“Desire like unruly #seafoam
Drowned me when you kissed,”
Her words I can’t forget.
Not sure what I did right.
Not sure what she meant.
Creative change?
Or rejection?
#vss365
(Try to figure out the anagram)
“Desire like unruly #seafoam
Drowned me when you kissed,”
Her words I can’t forget.
Not sure what I did right.
Not sure what she meant.
Creative change?
Or rejection?
#vss365
Do I really want to know what you are thinking?
Let's assume those are good lies to remain calm in this #sink-hole.
Not like ex-lovers fantasising with fiction dressed up as truth.
Like lonely kids ready to hide a tear for a game or to avert death.
#vss365
#vss365
(#sing along)
There are too many politicians in my family.
There is one.
He stood for election once.
He got two votes.
His mother, wife, son or daughter?
Or all?
Who betrayed him?
That remains an unsolved mystery.
[Chorus]
There are too many politicians in my family.
There is one.
There are too many lawyers in my family.
There is one.
There are too many doctors in my family.
There is one.
There are too many bureaucrats in my family.
There are none.
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2018/04/sing-along.html
When she undressed, you too I watched,
Teased and loved you - of course, her too...
All was well till the denouement
When she charged me with wantonness...
If I could have another turn,
Will you be in high noon’s #blind spot?
Love still remains when lovers spurn...
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2013/04/ode-to-lovers-shadow.html
I walked upstream along the #bank to the old sandy bathing spot.
Found an ugly mound of rock, weeds and wild grass. The carcass left behind by indiscriminate sand-mining.
I took a few photos of that sad wretched place. I wish I had photos of the paradise it once was.
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-mothers-village.html
"Molu, when the doctor asks questions, please answer, ok? (Lowers voice.) Tell the doctor Daddy works abroad. Don’t mention about Uncle staying with us. It doesn't matter but there’s no need, right?"
The daughter turns away after removing her mother’s hand on her #arm.
#vss365
from
https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/09/other.html
How long should I wait
For the #hand of god to strike
Murdering crazies?
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ?
To beat Big Bro Cen Sor
Wrote in code
The pome
To conquer her heart
But Big Bro
Got it wrong
Its call came without a #ring
Says I'll hang
For hating those I should hate
Should I tell Big Bro
It's a love pome
Or
Let it be what It thinks it is
Either way
She giggles.
#vss365
Am I the lone bird?
That one's guarding a nest.
How about the tree barely bent?
That's still giving taking little.
Can't be the moon and its phases,
Regular moods ain't my style.
Not the blue sky nor the fresh air, then
How is this a self-portrait of a fallen #man?
#vss365
Woke up humming a song
From days when the Wall still stood,
She came then promising me farewell,
And life #revolved around her and the end.
I've had others to call love,
They don't promise what they do,
The world is still the same,
With new Walls and an end tomorrow.
#vss365
Frankly, I don't give a damn.
Borrowed words,
But it's for a base thought.
Do I care if the sea takes over,
If trees are chopped,
If this green land becomes a desert?
At the end of the day,
They still #fascinate me,
When they ask for my vote.
Where is my broom?
#vss365
I searched for #frustrate
In the stories I've written.
Not once what I felt.
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ?
We met for the first time at an abortion clinic. Anger and distrust in her eyes. My arm was around her younger sister.
Still accuses me of not showing such care with her.
"Your sis is a friend. You are my partner. Care seems better when we can #divide."
She snorts.
#vss365
Changed my middle name.
Indifference. To #surpass
Foolishness' record.
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ?
Big brother knows all.
Why aren't they (mis)using it?
New gods #assure us.
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ?
Backed into a #corner, are we?
There's a war too near,
There's no gas to cook,
D-heads say they have gained
A few dollars
By digging small mass graves,
Here, there's just us,
We won't give up,
We won't let go,
Let's kiss and hug,
Stare at a world that need not die.
#vss365
"Swaps, my love, why such worry lines?"
"Don't you dare call me that!"
"Such hatred!"
"Bah!"
"Trying to be a political leader of a democracy?"
"Arj, my hate, why such a black eye?"
"Ah! All I remember is saying #bonny lass."
"Serves you right."
"Such hatred!"
#vss365
Sorry for my absence.
Depressed.
I'm in a jungle.
The kings and the queens
Of beasts
Stoop bend over,
Stomp on the weak,
Never #magnaminous,
Steined murderers
Hiding
Behind the cloak of lies.
