With selfish reason
is youth seasoned,
locked within oneself,
grasping the bars
of another’s philosophy,
ever in spurious flight
for a lapse from conflict
in murky ennui.
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
I walked along the #bank.
My river's strange.
The once-serene flow,
Treacherous with rapids,
unknown depths.
The old sandy bathing spot,
an ugly mound of rock,
weeds and wild grass.
I watched
men pile sand onto a boat.
I watched
my ravaged river.
Coward!
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2014/04/my-mothers-village.html
I miss the eatery near my hostel.
On Sundays, for breakfast, I had dosa, kesri baath, vada, filter coffee and you.
Yes, I sat like the #frog waiting to be kissed. Hoping to be good enough for you.
We kissed before and after. I remained the same. You too. Forever.
#vss365
"No lover can be trusted. Period."
"I agree."
"You are not supposed to agree."
"Why?"
"I am married to you."
"But, that's the solution to such a conundrum from the loose #maw of the matrimonially enslaved."
"Huh?"
"Will you sleep, please, my love?"
"Oh!"
#vss365
"Don't tell him."
"I love him."
"He's my best friend."
"He will kill us."
"It was lovely."
"We shouldn't have."
"Should have had only once."
"Or twice."
"First time three."
"Mindblowing."
"Was it?"
"Oh yes."
"Why did it have #lupine seeds?"
"Why did he buy six pastries?"
#vss365
The old tree grows.
Why can't I?
I take care of it:
fungus, robbers,
whispering softly.
Is that why?
Am I weary,
unforgiving,
cynical,
picky?
I was so
even then!
The monster
within? Didn't it
#crawl in then?
Hold, dream,
make love last,
surely I can!
Can't I?
#vss365
Have you heard
The sound of one hand clapping?
When I talk and the other dozes,
I hear that sound.
Where's the #pigeon in that,
Do you ask?
Oh! I should ask the #vss365 host
If I should say more.
Birdie num-num!
It's such a day!
One thought dies
Before the next
Is even born.
"Why have you rejected my short story?"
"#Weird and good but plagiarized."
"I don't do that!"
"Father shoots daughter for marrying out of caste. Stuffs body in a suitcase. Mother chops up the daughter's lover."
"Who has written that?"
"It's in today's newspaper."
#vss365
Tomorrow, I might have to attend a wedding reception.
Why can't people send a box of food to each guest's house?
Why is it so difficult to #grasp the fact no one really wants to meet the newly-wed or their lot and vice versa?
#vss365
For my first date, I borrowed money. (Lived on #grain and veg for the rest of the year.)
Took her to a five-star hotel.
"Isn't this the place where a human was made tandoor?" she said.
Went to a nearby bar. Reception was cold, like Hell when God trespasses to preach.
---
Trouble began with a bawdy song on TV. (Or, with our cocktail, the #Grain-y Past.)
Drunks danced drooling at the damsel.
She joined them. "That's my size," she pointed at the guy on TV. To raised eyebrows, "Oh yes, it matters."
More left feet joined the dance floor.
---
(Common perceptions about such establishments can't boast a #grain of truth.)
Drinks and food were on the house.
Like any reputable place with a rep to protect, they did not ask us to return.
Two constables there left us at her place. Her father could not complain.
#vss365
A woman was murdered at Lakeview Apt. An elderly citizen found the body.
The accused (in chron. order):
security guard;
victim's kin;
politicians;
the victim;
the elderly citizen;
migrant workers;
well-#behaved 'serial' couple;
headless police with bottomless case.
#vss365
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2014/01/murder-scrapbook.html
I bought a stuffed toy for her. That left money for the bus not the rickshaw.
I was late. She was waiting.
With the toy crushed between us, we kissed for the first time that day.
The little time that's lasted the longest.
For once, my cynicism is off its #pedestal.
#vss365
He:
I the husband-father, the worker-boss,
The lonely voyeur, the #sturdy scaffold,
They compare and mock.
She:
I'm not a girl, a woman, a mother,
A wife, a lover, a womb, a vagina,
An idol to worship, serve or curse.
Them:
I'm not a role
For your stage
Or any stage.
#vss365
from
https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/12/4-deal.html
He liked walking against the crowd. Newly-wed couple struggling on a tandem bicycle smiled back. Young mother played with her child on a cycle. The pouting father-husband dragged his feet. Next, it was a mother-wife who sulked. He tried to be serious, for a change, for a laugh.
from
https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2011/04/story-tellers-sabbatical.html
"Is that a #nebula?"
"No idea."
"I would like to know what's going on there."
"Hmmm."
"Am I boring you?"
"I am looking at you."
"And?"
"No idea."
"Really?"
"Hmmm."
"How long will we last?"
"Long enough to love."
"Wish we were back home."
"On loveless Earth?"
"Brrr."
#vss365
I do not love you.
I have cried a lot,
Written about it too,
#Bailed me out when
Imagination failed.
Pimped in many ways,
Forgotten for other desires,
Easy excuse to spook
Inconvenient company.
I do not love you.
#vss365
Death exhumes the truth, if one cares to remove the #shellack of lies. Now, we meet at their meeting place. We hear them talk. Not about us. It's the looks they exchange that gives them away. Two ghosts, the widow and the widower, left behind to keep their love alive.
#vss365
from
My wife lay inside. I stood outside. Her father avoided me. Her sister talked to her fiancé. Her mother did not let me enter the house. She hugged the young man. "She will be with us," he told her. He stared at me. I should #pelt him with something but he has that right.
#vss365
I dreamt of being young again.
A friend to some:
loyal, thoughtful,
trustworthy.
To a love:
attentive, caring,
principled,
encouraging,
a CheG-JohnGalt
#dissonant hybrid;
surveyed her bosom
and rear
strictly for kids' sake;
guiltless.
How long was I in that Hell?
#vss365
The #ophidian question mark
With no question preceding;
Curved, promising,
A trace of certainty in the dot;
The symbol remains chaste.
Like the girl I watch from far,
The question begs to be there.
I stand alone.
#vss365
from
https://discardedthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2009/05/cage-idea-2000.html
Wife: "You cheated me."
Man: "How did I cheat you?"
Wife: "You told me about all your girlfriends and ex-es."
Man: "How did I cheat you?"
Wife: "One was and is happily married; another is a lesbian; then there's the one who does not even know you; the rest the same."
"Arjun...?"
"Yes, Swapna..."
"I love you."
He trembled, choked on a scream within, collapsed.
"Oh, you are such a..."
"Read the paper...lovers are killing each other! Epidemic...even #flirtation is banned!"
"But, I..."
"Don't, Swa..."
"love...aha! He faints again. Ha!"
#vss365
"Why's that called an eye phone?"
"Granpa! Stick to your landline!"
"You sound like my Granpa."
"Aarghh!"
"When I asked him about his #gramophone, he told me to stick to my walkman."
"Walkman? Whatzzat?"
"Just another thing for the proletariat, you bourgeois lot!"
#vss365
"That client whose hubby built a temple on their disputed property...she has demolished it. Not a #mote of it left!"
"Beats mine with the Siva-Sati pact."
"Huh?"
"Siva told Sati their marriage would end when she doubts him. My lot tried it two-ways. Lasted one day."
#vss365
from
https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2010/06/sati-and-siva-love-and-frailty.html
"Pssst..."
"Get lost!"
"Arjun! Don't copy from Swapna's paper."
"Ma'am, she's asking the meaning of #philtrum."
"Ha!"
"Arjun, what is the meaning of it?"
"It's the part between gluteus maximus."
"Ha!"
"Arjun, will you move that part of yours outside the class?"
#vss365
