I'm stretching my smile to cover my face I'm blinking too, to punctuate your gaze I'm learning to stay and not say no Because I've learnt that I can't go Not when death is alive and cold Uninvited guest at our doors I will stay and learn your steps You will stay and hold my waist Us against the world, so naive; We kiss and love and stay alive.
Wear a brown shirt for me I'll find a white flower for you With petals broad enough for me to scribble "I love you" In black ink Or maybe with some kohl. Will you let me put some under your eyes? Put the flower in your chest pocket You've always loved lilies, I know, And flash a smile at me So that I can call you my Textbook of love. Remember that tattered book With brown cover Short stories and poems inside English Reader Class IX? No, I didn't know you then. I didn't know what love was But I knew what it might be. Early butterflies in my belly For a boy I sat beside And this one poem in that one brown book. "If thou must love me, let it be for nought Except for love's sake only." Now you, you, yes, you My book of poetry, My song of love, I love you for love's sake only. You are the textbook definition And I can read between your lines This book can have a miserable ending It can break my heart into bloody shreds But I'll read it again and again My brown textbook man Look at me with your smudgy kohl eyes Consume me in your gaze Devour me in your lines While the music keeps playing And the evening is bashful I want to be a verse in your pages While the fan whirls in this room And the curtains bathe in dusky gold I want to curl up inside your stanzas We'll stay as one until words fall apart Until it's too dark to read Until the end of poetry.
<inspired by the drama I Told Sunset About You>
Hibiscus.
His name plays in my mouth
My arms lie locked with his,
We’re fighting
Hibiscus
Anything to draw him in…
I throw my glances-
One at him and the next at the sea,
Wait for a moment
While I stare at another man
Hibiscus
My cheeks are volcanic
I can sense that you want me
Hibiscus-
Why are you running?
To her?- who thinks I am just a boy
A long lost friend-turned-rival-turned…
Hibiscus!
Why can’t I be Patroclus?
I’d die for you
Without an epic to sing of my name
Hibiscus,
I will be yours
Will you tell sunset about me?
Or will we be dried flowers
Within yellow pages of our book
The words never spoken aloud?
Hibiscus,
I want to be found.
Meet me in your gaze As I laze around in your world Read me a happy tale. I know you'll spread Slippery smiles on my face I'll run my fingers Through your stubborn hair. Cover me in soft silence When the noise pours in, I'll sing for your ears And yours alone Hold my hand even if I fumble Let me see the sunset Become an ocean in your eyes. Let us carve a new world Of our very own. Let us be a home.
I may say that I know you. But how could I? When you have woven not walls I might climb But long labyrinths coiled Around yourself There are a thousand and fifty one ways But none of them reach your heart Fresh fortresses at the end of every path I seek The heaviness of the doors makes my heart sink. When we speak not of the dreamy sunsets But of the beauty of our shadows Elongating in tune with the length of our conversations On the steps of the river bank, You smile with your endless eyes I feel, a door has opened. Yet the moment next, The door disappears, leaving its shadow behind I keep running after shadows. I hold your hand sometimes Will you ever squeeze it back? You smile at me, And I cannot think of anything else For hours on end. When I'm alone at nightfall I replay your smile in my head Clutching at a fleeting image Lest it should turn to smoke. Perhaps it's useless to hope. I labelled the unnamed longing in my heart The Gross Over-expectations of Romance. (Alternately, The Downside of Being A Clichéd Hopeless Romantic?) When I stopped mid-sentence Telling you about my Better-than-the-average day, You brought your empty eyes back to life. Maybe you try too hard to mask them For my sake, as a friend. The myriad ways I try to reach you Are always destined only to my broken heart. I may say that I know you But how could I When you haven't truly Given me the right?
1
It’s a valley of baby-pink bougainvilleas
We’re little girls spreading our little wings
Running after each other
Colourman O Colourman, which colour do you choose?
I choose you, perhaps I whisper to myself,
I will always choose you.
Our love will blossom as we hold our hands
Ring a ring o’ roses
My rosy cheeks, your dusky grin
Aren’t we the best?
I’ll go after you, run, run
It’s a valley of red roses
I’ve plucked all the thorns,
Love will come to you
Like a soft petal closing your eyelids
Love will come to us
We will be the queens of the world
We need no one
Aren’t we the best?
As the branches grow pink, I blush too
I love you, I love you.
2
The earth smells like you
I run my fingers through the leaves of the potted plant
There are no flowers today,
You were running your fingers through the sand
There were no seashells that day
You were smiling as ever,
The sunlight gliding off your skin like oil
I tied my heart to the waves of your hair
The waves made me fall on your shoulder in a giant splash
I didn’t need the sea to fall for you, but I wonder
Who did you fall for?
I called you a mermaid and you braided my hair with flowers
I called you a fairy
Your laughter still ringing in my ears
It has been years.
I found a tiny bud in the plant
A single dewdrop on it
Perhaps that rolled down my cheek.
The earth smells like you today
But I couldn’t be the plant
Rooted in you.
Some dreams, or most, don’t come true.
Last night I held you in my arms
Your warmth felt like a thousand suns
You bared your heart right into mine
My breath just stopped, and so did time.
The words you spoke were songs to me
They calmed me like a lullaby
Your laughter rang like jingling bells
I gave in to your charming spell
You touched me and I dreamed again
I felt as free as pouring rain
Falling from up high above
Falling hard, for you, my love
I took a breath and smelled the sea
Your stormy soul was calling me
I lost my way among the waves
You found me and you saved the day
We locked our lips, a feast began
Of each delight that’s known to man
Fresh new buds bloomed within
An homage to Original Sin
You’re made of stardust and the sky
You’re the Beauty in my eyes
You’ve bared your heart right into mine,
I’ll be yours till the end of time.
I see you but I know you not
Yet I find you in my thoughts
Your lotus eyes look so surprised
Every time they lock with mine.
I strike a pose of nonchalance
While I’d really like some chance
To talk to you, to know you more
To steal a glimpse into your soul.
Do you see me as I see you?
Would you speak, if I wanted to?
I guess I shall never know
You’ll always be my Muse unknown.
I’d like to fall intensely in love.
Fall in so deep
That I hit rock bottom,
Only hoping you’d lift me up.
While pulling me up
You’ll fall in love too
Over my beautiful locks of hair
My tiny waist
My flawless skin
And before you finish lifting me
You’ll fall down yourself.
We’ll fall together
Deeper and deeper
Intensely in love.
One look at your chiselled jaw
Your muscular arms
That cocky smirk
And whoosh
I fall twenty feet deeper.
We’ll fall and fall
Until we can’t see
Our perfections anymore.
We’ll fight and fall out.
Fall out of love
Get out of the pit of intense love
And float apart
In giant bubbles of ego.
But
Neither you nor I possess
Such supermodel-like perfection, do we?
Maybe we aren’t fit for
The age-old tale
Of the dashing damsel and the handsome hero
Who didn’t step past their face values
Always sticking to
Love at first sight.
Maybe we aren’t fit for a love affair.
I am glad
For our greasy faces and gaping smiles.
Maybe we have hope
For love.
mimimusing 