It's a disgusting place.
Where are the brave sane?
#vss365
Us poets are a strange species.
With stiff upper lip,
We have to talk of love, birds and bees,
And many a #splendour,
When bombs kill kids,
Idiots decide what’s right and wrong,
And many an atrocity,
I hear there’s AI for that,
But I can hear those machines cry, not us.
#vss365
The #timid Moon shyly winks
At the blushing setting sun,
The creepers and the trees giggle,
The sand says sshhh to the waves,
Her dimple deepens, eyes sparkle,
Should we or should we not I ask again,
Bet you don't want to know
What we do right there on Nature's lap.
#vss365
I should stop
The #blatant infidelity
When I look for her in you.
If you have been
To the island of no return,
You will understand.
There the sun hangs
In limbo, there's neither
Sunset nor sunrise,
One prays to nothing,
The god of the lost,
A scary demon for most.
#vss365
"Swaps, I've committed seppuku on social media."
"How?"
"Admitted I hate cats and dogs."
"Lemme be the kaishakunin."
"How?"
"Will say #beastly you hate kids too."
"Ironic."
"How?"
"They hate the kid in me."
"Hate's creator thou art, to hate's victim turnest."
#vss365
For once, I could be faithful.
Not that you have complained.
I didn’t carry the past and
I didn’t pack for the future.
We laughed at our fantasies and
We promised not to write a poem.
For a little while, I was not #beastly.
Not that I heard your complaint.
#vss365
According to the stars,
I'm the #mountainous sort,
But you knew what I am,
#Enchanted by the beckoning sea.
Did I know what you were,
When we shared that dream
Of spending a night high above
The clouds hiding the azure?
You stayed back
And I delay the last swim.
#vss365
"Swaps, firstly, it's lovely to be one of your 4 this #ValentinesDay."
"Secondly?"
"We 4 are not sure of our role."
"Ah!"
"Platonic overcelebration? Situationship à la mode with no #kiss rule?"
"Lady with 4 lovers. 1 guy dies. She can't be the killer, no?"
"Oh!"
#vss365
On a Friday in early spring, I held Swapna’s hand for the first time.
We were on the S-Bahn from Potsdam to Berlin. I spotted a vacant seat. I took her hand. I did not let go even after we were seated.
That first #touch took six months.
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2013/12/touch.html
We don't leave footprints, do we, my love?
I try to lose mine in the deep.
But, you know there's not a decent #bone in me.
I pray for another chance.
Not with you. Even when I hold you.
But, they laugh at our clown act.
They should throw coins where we try to meet.
#vss365
My village is a tourist hotspot.
Rajendran's Puttu Kada now serves: 'steamed rice and coconut sandwich cake, oeuf dur avec sel et poivre'.
The temple pond is a hotel's swimming pool called 'Happy Hour 24x7'. Nice ones come out #pale around the gills, the others vanish.
#vss365
I know that I should think
Of the #blood spilled
Of the #wounds inflicted
Of the pain and the agony
But I have got to stay sane
To ignore all that
And remember love
And feel you with me
And share the beautiful
Before I think of all that I do not wish to know.
#vss365
Why did I leave her?
Cold black instead of #lambent,
Her eyes said get lost.
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ?
The dead don't disturb
Unlike the creepy greedy
#Ghosts of the living.
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ?
"Why are you wearing a black ribbon, Arjun?"
"My pet cockroach was murdered."
"Pet what?"
"Ma'am, after reading 'Metamorphoses', I had a dream in which Swapna turned into that."
"Swapna, are you wearing one to share his #pain?"
"No, Ma'am. I killed the wrong one."
#vss365
I was sixteen when it was discovered.
It seems we have been born straight from some historical age into the current times.
That life of some yesterday, after death, decided to park its #soul or DNA or whatever, here, in us.
#vss365
from my old note:
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2014/01/afterlife.html
Thoughts merely placed-
in parenthesis-
which is within or without
which is in light or in #shadow
which is to barricade or to escape-
is a matter of mirth.
Waking to the alarum of resolution-
a clarion call or a swan song-
love or skeptic, live or die?
#vss365
from
https://discardedthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2009/05/in-flight-1993.html
Scream, shall I? Mourn, maybe.
O poets, I can love. And, fight wars.
Brood about a world going waste.
