
mast when those
poor
souls would scramble
and
stumble entangle
then
everyone knows
its
poetry not prose.

one fine eve
with a
heart in bereave
the
pirate got out
and
made a pout
in
thoughts so deep
he
struggled to keep
his
head afloat
and
about the boat
when
then his thoughts
made a
U-turn to trot
and
hop and jumped
at the
sky and pumped
such
divine kicks
to his
soul in licks
that
he joyously jumped
and
.. fake humped
and
went inside
in
powerful stride
and
came out in tights
with a
handful of kites.

the stout fat pricks
then
didn't know the tricks
that
love plays on men
and were
happy by then
that
poems weren't kites
though they
hated the tights
but the
pirate didn't care
and he
flicked his hair
and
cried like a man
for
his sweetheart susanne.

the pirate thought
he
had to, he ought
to
confess his heart
lest
the moment depart
and he
got out a ring
with
finesse and zing
and
pouted to kiss
his
ring for the miss
and with
an intense fight
tied
it to the kite.

The rest is easy
the
gods went sleazy
at the
man in tights
a
pirate flying kites
and
touched the ring
with an
electric thing
that
touched the ship
in a
crazy trip
and
the poet and kin
got
kicked in the shin
and
burnt to toast
well
just beyond the coast.

lovers, amen.

Mostly Harmless

Not a lot, not much
just a smooth careless touch
An arm brush,
a shy gush,
or a sneaky finger clutch

Get it rolling, play along
hold it light, easy-strong
Return a glance
like a dance
Ping pong ping pong

A sharp look and away
half a smile, half a sway
and a muted
undisputed
tell-all grin there to stay

Let the moment as it does
Keep the air warm, abuzz
Know you can't
Will it or shan't
stay, for stories do end thus

Rally Rule

How about a tea, sir, what of a bread?
Follow me, dear dying, to the joined hands ahead
that, with promises made,
will sicken you but trade
your tonight's meal for it, as I said.