SUMITRA MISHRA

 

A Pea-Sized Hole

 

A pea-sized hole in his heart

Allowed hot blood

To flow down the stony hills.

 

The head rolled and rolled 

The sky swirled and swirled

Clouds started clotting the moonlight.

 

There was not enough time

To ponder over who and why,

The hole was becoming a whirlpool.

   

The body became light and floppy

 The eyes closed,

 Ears could hear

The sky whipped into storm.

 

Nothing bothered him now

Neither horror nor glory,

Neither fear nor power,

 Nothing mattered now.

He lived life as a rock

Now he was looking

At a hallowed garden

Beyond the dark tunnels.

 Was he a soldier

Or just a weapon

Or a stone in David’s sling?

 

Deep It Seeped

 

You whispered a song

Into my reluctant ears

But deep it seeped into

My own sacred heart.

 

You poured a drop of tear

Into my laughing eyes

But deep it seeped into

The blue ocean of my blood.

 

You planted a kiss

On my eager lips with love

But deep it seeped into

My unpretentious soul.

 

You touched my bosom

With your hungering fingers

But deep it seeped into

The tip of my excited nerves.

 

I felt your love gushing

Through your ears and eyes;

And deep it seeped into

My soul's ardent corners and niches.

 

Groping Beyond

 

While groping beyond the scenes

Of mortal mayhem, panic and pain,

I stumbled, swirled behind the curtain

Of darkness and fell with a thud on you!

 

 But I stood up with conviction

A conviction, pure and simple

That the fork on the map of our minds

May be just a juggler’s trick to feign

Or the snare of a hunter to frighten!

 

When I sheltered under imagination

Webs of words deluged my pen and paper

When I shuffled the cards of my vision

Words floated as bubbles in the pool of my soul.

 

Groping beyond the shadows

Of vision, of imagination, of words

Finally, I gripped the flitting reality

Of you, me, and our small world,

You shone as the star, me as the moon

Reflecting the light of your wisdom

Through my rough but cool persona!

 

SUMITRA MISHRA