But, they will say it’s an old story.
Tough they are with no hope.
With wise words to #soothe or sting.
Then, is there reason to write?
I am tired. Tired being tired.
#vss365
from
https://discardedthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2009/10/tired.html
"What do you do, my love?"
"I'm a taxidermist."
"Really? I thought interest in that was on the #wane."
"It's for myself."
"Ah! Any particular animal?"
"Human beings. After a date. Like this. They look rather good on bed, you know."
"Oh!"
#vss365
I looked at the Indian flag
As I would at any deity,
And there was the usual prayer,
"Take care of ALL of us."
Celebrated this Republic Day with one hope:
"I hope every Indian can afford at least one balanced meal every day."
(Balanced not only in terms of nutrition but in terms of participation too.)
My one meal today:
Rice
Chicken onion fry
Beetroot thoran
Avial
Theeyal with cashew nuts and a lauki-type vegetable
Aloo jeera Kerala style
(papad, curd, butter milk, pickle too)
I cooked only two of those items (chicken and potato).
Long long ago, at the #cusp of puberty and senility, a reliable oracle informed me that the tenth woman in my life would be THE woman.
#vss365
from an old autobiographical note that could be fiction:
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2011/03/tenth-woman.html
Life of a #vss365 wannabe writer:
08:00-11:00: With mother in a hospital. Ok? Maybe.
12:00-a few minutes back: With repair guy of washing machine. Ok? Maybe.
Now: #haiku or #senryu ? Ok? Never. 🙃🥲
It was #drizzling then.
Our umbrella not unfurled.
Were fingers entwined?
Do I avoid sleep
To escape this #unmoored life?
If I'm well rested
Will I not scream with anger?
Is there a metaphor
To explain this succinctly?
A leaf hiding the sun
To delay the inevitable. Maybe.
#vss365
A mature interacting group behaves like an elastic system. #Bend it a little and it will spring back. #Bend it too vigorously, you will cross a threshold, defects will stream in to stay forever. We are always in that new plastic state with immature inelastic ideas.
#vss365
from my outdated note about this place:
https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/10/itihasa-of-integral-part.html
The day we lost our sense of humour,
Tried to tickle with all that used to keep us doubled over-
Politicians, influencers and followers,
Those who keep gloom and doom #loom over us-
That's a lost cause with the mojo of ghosts
Staring at their worse half 6 feet under.
#vss365
"I had a dream. I was a samurai, merrily beheading and chopping my way to my love. Finally, with her, she serves me tea."
"And, it was laced with cyanide."
"How did you guess?"
"It's you, no?"
"A love in deed, #veer indeed."
"Have your tea."
"You didn't, did you?"
#vss365
The soft #murmur said I love writing,
The shout along said I'm bad at it,
I share that with those called lovers
Not sure what I'm trying there,
Don't think they didn't laugh
Those called lovers can be mean,
Why do I confess all this
Don't think it's to call you lover.
#vss365
Should I be jealous
Of #dappled light they describe?
Without you, who cares.
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ?
The anger, the betrayal, the needless,
The hopelessness #sear the soul,
Go on think I'm being melodramatic
With the outrage, the self-pity,
I'm the murdered one after all
And no one cares who did me in,
But then that could only mean
There's not one who is not guilty.
#vss365
"I signed your name instead of mine,
I wake up holding you even when you're gone,
I can handle any pain with you by me,
I..."
"Whazzat?"
"Love pome, Swaps."
"Ah!"
"Go on."
"One, too many I's."
"Don't get #wonky about it. I'm the one in love."
"That's the problem."
#vss365
Kids aren't what we used to be.
They don't write poetry no more.
We bawled and raged
About love lost.
That took 13 lines of doggerel.
Now, they rage and kill.
We bawled and raged
About a world gone too.
That took 31 #slapdash lines.
They don't waste time on that.
#vss365
The #vss365 serial-killer has struck again.
A #haiku (or #senryu ?) explained the how & the where.
Frozen memory-
Death in Tiger Balm Gardens.
Cooked in boiling oil.
Signed with prompt for the who & the why:
#Kooky artist.
Eschews the same old tropes.
Here to kill a yawn.
Cliff-hangers, twists and
#Unmissable denouement.
Rare in true love/crime.
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ?
#Adorned with nothing
Other than her wit and grace.
He's punch-drunk, knocked out.
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ?
