Warmth

They say warm hands are the route to a warm heart

without fail, heat isn't accessible- at least warmth is not

being in heat doesn't mean you are warm

humans can tell. can smell warmth. Especially in comfort and grace into small sensitivities:

bed-time stories, sing and cook meals and hours of sunshine 

signs of warmth. True warmth is when you seep into your skin

on an old sofa, after a hard day's work-

feeling for the thunder that just exited your head. 

definite future

There's a limitation to the plans you can make
towards a definite future-
beyond the clothes picked out for the next morning,
beyond tomorrow's meal-
there are issues to discuss
she was aware, if only she had enough choice in the matter
sometimes, haphazardly we end up in situations unlike us
binge buys and binge drinks and the lack of drinks and sales
for the royal hunger and the royal coin
we cannot control everything, that's how she'd start
she figured by explaining that the family will be expanding
and for that, she'll have to wear the same dress
until a definite future shows it tails
on the horizon

#smart, #notsosmart

#smart

the exercise of morning devotion
to the sun, early rising
coffee in hand and a newspaper in the other
a choice or habit- does it matter?
it is a smart way of life.

#notsosmart

now-
the amount of time wasted
over trivialities beginning with morning devotion
to screens, phone above the nose
you shut out the world as you gaze
at a stimulation to a way of life
it could be both realms

#smart

dressing is a part of the morning
like calling a name game-
 a ritual it becomes when the colors
are associated with shades of mood
like roses are red, who insist violets are blue?
in color we recognize the light that's left out

#notsosmart

shuffling into an old pile of yesterday
mashed same way as a parent's favorite potato recipe
it is another morning ritual some skip
like a stone hurled towards a lake
it is better to throw bits and bobs everywhere
there's order in chaos

#smart
goes about light-headed, always prepared

#notsosmart
leaves it till the last moment, enjoys the core.

Nana's Tailsman

Gold and earth are not the best of mixtures
hide your treasures in earth, that is what humans did for years,
earth seals your treasures from misery, it had protected gold with its variant forms
combined, gold and earth will protect you, child. Nana whispers a prayer to the wind
dresses a golden locket under my locks of hair,
dips me in gold and earth to ward off
envy, evil eyes, greed and magic
she leaves a prayer on my neck
she leaves it up to me to decide
if I will wear prayer forever around my breath
to ward off envious eyes
evil greed and dark, dark magic.

Spirit of Christmas

Magic and sparkles
all caroling, angels singing on the streets
joy to the world, joy, joy,joy
flails the little thief boy
his joy, a purchased pair of pajamas
and a plastic pug for company.

Critical age

So many years have handled the badge 

of a critical age, like an era of war, 

or an unprecedented piece of writing sprouting without necessity, 

as if there is a time-limit to beauty 

as if there's an expiration date to oxygen

there's a certain end to all ends- that's sure 

but why the gentle reminders?

because so much depends on the critical eras for men 

and more for the women, it seems;

a  love that ticks on a certain number, it seizes to be under other circumstances 

an unfulfilled promise of eternal settlement

and the children, must you let her not forget? 

 her future children will refuse birth after a certain hour

and the loss, the hole she will evidently face

unlucky, tsuk tsuk- shame 

too old now to dig for happiness she's hidden purposely 

Youth falls onto years, it cannot be bottled nor contained 

and such is the belief in the next sunrise

clairvoyants, in our own rights we sleep in an eternal wait, 

foreseeing the sun  without realizing that sleep might erase warmth-

we wake up fearing time's hands

Much depends on our ability to sleep

to dream, out of the handles of critical numbers

I too dream out of circles, cans and rounded dates

there are critical moments in my days, file-dividers separating the hours

into sewing and ripping, 

into touchable and edible- in me  there isn't a deadline for time 

I am fine 

You talk to me of critical ages, meaningful to growth

when will you realize that you lay dependency on  a woman, 

who repetitively fails to decode the numbers?. 

New month

Turn the page, listen
to the silence of noise and the hustle
of the wind as it flips over your calendar,
the one next to the window, awaiting
the birth of a new month