The ebb and flow of life and death

One man’s liberator

is another’s terrorist;

but life is often black and white

and frequently coloured,

necessitates killing and death

it’s a tug-o-war

with elemental configuration

battle of hook and knife,

hearth and coin

this way and that we pull

and in the play of clutch and release

probabilities and despair

the drowning on the sand

and burial at sea

the kleshas come

as wave-weave

and wind-twist

sweet nothings and bitter love

pieties and paramitaas

gathered, chopped and sold,

there is short-change in purchase

in small talk and silence.

We come from water

And like water we go

Each to a receptacle

of love and forbidding

some as fish,

some not.

[From the collection 'Some texts are made of leaves', shortlisted for the Gratiaen Award 2011] 

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Un-freezing

Spectre of frozen-moment

carried in heart

incognito,

yes, unknown to mind

to the rolling years,

secret to all encounter

witness to path and pain,

smile to joy;

it took decades

for you to un-freeze.

Or so I thought.

[from the collection 'Some texts are made of leaves', shortlisted for the Gratiaen Award 2011]

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Some texts are made of leaves*

They are flipped with the fingers of the eye

unwet and wet

read with care by those conversant

with the language

of colour, texture and passing

and passed over too

for there are preferred texts

and ones tossed aside

for later and never;

but leaves

come from dust and to dust they go

without complaint

through gaze and ignoring;

they conspire with sun, shade and wind

wear the garments of the day’s seasonality

without shout, let us repeat

but whisper

the eternal verities: ‘birth, decay, death’

all laid out in leaf-texts

that need no words,

not even these.

[*This is the title poem of the collection that was shortlisted for the Gratiaen Award 2011.  I have posted this earlier, but starting today I will post the entire collection of 56 poems, one per day]

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