Like the VHS tape in the 'Ring',
It's the #spooky telephone in mine.
On college campus,
Got access to it
In the third year,
Yes, long long ago,
It was the last year of my first love,
Oh no, she's still there
With another,
I was the goner
With calls too dear.
#vss365
1/3
A few years later,
In another Institute,
Still long long ago,
There was a phone
Far from my hostel room,
A girl claiming to be my wife
Called every night,
On that, I got her last call,
Not that wife who #spooked,
My last love, my only love.
#vss365
2/3
It's mobiles now,
I use it only for the macabre,
No, no more love,
That horror genre's not for me,
But the #spook rises
To claim every now and then,
Seasons come and go,
Echoes of the last brief call,
Sweet perennial thorn.
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ?
3/3
“Swaps, I’ve understood all about love & poetry.”
“Pray, don’t tell.”
“What would we do without that? Talk politics, religion, injustice…? Brrr”
“Spook, if I tell you
I love you, will you shut up
And leave me un-#spooked?
“See, you get my point.”
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ?
“Class, has AI produced any lifestyle changes in your life? Arjun?”
“I’ve stopped looking at people. Everyone seems to be AI-generated.”
“Fair enough. Swapna?”
“Ma’am, I’m still waiting for an #oddball AI system.”
“Like me?”
“Yes, Arjun, it can’t match your idiocy.”
#vss365
If I had to explain love to my kid,
Will I talk about the love of my life,
Will I have to explain how it left me dead,
Will I talk about how it might not be love,
Will my #clueless state affect the mother,
If I had to explain all about the other?
#vss365
Don't say, "#Balderdash!"
Ask, "Have you said anything
That's not trivial?"
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ? (Brrr no!)
from
"Questions to ask in Scientific Seminars 😇🙃" (1674) 13th ed., vol. 13, page 13.
I refuse to rename yesterday
To squeal with #delight today
But I can do that to tomorrow
Not to scream with fear the day after.
#vss365
I'm not the setting or rising One,
Not trying to be the loony romantic either,
I'm at the saddle point of Time,
Where the arrow turns hysterically confused,
No #travel, no rest, no circumcatalysts,
I'm free of resolutions and hope, cursèd, in limbo.
#vss365
The gathering was informed that the #sole beneficiary of Mutheychan’s wealth is Revathy.
Someone wailed, "Ayyo, Ammava…what will I do without…?"
Revathy stared at the disappearing back of her husband with cold determined eyes.
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2011/08/very-dull-dreary-affairnearly.html
When God read the book,
"Men/women from #Mars/Venus???
Goddamn! Who's from Earth?"
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ?
#vss365
“You shouldn’t have booed. It’s a seminar.”
“It’s crap.”
“Is that based on your wishful estimate of self-worth?”
“Safe-haven today, sub-prime tomorrow. What a fart of hot #air! That too about gold. Sacrilege!”
“The speaker says the inflated price is because everyone’s buying. What’s the price when big countries sell their reserves? Who will buy? The next big short? Worth a thought, I think.”
#vss365
Every #struggle and every change has its roots in some juvenile but logical thought which gained respectability only much later, sometimes never.
What is the Juvenile Manifesto of the youth of today?
I am too old to be young but I am young enough to be juvenile.
Even if it is a fool who starts a discussion, the discussion need not be foolish. So, let me voice some of my juvenile thoughts while I wait for the young to rise.
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-juvenile-manifesto.html
“I need to ask you something and you have to promise that you will tell me the truth," she said, 30 years back.
“#Shoot.”
“I know what you have been up to.”
“Is that the question?”
“Are you in love with me?” she asked.
“No,” I lied.
Truth is over-rated.
#vss365
from
https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2020/02/virgin-territory.html
"2 years back, a couple had a problem here."
"What happened?"
"Charged with obscenity in the open."
"Who caught them here?"
"Jealous fools."
"Ah."
"Do you want to get caught, Mrs.?"
"Ready if you are, Mr."
They stripped, #jump-ed in and swam in the cold, clear water.
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2012/06/footsteps-in-dark.html
Astrologer says:
"You suffer the rare lifelong Kantaka Shani when #Saturn transits the 4th/7th/10th house from your birth Moon sign."
Translation for layperson:
"All your life, you will be like the one-handed man hanging from a cliff wanting to scratch his balls."
