Read. Reflect. Repeat.

Category: Poems

The LinkedIn Song

// to be sung like Yellow by Coldplay

Look at these stars
Look how they smile at you
In the LinkedIn school
Yeah, they are all shallow…

I came along
With a lot of stuff to brood,
And when I saw them, puked
For, it is all shallow…

When I felt heartburn
Saw through their projections
Oh it was so shallow…

Your bios
And oh your headlines
Trying to show oh your perfect lives,
Do you know
You know I know that sometimes…
You, too, do yearn to just cry…

I saw the loss
Could not be honest with you
For you are here to prove
That you are all shallow…

I gave a sigh,
This internal divide,
To show the world you’re fine
Oh you are so shallow!

Your bios
And oh your headlines
Trying to show oh your perfect lives,
Do you know
You know I know that sometimes…
You, too, do yearn to just cry..

With you, I’d rather sit and cry
Yes, I’d rather sit and cry…

It’s true
Look how they smile at you
Look how they smile at you
Look how they smile at
Look how they smile at you
Look how they smile at you
Look how they smile…

Look at these stars
Look how they laugh at you
And all the things that you do!

The Cobweb

The scenes that unfold before his eyes
Have played out a million times before
The same path, that they always take,
They will again, he has no control.

These pictures countless times has he seen
And the notes are ugly and stale
The past and the present merge, from them
Emerge those strands of tales.

Tales that follow that memorized script
He knows too well what’ll transpire,
Such dreariness sends his senses adrift
A new course his mind does desire

For he is appalled and horror-stricken
At the slow rot consuming his substance
His limbs move in suspended animation
And the words he utters are redundant.

All that he manages is a discerning smile
All he can do is sigh in pain,
All he can hope is that the next time
Is the last time his emotions are slain.

The Prey

Tiptoed, she walked,

Her soles barely making any sound

Her breaths controlled,

for that effortless ease which can’t be feigned.

Attentive, alert, with each step measured.

 

Her eyes darted,

From one point to another,

Surveying, for the smallest movement.

 

She chose her path after careful deliberation,

For the world does watch her, even from a distance!

 

She is watched, nay scanned, nay followed, nay dissected

Her every move observed,

She has to be quick, lest they observe her!

From the top of the buildings,

From the safety of the darkness of the bushes clouding the edge of the road,

From left and right, from the front, and from behind,

And from all the vantage points they can find!

 

They keep a track of her routes,

They pick up her scent,

The marks left by her feet,

The sounds that the leaves rustling on the trees around her carry,

Dissolved with the sound of her laboured breathing,

 

It is late,

She must reach home.

Her children must be waiting, hungry,

But these wolves!

 

She admonishes her heart,

And chides her heaving chest,

For being so weak and beating so hard,

For sounds do travel,

And they are heard!

She doesn’t afford to be heard!

 

No, you restless heart!

Calm down.

Get a grip!

Hold on to your nerves!

For silence is her biggest weapon!

 

This dirt, refuse, this filth that surrounds her,

And covers her every pore,  every thought,

Every nook and cranny of her body,

And looms over the smallest crevices of her mind,

She must pass through it, for her kids,

In lonely walks, sometimes in the dead of the night,

Tired, exhausted, drained, and hungry, but alert,

For she must be alert!

 

She walks on,

And in hunger, they too move.

 

She curses her scent,

Wild, innocent, light as the wind

And radiating with it,

If only her wisdom could absorb the vitality of her scent,

For her own sake!

For scents do travel, and are picked up by the wolves.

 

Wolves,

Menacing, terrifying,

she walked,

Alone

While they circled,

At a distance,

In a pack,

Cowards!

 

And then she saw one of them!

Absolute, sheer terror in the eyes!

 

The other wolves howled, one by one

As the moment laboured into the present,

Slowly, in delayed spans of time,

It arrived to a standstill.

 

The fear was palpable,

As the wolf looked at her,

And took a few steps,

And then she sprang!

She threw caution to the wind,

And ran,

as fast as her legs could carry her!

 

The wolf was now sprinting,

And the chase had begun!

 

They sprinted across roads, and abandoned railway tracks,

The predator in hot pursuit,

Catching and latching on to the faintest whiff of the scent

 

As he came closer,

And she could feel his limbs, just within reach,

She summoned all her energy,

And jumped with all her might!

 

They both were now on the ground.

Panting, heaving, breathing heavily,

They both looked at each other for one final time,

And then, it started….

 

The distant wolves grimly heard the sounds

And the terrifying wails that echoed in the darkness of the night.

Then, they went their own ways,

Safe for another day…

 

For…

She was a tigress,

A mother,

More powerful than all the world’s demons combined.

 

For…

Mankind is dead,

And in this abandoned city, this tigress walks alone,

Searching for food for her children,

And maybe, also for herself.

 

The Murder of Feelings

The words will need to be short and sweet
For I do not have much time
With head in the heavens, on earth my feet
My summons have come from the divine!

So goodbye, my lovely friend,
So gracious for gracing my life
If the short stay was all that was meant
I have relished each moment while alive!

And goodbye, my thoughtful friend,
For being the mirror of my mind,
Reflecting, these years were joyfully spent,
In flashes of epiphanetic insight!

And goodbye, my innocent friend,
Those hours of delightful company
I cherished with you, are going to end,
But not our lonesome memories!

And goodbye, my oblivious friend,
Those words still shatter my heart
Our paths diverged, at that fateful bend,
The closest grew so apart!

