i. hands

faux bones, the simmering touch

glazed fingertips and how intimate

burying the memorabilia of your

lover is;

pale moonlight, pale breathless

words, pale serene gazes.

ii. wrists

rose oil and peppermint on the

sleek joint, rounded edges

the kind that breaks glass

ceilings, and houses ghostly

whispers of the old days,

day breaks, heartaches.

iii. teeth

crook of the mouth; leaden

tongue, would you presume

to cease the crass bullet words?

pearl sheen in opulent crevices

lips of a monarch. there nothing

more deserving than death

for those who stay s i l e n t

in times of moral

calamities.

#poetry #poem #poet #sadness #sorrow #madness #depression

and the whimsical ghosts worming homes

into tar and crisscrossing steel wires; jousts

of fanfare and tongue-in-the-cheek tradition

perching in the citizen's stomachs(?)

kidney stones(?)

my fair lady of the night, phantom trysts do

not suffice; grand canyons in vacant skulls

and how the whispers of an old lover lacerate

doldrums that stroke frail apartments. beer

bellies, beer bellies, beer bellies, are adamant

and true. shove this blasphemy down your

throat.

this city—

has butterflies pinned to peeling walls

has notarized glass slippers

has tongues licking brains

has wordless mouths

has nothing.

#poetry #poem #poet #writer #writingcommunity #literature #bibliophile #city #sadness #sorrow #japan #dubai

weeks before the tsunami coiled around japan’s lungs,

the skies in dubai changed. february always seduced

fat clouds in the middle-eastern spring; the kind that

reminded you of cotton candy and glazed croissants.

but that year, the clouds were galloping. virgin gusts

of godly breath, they resembled snow angels torn to

shreds. it was enough beauty to bring a grown man

to his pagan knees. but i? i knew. i knew something

was horribly wrong, that something was going to

change forever.

silence

then—

anarchy. the kind that kept children shivering for

weeks under thickets of decomposing sakura. the

kind that birthed and buried mangled human limbs

in baptist compost pits. the kind that noah renounced

hundred years of his life to build an ark for.

the kind that spawned slick turmoil in its wake,

and changed the skies of a land millions of

miles away.

#poet #poetry #poems #sadness #depression #napowrimo #tsunami #japan #earthquake

midnight waltz

did you peep through

pastel flower

curtains

amused glances at the

innocent chests drowning

in sleep

did you look at me?

three decades too early

for a memorial service.

i was far too intimate

with throat-shredding

loneliness

the kind that sings to you

passive apathy parties

cratered guests, you had

a way with the gifts, sneaky

solemn slithering

moon

light

#poem #poetry #napowrimo #escapril #moon #moonlight #sadness #depression

birds chirping in hindi, voices laced with nectar, & i, a babbling instrument of baby fat & midnight tears. ahmedabad was unequivocally alluring; eruptions of gulmohar trees shedding golden blossoms on the pastel green masjid, the unabandoned comfort in watching my grandfather read his newspaper in the courtyard, crossed-legged, snowy santa beard. what a pity, what a misery that lovely, lovely place really was.

birds chirping in arabic, heat waves cascading like throbbing streams of blood, & i, a tiny towering stack of lies & inflamed fury. dubai was a dream that slithered between my immigrant fingers, postcards of glassy buildings & the finery i knew i could never seduce. there is an odd solace in accepting your lot in life; monumental agony, crumbling thrones, & how i fancied myself to be ozymandias.

#poetry #poem #poet #story #writing #writer #sadness #sorrow #depression #identity #identitycrisis

god, how i pined for the rain;

how i wrote anthologies of desecration,

my hometown cracked like a skull split into

incomprehensible splinters. the glass cries tears

of beguiling gold; if only i had bewitched the

carnal golden sands into staying. if only

the anatomy of me had forgiven the frayed

strands of nothingness crooning from

hot-wired eulogies. i wanted solace,

no matter how vicious, how volatile, how

chest-numbingly tranquil.

no matter how

lonely.

#poem #poetry #poet #writer #writers #escapril #loneliness #lonely #alone #sad #sorrow #depression

1.

you are an infestation between the legs,

laborious spittle & flailing limbs.

sonnets would diminish the soothe &

the ache of a man like you, olive skins &

pits & locked jaws of faux amour fou.

you softened the concrete edges of my

brain, adonis at my bedpost.

2.

you are an infestation between the legs,

wailing water of the womb, i scrutinized

the grainy hospital photograph; you,

crushed clump of clotted cells & blood,

love child born of lust, could i smother

your dainty silver chest gasping for

breath? did you want me to love you?

did you want to live?

#poetry #poem #poet #writer #writing #abortion #birth #mother #escapril

hourglass of my dreams;

infestation and vineyard mysteries

perhaps, if presumptuousness was an illness,

my brain would have collapsed

from faux philosophies

being naive was irreparably lovely,

ceaseless nightmares of burning

civilizations on the precipice of nostalgia,

how lamentable being a little older truly was,

how rotten the corpse of a soul tainted

with poignant mouth-foaming delirium

how, when the moonlight cried itself to sleep,

i had no sorrow

caving into my chest

#poetry #poems #poem #poet #grow #growth #decay

colorless agony/ this heatwave is/ enchanting/

birds overgrown/ a meadow of weeds/ and the sinking of toes/ crushed sand in empty/ colloquial mouths/

are you a stranger/ to the scent of/ doom?/ are you thinking/ of my/ bottomless daybreak/ words?/

god/ i have prayed/ mercilessly/ for a day like this/ to end

#poetry #poem #poet #dawn

i dream of nothingness— 

visceral tongues pressing into my skin

they say the streets are mean

meatloaf catastrophes

a bag of green, a bag of bones

a world infested with 

intravenous sleep and pocket change

i have made love to diseases

camping in my chest

overstaying their welcome in

this pigsty of rats

they say we live in godless times

filth encasing pretty pavements

perhaps i like my crispy crystals

far too much

they kiss the enamel of my teeth

the caverns of my nose

the blood of my streams

exhaustion settles in my bones

weary, weary me 

all that glistens is my needle

in this haystack of degenerate limbs

there is no heaven in these ugly skies

no heaven for sinners like us

we, the children of a lesser god

--

#poetry #poems #poem #poet #drugs #addiction #homelessness #streets #drugaddiction #depression #substanceabuse #abuse