VANDITA DHARNI

VANDITA DHARNI

The Hardened Edifice

Decades ago a towering edifice

stood formidable to defy

posing a haven of refuge

a shelter in times of a deluge,

comforting many a tormented soul

with her calloused fingers,

leaning against her frail facade.

As time lapsed, her frame grew weak

within weeks froze her physique.

Bereft of love is she now

a receptacle of hatred and envy,

Absorbing tears and pain

concealing its source but lo! it stems again

cloistering poverty and shame.

Menacingly, they peer at her now,

cowering their listless frame

beckoning for help

as veiled, hooded glances

pierce through her crabbed heart.

They glower at crevices that now deceive.

she isn’t whom they first did blindly believe.

A forbidding air her edifice shatters

bludgeoning sinister doctrines at her

tattooing treachery on her breast.

She squirms and quivers,

echoing their lies.

They splatter blood on her being

now wasted and defiled.

A deeper crack penetrates

her barrier disintegrates

communities, religions and races.

Yet what plagues her soul?

Nothing affects it anymore.

neither death nor shame,

she is but a damned name.

Vulnerability

I perpetually revel in my spectrum

as I flit between real and virtual,

a dichotomy or a puzzle harboring no complaints.

I dribble my ink between both worlds

ecstatically, never menacled in chains.

My virtual playground once evoked the curiosity

of an experienced habitue, (I won’t disclose his identity)

His game was to lure,

with an intent impure.

He donned numerous hats, mostly fake

stringing pearls of words in necklaces,

that luminously dazzled

often blurring my vision,

haunting me in moments of hypnagogia

as I’d vapourise them into recesses of my delusions.

Time zones played truant by happenstance

transmitting thoughts into swirls of contrivance.

Buttercup mornings flooded aconite nights

until rumours penetrated layers of noxious air

skimming through my perplexed ears in despair

like wind humming a dirge on blades of grass.

The smile he wore split my world into shards.

Each smile gaped at me,

laughing at my vulnerability.

My ink obliterated copyrights,

slithering into hungry, borrowed palms

coarse hands of impropriety

like a reckless river flowing into an expanse of sea.

The sea had no fault

just a gleam that enticed frangibility

without coercion or persuasion,

My blue blood dripped through tears

dissolving them into acrimony.

I was a queen bereft of her castle.

The wind moaned and howled,

circling tufts of ominous clouds.

Somewhere, an owl hooted in consonance

while ink was sealed in a borrowed diaphragm

to be split into worlds that wore another  name.

The button that sealed our friendship

now fanned deceit

its forked tongues rolled,

dancing flames on a carcass of words

reeking of raw blood and charcoal.

No words exchanged nor flowers anymore.

It was not my fault.

I grappled for my spectrum

All that made me stone, cauterized

till fresh ink splashed once more

It was a red letter day for me

For I now discovered my vulnerability

Never letting pieces of my puzzle

fly away into virtual spaces of nihilty.

The Last Leaf

As I unfurl my life into leaves,

Some lie in empty spaces

glazed, luminous and untrodden

cleaving to shoots

rooted firmly to the earth

They await the onset of another season.

Certain days of spring

bathe them with dewdrops,

melting away sorrows

caressing them with honeyed nectar

from the bosom of flowers

as colourful butterflies flit by,

kissing them blissfully

promising undying love.

Soon it is summer

leaves grow and mature,

canopying earth from the scorching sun

that scalds the pores of their skin

sucking out their sap.

Vagrant autumn rages its fury

Billowing them in gusts of wind

as they curtsey to her whims

sweeping them into a whirlpool

of decayed nothingness.

Cruel winter’s thief

impales them into shreds

scarring them with a blighted future

that can never be salvaged.

Its claws tear open rotten bits

devouring the withered torso

still breathing with life

until the last page is turned

and death stares in the face.

VANDITA DHARNI

VANDITA DHARNI is an acclaimed poet and scholar who topped the University of Allahabad. Thereafter, she earned a Ph.D.  degree. Her articles, poems and stories have been published in journals like Criterion, Ruminations, GNOSIS, Hell Bound Publishing House and International magazines like Immagine and Poessia, Synchronised Chaos and Guido Gozzano. She has also published three anthologies of poetry. She is the proud recipient of the Poetic Galaxy Award 2018 conferred by the Literati Cosmos Society. the World Poetic Star Award 2019 and Star Ambassador of World Literature 2019.