ARC

She traced the continents
time had mapped on my forehead.
My nose yielded its secrets of
rough crags and hidden crevices.

Her tongue traveled to the delta of my lips
and explored the rivers flowing across my tongue.
She slid down my neck with the help of her nose,
her mouth left a trail of lip locks as postcards.

On the plateau of my chest she lingered for a while,
inhaling the smell of civilization, hearing the basic rhythm of life.
She traversed the smooth plains of my stomach like a seasoned traveler,
sheltering for a moment in the shadows of my navel.

My back became an open ground
where she played games with her fingertips,
fighting battles with stiffened muscles, and
feeding the frenzy of rippling skin.

Every measured movement of hers
opened up my flesh like an atlas.
Her dimples gave me direction, her lips latitude,
while her hands struck boldly across my southern shyness.

I could not stop her probing fingers
from proclaiming freedom for my senses.
Nor could I resist the soft music
her slippery skin played on mine.

In her naked embrace,
I was a nation without borders,
I was a country without a capital,
I was a world without war.

Alone in Kyoto – Air

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The first view of anything below was when the clouds cleared briefly to reveal the grey and choppy waters of the North Sea far below. Small waves crowned by foam marked the surface of the huge stretch of water. I remember feeling a curious mixture of awe and fear. Awe at seeing so much water all the way to the horizon, unmarked by mankind. Fear for the sudden silly scenarios that invaded my mind. What if the engines of the plane failed and we plunged into the water below? What were the chances of survival? You get the picture.

The first thing I noticed about Edinburgh was the smell. The city had an all pervasive metallic smell of urine. Was something wrong with my nose? Was it because of the incessant rain washing the streets? Who knows? And yeah, the rain. It was a rainy, grey and blustery Edinburgh, with winds reaching perhaps 30-50 kmph, that I walked into. Yes, the famous Scottish weather was welcoming me in all its irritating splendor. My umbrella was broken by the wind within the first 30 minutes. I was battered and assaulted by the shrieking wind and the pin pricks of a million rain drops. Welcome to Scotland indeed!

This inhuman need
for people washed away
by words and vanity.

Threads worn thin
against the curve of continents
and breadth of borders.

That which I expect; notions of intimacy
torn apart by surprised thoughts,
beyond my control, beyond your sentiment.

Slowly, a sweeping emptiness,
black like the kohl in her eyes,
begins to settle in the space
left vacant by a departed love and longing.

A ray
of light
illuminates
my raw past.

——

So soon, so soon
my silent dreams
fell from the
premature skies.

—–

Look at our transient reflections
filled with a million lies
staring at us
like stuffed animals.

—–

At last
an emptiness
filled by
rippling applause.

—–

This red fire
between my lips
breaking down airy atoms
into elemental energy.

In the space
between your fingers
I found
a silence sleeping.

The interplay of roving fingertips
awakened hesitant speech
and, now, the frost lines along my eyes
and inside my heart, marked by the long freeze, melt.