Let's not touch the bad

 

Life's tough on this #coast,

A noose waiting for the fall.

Let's not touch the bad.

#vss365

#haiku #senryu ?

guilt

 

I got into trouble 

Feeling guilty

Not about what I was accused of

It's something worse

That I had to think about

If I had thought

About lesser matters

Life would have had fewer

Troubles #descending 

Upon the bemused.

#vss365

To yawn or not to yawn

 

Books and movies taught me how not to murder.

The brilliance of the act or investigation and twists in the tale are such boring tropes.

I rely on simple boring methods.

My work avoids #cadence and emotion. 

To yawn or not to yawn. 

That's the only question in life.

#vss365

from 'Bumpkin'

 

I got my rural calling one dreary city morn. 

I phoned Hosappan. 

My decision to #shift to the village was dismissed with “Bah!” 

The second call got thoughtful silence. 

On the third, 

“Are you sure you want to live here?” he asked. “Haven’t you seen ‘Straw Dogs’?”

#vss365

from

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2016/10/bumpkin.html

misunderstood

 

"Class, give me examples of misunderstood lines. Arjun?"

"I was devastated when I understood Frost's 'The #Road Not Taken'. Made me give up on individualism."

"Extreme. Swapna?"

"I choose, 'Wherefore art thou, Arjun?'"

"You mean Romeo?"

"Why is HE Arjun?"

"Cruel."

#vss365

from 'Confessions...'

 

My kids are #turning out to be like their parents. 

My girl keeps diaries full of poems, essays and hopeless longing. My boy needs recognition from time to time. 

I envy them at times. They have no excuse not to love. They have tried. I can see the bruises. 

#vss365

from

https://discardedthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2010/01/confessions-of-lady-next-door-from.html

from 'Snapshots'

 

The past isn’t what it used to be.

Comrades-in-arms walking along—

A half-truth: I walked, they did not.

The future will be what it won’t be.

In ashes or dementia, the best bets.

Strife and penury, there’s #momentum there.

Now, the present isn’t what it is, is it?

#vss365

from

https://newnonentities.blogspot.com/2020/09/snapshots.html

hero in an epic

Most days, I wake up as a hero in an epic.

Gods are villains, love's one helluva business,

Friends are expendable, with a murder or two,

#Headwinds are a must, as for handicaps, 

It's an Achilles heel from head to toe.

The other days,

I'm the villain, 

Life's the same.

#vss365

 

the endless game

 

Am I the voyeur at the Lovers' Park?

Dreaming of being the lover with you?

I need not answer such questions.

With no answer when you had to go.

To #depart with no arrival- 

That's my Lady Luck's endless game.

#vss365

from 'Trouble at the Wedding'

 

We retired to our bedroom. 

She cornered the best part of the bed.  She feigned sleep. When I touched her,  she snarled, ‘Don’t you dare!’ 

On my uneven side of the bed, resigned to #conquer on another date, I fell asleep immediately. That infuriated her even further.

#vss365

from

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2012/01/trouble-at-wedding.html

from 'Inconsequential'

 

He exhibited his skills, or lack of it, with his stiletto knife. ‘Operation successful but #patient died,’ he quipped at the end of the five finger fillet. He was joking. The man was only nearly dead but a bloody mess.

I've used his services a few times over the years. 

#vss365

from

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2011/01/inconsequential.html

Yesterday, I slept with my love

 

Yesterday, I slept with my love –

I made love the way I want to

Clinging #unabashed,

The clock stopped ticking

I could love the way I want to;

Tomorrow, I might end it all –

A minor matter,

An inconvenience,

Thoughtless

Without epitaph;

Today, I will smile at it.

#vss365

from

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2011/03/time-flows-both-ways.html

Meh! Bah!

 

"Life without you..."

"Is like electricity without #magnetism."

"Is like a G-string without the string."

"Is like a topological defect that's escaped into a higher dimension."

"Is like beating around the bush without getting to the point."

"Arj! Meh!"

"Bah! Swaps!"

#vss365

from 'The One That Stood Out'

 

Lush landscape contrasted with brutal war, birth of society in graveyard towns, love’s #embrace in death’s company.

There was an out of focus photo of a mother with a baby. 

"We had been marching for days. Mama was killed 2 days later," the artist said. "I survived." 

#vss365

from

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2013/06/the-one-that-stood-out.html

the bookmark

 

"What did you do?" she asked after describing her lovely vacation.

"I wrote a story."

"Can I read it?"

He gave her the love story that did not seem like a love story. 

He placed a piece of paper instead of the bookmark with a photo of a boy giving a #rose to a girl. 

#vss365

from

https://gatheredthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2013/07/love-stories-in-berlin.html

what do I get?

 

"Will you marry me, Swaps?"

"Why?"

"What why?"

"What do I get?"

"Get?"

"Do you promise fun and #frolic?"

"No."

"Security--via brain or brawn?"

"No."

"Ah! Rhetorical question, huh?"

"So, I shouldn't try it with other ladies, huh?"

"Arj, my love, please don't."

#vss365

from 'Torture'

 

"Have you ever been tortured?"

"Beaten black and blue. Hating it more when they pause. You try to look them in the eye, to show #defiance, to beg for mercy. You try to pray. If you are lucky, you get time to curse. You know it will continue. No saviour, no miracle."

#vss365

from

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2012/03/torture.html

from 'Being Bad'

 

"Appa, have you ever been really bad?" 

Can I tell her the truth?  No.

That’s part of love. Hiding, or just not #revealing.

One has to be ready, though. The bad has the habit of revealing itself, like a dead body escaping weights and shackles to resurface in a pond.

#vss365

from

https://justoneavatar.blogspot.com/2013/05/being-bad.html

forget the only memory I wish to remember

 

"I used to wake up knowing he would be looking at me, #tenderly, lovingly. That’s all we wanted.

I didn’t listen when he foretold doom.

When I heard about what he did, I hated myself more than I had to hate him. 

I had to forget the only memory I wish to remember."

#vss365

from

https://gatheredthoughts-swapna.blogspot.com/2010/05/scream-within.html

Just testing

 

"You don't #swoon over me." 

"Are you ok?"

"I need to be pampered."

"Swaps, wake up!"

"Did you pour water over me?"

"Let's go to a hospital."

"Oh, shut up, Arj!"

"The stuff you said in your sleep."

"Scary?"

"Definitely not you."

"Ah! Just testing."

"Idiot!"

#vss365

but...

 

I'm a #supercilious 

and bitter bore

but not when I bow

To the hues of eventide

but it ain't enough

to be worthy of love

But there's hope

when I'm not me 

before your smiling eyes.

#vss365

upside world

 

In this upside world

With water above concrete,

Waive self-appraisal.

#vss365

#haiku #senryu ?

a bit too late

 

This #apprehension,

When the beach has gone under,

Is a bit too late.

#vss365 

#haiku #senryu ?