Falling in love

If I had one more heart

I would readily give it to you

And to you and

perhaps to you too!

But you see, the one I had,

Is already taken

Yet everyday, I keep falling in love

For my senses are so easily enraptured

I fall in love with your sunrise

I fall in love with my dusk

I fall in love with traditional cooking

When the heady aromas envelop

I romance aromatic baking

For it brings a smile on my kids’ faces

Makes my home smell heavenly

And store bought cookies replaces

I fall in love with the angelic tangle of arms and legs

now asleep without a care

Whose sibling rivalry and revelry fill my home and heart

As well as my life and soul

I fall in love with your words, your turn of phrase

What you say and what you leave unsaid

I fall in love with the verses that reach out to me,

The stories that only your mind can create

Your unique experience that you kindly share

I fall in love with the pictures of blooms and pets you send

I fall in love with the magic of movies

And their world of wondrous make- believe

I fall in love with many a books

Their life like characters and their authors

And the belief and conviction that they portray

I fall in love with the music I listen to,

The singer, the writer and the musician

I fall in love with the raindrops falling

The overcast skies and the crescent moon

I fall in love hopelessly and completely everyday

And as my whimsical heart waxes and wanes in love

The one who captured my heart many moons ago

Sits in a corner looking indulgently

At the shenanigans of my wayward heart

He draws me close and holds my hand and says

” Your heart is not my captive, let it love and love freely

As long as I have a place in your heart

Accommodate as many loves as you can”

Thus, in freeing my heart, he captures it again.

Frozen moment

A snapshot of life in full glory of colours
stays encapsulated in the camera
frozen for the time being
as life fades into greys and blacks
drab shades of uncertain existence

the pace suddenly goes slack
the idyllic surroundings beckon
but eyes glide past, unfocussed
trivia occupying the turbulent mind
cofusion reigns!

the mighty changes unleashed so abruptly
getting entrenched in slow motion
life stands akimbo in a limbo
this genie refuses to be bottled again!

https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2020/07/02/reenas-exploration-challenge-142/

VJ’s Weekly Challenge #102: Pace

Eugi’s Weekly Prompt “Mighty”, June 29, 2020

Invitation

The crescent moon swings by my window

winking conspiratorially

beguiling me to step out

to watch the star I was waiting for

bathed in the mauve, mercurial, mystic moonlight.

A summer day

Taking halting baby steps

the day crawls at a laboured pace

sapped of energy, it barely breathes

sun’s wrath like fire in the sky

stripping it of its usual zest

the wind lies curled beneath a barren tree

looking for sanctuary amongst parched grass

the denuded earth, without its green canopy, sizzles

unable to regenerate itself enough

a few clouds rushing to escape the heat

moved by its pitiable state, shed a few tears

which are like the kiss of life

helping it to reach dusk before fading away

it will be back tomorrow, for that is its fate.

Eugi’s Weekly Prompt “Summer”, June 22, 2020

My poem in Free Verse Revolution

Performers

Underneath the bravura posturing 

lies a conniving, craven cardiac core

wont to deceiving, disseminating delusional designs

Read the rest of the poem here.

Contrast

Finally! free from the drudgery

of cleaning, sweeping, swabbing,

doing utensils in four households

her heart exhilarated!

but loss of monetary independence

now dependence on dwindling doles

perturbations pained her mind!

The thing that bothered her most

a housemaid for the menial chores

lockdown gave her the chance

to break this last shackle of injustice!

but mired in all the chores from morn till night

she wonders

where her “own” independence has disappeared!

https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2020/06/18/reenas-exploration-challenge-140/

Words…

Mostly, I like my words naked,

plain and simple

sometimes straight shooting,

raw and palpable

at others sharp and jabbing words

with their asperous edges

leaving blisters on my palms and fingers

hot-headed words, scalding my tongue

but the feeling in my bones is indescribable!

Oft there are days when I have to eat them

the lacerations on my throat then

leave me abstaining for days!

thus I shun bitter, acidic words

letting them stew in their juices

just to make them more palatable.

I do dress them prettily in metaphors too

to preen and please and garner some applause

also sometimes in malaphors to generate weak laughs

usually poking fun at self

which leaves my ribs a bit sore.

I hide behind obscurity too

for sometimes their forwardness

startles and baffles me

I fear then, I give away too much of me!