#vss365
(Apologies to my dear #vss365 friends for my absence. If I wait for a sick society to give a regular supply of water, I will never write. I thank you for your support, best wishes and kind words. Truly mean it.)
Fourth day without water supply.
Unable to participate in #vss365 due to the mental and physical turmoil.
Sorry.
1/3
#Kerala might be #GodsOwnCountry.
But, the gods here aren't bothered about #CasteDiscrimination.
The gods here won't give the basic human right- #Water - to all!
2/3
If one doesn't belong to the majority in an area, one ceases to exist.
#Vanchiyoor in #Trivandrum is hell for this backward caste family.
3/3
Dr.: Do you #regret it's over?
Me: Doc, it was over before I married.
Dr.: It's natural for your wife to feel a bit jittery, no?
Me: For her, not even a memory should exist.
Dr.: It won’t hurt anyone, will it...if you erase that part?
Me: You sound like her, doc.
#vss365
from
https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/09/other.html
After 20 years, she got this letter:
"My dear daughter, I have been to a doctor. It seems I am losing my #memory. I would like to meet you. Could you please come to this address? Your loving Appa."
#vss365
from my 2-part short story 'This Year's Trip':
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2018/12/this-years-trip-part-1.html
Tried a #boho life.
Love, needs and desires changed that.
The end: a bozo.
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ?
Today evening, I was with a group of old schoolmates.
Escaped, after 30 minutes, from the #monotonous talk of company that's better off without me.
The silence of loneliness is not better but I am fine with the company of ghosts that say dead-n-dead-n...
#truestory
#vss365
Way back in Jan 2026, we had the #apogee of existential angst of teenagers.
Banned from social media, they roamed like zombies.
That coincided with the start of the In-flu serial killer pandemic.
Someone or something killed influencers. Even those with 100 followers.
#vss365
How many times have I killed myself?
Not to be a memory lost,
Not to have a #successor,
Not to fear loss,
Not to feel love,
Not even a question.
It's lonely in one's grave,
With the company
Of all those me's,
Including the one who knew you
When time meant something.
#vss365
"In my dreams, I see her with me."
"Who?"
"My first love. My only love."
"Weren't you two kids then?"
"So?"
"Do you see her as a kid in your dreams?"
"Of course."
"In your dreams, are you the kid you were or the dirty old man you are?"
"Dreams can't be #illicit."
#vss365
Love letters without that word,
Forbidden affair that was open,
A climax before the play began,
A postprandial fantasy
We thought we would share
With kids and grandkids,
But that was before the whisper
Of tender care became the #augury
Of a night that is endless.
#vss365
You look #chic, she said,
What do you want, chick, I growled.
Her left hook said rest.
#vss365
#haiku #senryu (definitely not!)
At a reunion/On social media.
They are #suave and accomplished.
Status anxiety.
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ?
I do not know what the ending will be. Maybe, she has married once again; maybe, I will propose a long time too late.
It is not the ending that #matters.
I will read this to her.
The #last time I wrote about love, she laughed at me.
#vss365
from my story:
https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/07/last-time-i-wrote-about-love.html
"I would have taken my life then. You saved me. I will never forget what you did."
"You are blowing it out of proportion."
Talk about death or love or other personal #matters bores me.
#vss365
from my story:
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2012/01/tasks-at-end.html
A politically correct creative artist is also known as an untrustworthy nincompoop.
#justsaying
Thought it's an old joke.
Told god our #specific plans.
Laugh-like lightning struck.
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ?
Every day I try to write a love poem,
Not that I know anything about that,
That should be the easiest,
Not that disaster's tougher,
One's my shadow I'm the other's,
Not that it's in my #action list,
One day I'll write about you,
Not that I won't delete before the end.
#vss365
I took her hand. I opened my fingers, giving her the #option to remove her hand but she kept her palm on mine. I closed my fingers. Gently squeezed her hand. There was a pause before she returned the same. I noted the hesitation. We sat, like kids, happy holding hands.
#vss365
from my story:
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2013/12/touch.html
“Romance wouldn’t have touched you with a 20-foot pole!”
“I was that bad, huh?”
“Bad would be an understatement. Only later, much later, did I wonder if that had been your #goal all along.”
“To keep romance away?”
“Yes.”
#vss365
from my story:
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2016/07/the-liars.html
She hates my tales. But,
Has no #issue with the act.
Sweet love makes me write.
#vss365
#haiku #senryu ?