Alone

When I walk backwards now to undo

Miles and miles of tangled messsy years

Broken promises, live wounds that erupt 

At the slightest sound of your sleepy baritone;

Seven steps around the fire to mark promises 

Of all those lifetimes and of this one

I find myself alone as I was all along

Unmarked Birthdays

We had held hands at the curve of the road

And let go when the ocean swam over it

Now when aeons apart, I smell your music 

In the dark green folds of my bridal saree

But I continue to dance to another's rhythm

All longing that I ever had, pours from the sky

As that very ocean which had torn aside our paths

All that is drenched are those moments which 

Came and went as unmarked birthdays 

Once our days, and now, just yours somewhere.

Deep-red

My soul plunged into its fossil pools of silence

And gathered these deep-red corals of adoration  

Your breath on my multi-coloured breathlessness 

Breathed a million star-dust filled bubbles; and 

of letters written on your skin, what can I say,

Only this: I wrote you an unmetered, short poem

and prayed to a multitude of gods that it is worn

Around your neck invoking deep-red dawns, 

Cracking stardust bubbles all through the night.