…… Distant Shores

Twilight song of a cuckoo
taps the window softly.
Gothic tree and drooping sky
humble my thoughts.
Past was me.
I will know then
why your hills turned away my clouds
by shifting sands.

Was it a colossal guilt of tomorrow?
Which never wanted to become present
and enter my house.
But my memory was sharp
and days were numbered.

I wanted to invite the death discreetly
while praising the life and listening to birds
without dropping the history
from my crooked fingers.

Between yourself and myself
a sea was surreptitiously raging.
The waves were dividing the shores.

Satish Verma

…… MUST UNBELIEVE

No more the sun was hot.
October shadows were clinging to hills.
I was ready
to speak, to negate and to kindle the dust.

The issues were floating in the wind
like bleached skin of the dying man.
You could look through it and beyond.

Do you think the ageless will die?
The impotent rage will speak for the street?

I wanted to negate the remains of pedagogy,
the shoddy make-up of the lies,
and the men, in ugly immorality-
cutting the truth to the bone
with roars of laughter,
bidding for the flesh of carved saints.

The faithful must unbelieve
in the history of the star,
who could not reach the earth.
Time was creating fear.

Satish Verma

WHAT ENDING?

Could not hold it, put it down.
TIME.
The words forget you, pass by.
You remain standing on the brink.
Now, now, where to go?

Time avenges, walks on you
and you cannot catch the breath,
to fill the space between life and death
life will not move, death will not stop.
If not ready to live, death will not look like you
you will not look like death.

World changes every thing,
when seeing stops, listening begins
losing threads of me, between you and me
between me and you.
Something grows out of the mud
a new star.

Begins from end, the ending
of beginning. No ending, no beginning.
Timeless, faceless, nameless
groping in void, to catch the alphabets
Peaks are very frightening
Then where is the end? No end.
This is the end.

Satish Verma

QUESTION, ANSWER

You have nibbled and eaten raw
scratching by nails
talking of a pink rose syndrome
under the corona of soft spikes.

Someone talks to you in your brain
guiding you to guillitone.
Life was not worth any meaning,
when questions were none.

No one to resume, isolate green
from the grains of empty desires.
Your hand travels from thorn to thorn
to reach the unrelenting fires.

Made of eccentric obsessions
your house is far away. I smell
the yellow leaves falling, one by one.
It is still dark, with no moon.

Question will become one day, the answer.
The answer will never be the answer
We will remain confused, unclear
about the question and the answer.

Satish Verma

INNOCENCE

Night will feed the sleep
sleep will feed the night.
I will remain awake the whole journey.

Remove the mask and look straight
in eyes of evil dark and black
across the street.

Violence was lurking in corner
dogs were barking non-stop
somebody had shot the moon.

Give me hand I watch the blood
tricking from mountains:
beyond the border lies the corpse.

Which god was yours, which mine?
Let us divide not truth as divine.
Earth is tormented, suffering is same.

Unbearable was void, when father was away
stung by wasp of innocence
child starts crying.

Satish Verma

GO AWAY

Unlived death, that was me
waking in exile from the bones.
He said I remember your verse
a split open bloom!

Given away your gems to sea
ready to become ash, green blood,
you have killed a white cloud
now go for a floral burial.

He said I remained unpacked
like an open wound.
How far space will hang on the shoulders,
how far the sky will remain blue?

Snow will not melt I presume
I will burn my shirt with stain.
Life will not stop but conceive
the proud burning pain.

I stand today without complaints
grieve for my silence, ignorance.
There was a home I could not save
miles from water like bright dome.

Satish Verma

YOU

From eyes I will read.
Don’t say, what you say
but remain you.

Dismantle the tower,
go for a walk,
when the moon climbs on dew.

Seed by seed
we went mad
leaf by leaf I held you.

Sit on the bank
wash your feet,
rock by rock pain were you.

Stars will go
sun will rise.
At the dawn, I want you.

Sins were many
birds were few.
In twilight zone
a cuckoo flew.

Satish Verma