I paint surreal images too

but the orange pain that warms my skin

prefers not to hide behind lace-like layers

that tries to curtain it

thus leaving me exposed.

leaving them hanging in air does not help

they follow me like question marks

demanding to be articulated

playing with words all the time,

I become a plaything for them.

Driving ms. uncertainty

Though I still seem to be in the driver’s seat

alas! the controls have been wrested from me

lurching jerkily forward into the ominous darkness

the unknown road is uneven and untrod

striking fear in my faint heart

the rearview mirror shows blurred and murky images

I know not what I see

in a daze I watch time whizzing past

swallowing all memories in its wake

however hard I try, I am unable to apply the brakes

I want to pause, take stock, think and catch my shallow breath

the uncertainty sitting with certainty just above the edge

terrifies and troubles me

but inexorably, we keep moving ahead

who knows if we will reach an enchanted land

where everything will be alright

where butterflies with glowing wings

and blue tipped flickering moonbeams

will dance with delight

or a tenbrous abyss will gulp us down

annihilating us forever

cloistered mind can almost lose

the thread of maturity and sanity

swinging from being pensive to exuberant

but curiousity gets the better of me

I am ready for this ride till the end.https://lifeafter50forwomen.com/2020/06/15/what-do-you-see-34-15-june-2020/

VJ’s Weekly Challenge #100: Pause

Sea and surf

Amidst the downtime that he thought he was enjoying

it called out to him intermittently at first

he brushed it aside as his mind playing tricks

when he heard the sweet song of sirens!

disregarding it, he busied himself fixing things

but it became incessant, as time went by

the roar and the quiet of the surf crashing all around him

waking him in the middle of the night

keeping him on tenterhooks

he looked at the woman lying next to him

her arm curled around his waist

a serene, sweet look on her face,

oblivious to his burgeoning turmoil

unaware that the sea was serenading him

inveigling him surreptitiously

torn between the two, he felt helpless

like watching sand slip through fingers

a heavy weight keeping him anchored

while his soul was writhing to experience

the salt spray on his face, the cool breeze in his hair

as well as the white crested cyan expanse around him

away from the quotidian caterwauling

into the serene tranquility and the company of the porpoises,

oh, the porpoises!

beckoning him and enticing him

bit by bit he was like the living dead

she noticed the faraway look in his eyes

suddenly in the the throes of passion

his withdrawal and his cacophonous silence

she did not want to live a half life

with the shell of the man she loved

thus she released him

to go back into the arms of his first love

The sea.

Written for Kate’s Friday fun.

I weep not for me

I weep not for me

I can endure the pain you give me

I am eternal and immortal

even when destroyed, I reinvent myself

under that gushing waterfall

do you see that lone tear

silently slipping down?

It is for you

for what you have become

for the depths to which you have plunged

your life tangled

in the brambles of living

your naked wantonness

circling like ravens and crows

if only you had been

intelligent like them

been without fears and prejudices

you wouldn’t have caused

so much misery to yourself and me

I will recover and replenish myself

what pains me is that you call me mother

then attribute retribution as one of my qualities!

which mother would harm her child!

I weep for you my child

for what you have become

your uncontrollable greed and hubris

has brought you to the brink

step back my child

mend your ways untangle yourself

I wait for you with open arms

I weep not for me!

speak to me …

Corvid-2020 Weekly Challenge #13

Isolation

Today a young, successful actor in India committed suicide. The reasons are not known and maybe will never be actually known.

The room is full of people; clinking glasses and laughter

I have thousands of followers on twitter

everyday I get so many likes

my whatsapp is always buzzing

but I am feeling so empty inside.

I have an opinion on everything

my insta is updated every hour

I Photoshop my pics to my liking

I follow all who matter in the showbiz

but why am I so unhappy tonight?

My parents are simple people

I am too ambitious for them

my bff too is a small town person

who wants to be bigger than me

I have scores of work friends

we hang out everyday after work

but I have no one with whom

I can share all that troubles me.

I have to be ahead and better

I can not lose this race

I have to beat others at any cost

I can’t bear to be a laggard

I have to have all I can have

and then some more to top it up

but whatever I have acquired till now

gives me no pleasure any more.

No one knows the real me

no one cares for my feelings

no one can hear when I cry within

No one has time for me

I myself have completely lost touch

with the person I actually was.

I want to lie down for a while

I want to cry my heart out tonight

I want to scream and be heard

I want answers to my whys

But most of all I want to be just me

I am tired of not being me

I want to curl up and die.