Message from a Reader

Dear Raj,

A delightful read! Reminds of the days of one's young love. 'Your Side of Town' - a gem... says so much in so few lines. Congrats!

Regards

Col Anjan Datta

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Dear Anjan,

Thank you for your appreciation of  'matters of the heart'.

Raj

Heartbreaks

On these days when I need to speak to you

Listen to the unsaid, that will never come to

Reticence born of shattered words

That fell. Fragmented in fond wish fulfillment

To gather delights with broken shards piercing

We shall squeeze out some to unfeel the hurt

And efface ourselves, our heartbreaks.

Minarets

Minaret beacons tuned, amplify piety

Love’s fervour pouring on first deities

Endearment everlasting to that pure

Untainted flow of iridescence,

Enhanced in your light, exuberant glory

Heart free, soul scorching, in shadow glades.

Long distance stars shimmer and clutter

On rippling waves. Across hide and seek

Phantasmagorias. Anchored on rock heads

Lights afar, faraway myriad dreams 

Mysteries yet to never end and the day

Shall not be forever, long.

Her Voice

Bubbling chalice of wave play

Stardust sprinkled chime spray

Ebb's tinkling caught on rimes

Moonbeam's soft, softer ray

Cloudburst flung to catch a flow

Storm tracing winds on the fray

Lapping shores wafting away, away

Dream chase to night lute's sway.

Father

They called you an instrument of play. I listened

in rapture to your breath bellowed lute. In constant

listening, in tuned and retuned improvisations, for my

play, later. Melodious or discordant, it was only you

who in nebulous horizons played unending, unabated

Music tires with age too. The play hall stales

with forever entertainment seekers. Play brittles

and notes, repetitive. Till someday, in anticipated

dread, the aged reeds collapse. Silence on sound throes

As I picked the logs of your deadened remains

I sealed my listening in a tight over-wrapped

bundle, fastened by repeated knots. Taut rubber

band tightened. My play balloon ever in an air bloom

Forever childlike I shall follow you, your play's

emulation. Hustling time will jostle. The vortex

of remembered listening will draw to you, yours, me.

Forays

Nocturnal odysseys

Of dreams strung on moonbeams

Reaching out to embrace the sky

I fall into chilly folds of another

Desire, in surges of waves breaking

On rocky shores, will scathe my limbs.