Some others I remember, and some I forget,
Pardon I seek for these sudden farewells
With the minutes ticking by, I can hardly be blamed
A lifetime of feelings, and all going to drain!

The seconds are too
Few to release
That flow of feelings,
The stuff of dreams!
The perfect moment, never meant to thrive,
Forsaken to the future that never did arrive!

And now my thoughts are going to die,
Without me, how can they possibly survive!
For no pens, nor pages or keys of any kind,
Know about them, and nor does any mind!

My time has come, I have to go,
As those dying thoughts inside me echo
Screaming to be let out, for they are waves,
Which once uttered, forever remain!

Know

In the beginning, concealed,
In your field of view
Silently awaiting
A recognition due

Your observing gaze
Over it stood
Thence conveying
You understood

What went on inside
Your brooding threw
The masquerade aside
And then you knew

Different thoughts, but feelings combine
Divided the bodies, united the minds
You recognised, then understood and finally knew
The garden where the experiences grew!

One for the Friends

Times, as these, are scarcely found
A moment ago, was smoothness abound
But this instant,
Sans resistance
Has resignedly embraced the turbulent sound!

Oh motley crew, don’t be alarmed,
You have the fire, you aren’t unarmed!
The divergent streams
Of disparate dreams
And ebullient eddies are yours to command!

Face and conquer your darkest fears
Smile even when moved to tears
So fate is rendered
Redundant, and yer
Mettle shall make your sorrows disappear!

To the answer of life, ignorance I plead
As for the poetry, it’s charming indeed
But such concerns
Are yours to discern
For words are a sham when feelings do bleed…

Vengeance

You toss about on your bed
Yearning for my company,
Night after night of bitter unrest
Embroiled in a lovely agony…

My thoughts do reach the deepest confines
Of your mind, which begs my leave,
And I beg you to read the signs
And find what I cannot reveal!

I know you crave for my presence today
I feel the pain you bear,
But, oh, I laugh at the inscrutable ways
Of time,
We all have its share!

For a time there was
When I tossed about
Delirious in your love,
And roamed the streets
Searching for an out
Weeping with the heavens above!

I love you still
But you do, too,
In my love are you finally bound,
My alter ego has risen with vengeance
Determined to exact its pound.

The Sands of Love

The divine Painter had resolutely chosen,
A course He, for him, panned
The limited hues of his colours, frozen,
Played a game – dealt a cruel hand
Like how the currents of a brimming river
Fool around with the banks fragile sand.

Heedlessly is it tossed, irreverently cast aside
The waves don’t care if it even exists
Swayed to and fro – drugged and hypnotised
Savouring this sweet misery, for suffering it insists.
Like how the heart of an unrequited lover
From yearning for his love cannot resist.

Those that erupt from his innermost desires
Knows he that these seething flames
Will engulf his life, towards death will this fire
Drive all his hope, faith and beliefs – he’ll be drained!
Like how the laments of the agonizing disfigurement
Drives millions of roughed up grains insane

While the waves they cannot blame
Yet, the anguish, too, they cannot endure
Their pale and lifeless days – sealed by their fate
Cannot be attended to and nourished, for sure.
Like how the stranded suitor, abandoned to his ways
Searches throughout his life for that elusive cure

The Imposter

Will you be fooled by his disguise?
Can you peel off the layers,
See through his eyes
His vicious smile
That celebrate with guile

The charm with which he entered your world
And screened my voice from you
Muffled all those elusive words
That to me were due

So wonderful a net has he admittedly cast
Such a perfectly executed ploy
My faith is the victim, and it is fading fast,
Succumbing to schemes that destroy

For if the devil could come and pick
And mould you as he pleased
You failed to see his skillful trick
Your eyes were blinded by deceit!

While one refrains from picking a rose
With its heavenly smell divine
For her to roam the fields, when morose,
There happiness she shall find…

The other violates that very flower
Plucks it from the stem
And with all his flattery and hollow power
Gifts it to the maiden

Who jumps and laughs and blushes and accepts
With glee this momentary luxury

How could she sense
How life’s turning wheel
Had driven me out of her memory.

How could she feel
What her continued absence
And indifference had done to my psyche.

How could she know
What her friend had to show
For she was stuck with his adversary.

Grandma

She glances as I near the door
Her eyes can’t reach me
But she can see me, nonetheless
…watch me
Extending a shivering hand in warped time
Reaching for the door
Searching for the knob, or is it?
…watch me
Bulge my lips and tilt it right
Shake my head and drop my eyes
Oh…those foreboding eyes!

Flooded with dread, chilling as the winter dawn!
The future they could clearly see
Courage withered, certainty long gone
Even a final glimpse they could not concede.

Oh…those foreboding eyes!
Longing for something, but in vain
Clutching at strands of memories
Fighting bursts of agony
In trying to live them again.

…watch me
Look at her!
See her state!
A treasure of virtues – my creator she gave
But tamed by time, her time she bides
Behind her rickety body, the ebb of her tide!

A furious flood of feelings I fight
Holding my breath, beseeching time to rest…
Begging, oh please rest!
And let me take in my source of life
And pour it unto my heavy chest.

Something salty brushes against my lips
I yearn to stay but I choose not to
Some work I have, the hinges twist
The door opens, reluctantly I go through.

She could not have studied my face
In the penumbra of her vision had I stood
Yet what ailed me, where my insecurities lay
She knew it better than I ever could.

She was still glancing as I closed the door,
Still watching…
She strained her ears as I descended the floors,
Still listening…
She smothered her wish as the engines roared,
Still yearning…

© 2024 Yuganka Sharan

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