HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

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HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

--RAM KRISHNA SINGH

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

1.

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

FRESHNESS

The withered leaves blown in autumn come again with the tired rains the season confers through the soft grey clouds the growing freshness on naked trees

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

2.

CROSSING

When the sea is still & mind is wingless the shore & moon one: we walk hand in hand crossing horizons hugging surge of time

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS 3. SPACE

How many defy the space between sleep & leap I hear sounds of cracked mirrors & torn veils

4.

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS AGAIN short nights & long days sleep loss rustles a friction echoing in bed the cycle of cravings over & over again

5.

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS DEATH OF A SONG

In the stillness of morning hangs fog like smoke veils her waiting in street I watch my window wavering shadow announcing death of a song

6. MIND love without clothes without bone has a joy within: soft, smooth & full like the mind creative & free

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

7. ECHO Nobody hears the vacuum mourning peace: echo haunts my soul like leafless trees raising grief to sick air

8. EMACIATION I am an image they secretly deride in the classroom mental emaciation bridges the gap

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS that feeds a teacher to teach another

9. WIND I lost my sleep over a thought I could not make my own the sun’s antidote changed the voice of the wind

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

10. I CAN’T SLEEP It is for their love of God they play loud music or chant His name on loudspeakers but it kills my peace the whole night I can’t sleep

11. FRESH CATCH the sea smells from far off leaps to the sky I drive through the maze of returning folks with fresh catch on their head

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

12. HARDSHIPS OF THE SKY I don’t want to mount the hardships of the sky if the earth’s labor pain is false or the action stillborn with or without scalpel the doctor humiliates process

13. SKY awaiting the wave that’ll wash away empty hours and endless longing in this dead silence at sea I pull down chunks of sky

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

14. ISLAND The shroud of fragrance in a closed room & a ghost at the threshold gnats & kites abide my triumph it all looks an island

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

15. FALLING MOON Draped in white the night embraces ripples down the terrace the course defies my gaze the moon falls into pieces down my son’s cheeks

16. TEABREAK With mordant comments he tries to geld a standpat in a feminists’ meet and turns a sook at tea break

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

17. SHIELD The menopausal man doesn’t know whether it is love or pressure of the groin he preaches heteropromiscuity searching for frolic as another shield

18. NEIGHBOR

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS with scheming mind & crafty heart a professional loser perfumes the room with flattering lips & strays a preacher into revolution

19. IS THIS ALL? With prayers’ cocktail live animal existence & boast, is this all? in self-same cocoon fungus of illusions grow toadstools of damned tract

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

20. KALI Crudity of the stone conceals grace of nudity the image of Kali reveals to her devotee

21. DIVINITY The sun on a mountain grave illumines the path to divinity unrealized in soul

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

22. WAVES Watching the waves with him she makes an angle in contemplation: green weed and white foam break on the beach with falling mood

23. HAIKU PRESENT I wish I could live nature’s rhythm free from bondage of clock time

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS rituals of work and sleep expanding haiku present

24. CRACKS The cracks on the parapet have widened for the peepal to stay green for once rains too want us to drench our heads and feel one with cool wind in a dark corner

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

25. CRAZY crazy these people don’t know how to go down with the swirl & up with the whirl but play in the raging water

26. BETRAYAL There’s so much to see from birds to butterflies & mildewed roses can I pick one for the sun betrayed by clouds the city didn’t expect?

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

27. TAKE OFF resting his chin on the back of his palms he stands at the dusted railing to watch the planes roar & take off

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

28. PAST There’s little to sustain the past looking beautiful each day as we bury it or review over a drink with strangers who don’t know & would forget soon

29. HEAVEN Heaven is the frisson of union with fishwife behind the boulders on sea beach

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

30. WHISPERS Seeking shelter under the golden wings of Angel Michael a prayer away now whispers the moon in cloud

31. SHADOW Last evening I saw a flower bloom today it’s faded but my fear lurking like a shadow ever present

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS I can’t erase: emptying the mind easier said than done

32. GEOMETRY with black & white marks & nest of ants on its skin the tree grows taller shining through the geometry of sun moon & halogen

33.

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS SECRET When I asked to open her secret she showed me thumb I thought she would return love for love

34. RELEASE Melting chrysanthemum silent chromosomes restless energy stones in wood where is the release?

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

35. SILENCE I clasp your hands & feel the blood running savagely through your arteries in tulip silence

36. SHE She is the tree green & wide

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS abundantly dressed overflowing spreading her sleeves blesses all in her cool shade solitude teems with breezy songs

37. CRUDITIES the nude reads his skin peeling eyes & curses the crumbled canvas the wrinkling hands couldn’t set: she suffers naked burial for simple art in crudities

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

38. BONDAGE I wish I could live nature’s rhythm free from bondage of clock-time rituals of work and sleep expanding haiku present

39. AWAITING Little candles fail to illumine the deity or golden dome in the valley darkness reigns and god too awaits light

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

40. DIRECTION night’s prisoned friends keep me awake with planes flying over the ashram every now and then I watch the direction matters

41. SCARED slung-jawed awake two grinning skeletons sit bolt upright in bed

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS hear the shrieks next door but too scared to call the police

42. LOUT My bones have holes for eyes I search my teeth in the muck leeches have sucked my blood: where’s the lout who ate my flesh?

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

43. PRICK Unpruned roses unmown grasses make me aware of the emptiness the dusk in her room sounds she searches out her shadow in the rising moon I feel season’s prick

44. TENSION The blank space between words is the burnt skin of time I couldn’t paint: they stole the colors & brush of the eyes

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

45. WIND I lost my sleep over a thought I could not make my own: the sun’s antidote changed the voice of the wind

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS 46. BROODING Time is running out cracks in walls develop fast but I stay static shrouded in cobweb as if in dusk denying death brooding slipped chances

47. POETS Watching the moon in the western horizon two haiku poets scratch each other’s back and mock the rest as neophytes

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

48. OVERLOAD Goes awry the electrical circuit in the brain cells in my drugged sleep I utter expletives unmindful of the victims: I can’t help my sensory overload

49. NUDITY The wind lifts her curved nudity hidden in water curtain: I touch the strings that whisper love in each falling drop

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

50 TOO FAR Each death has a passage to surprise the dead awareness matters no solace the cow’s tail in the river’s midst heaven far, too far

51.

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS DUSTY COLONIES Dusty colonies recount in grammar of cough new tales of hazards near open cast pits they move with graves on shoulders mark my white shirt black

52. SEASON’S EYE The naked tree seems to sway in hope of green waves spring promises: here am I prostituting smile in mirror despite change in season’s eye

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

53. SHADOW raising the glass to invite the lone moon: silent shadow suffer the falling leaves yellowed with autumn

54. LEMON IN COURTYARD She props the stooping lemons with stake but avoids bending close to me:

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS I die to draw the blossom in my twining arms but she likes the other scent

55. ECHO Nobody hears the vacuum mourning peace: echo haunts my soul like leafless trees raising grief to sick air

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

56. SNARES weaving lies & hopes he exposes his skill with riddles only fools himself & prides in snares of deceits buries his own peace

57. STAINS Layers of dust thicken on the mirror water makes the smuts prominent: I wipe & wipe & yet the stains stay like sin

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

58. SOUNDS How many defy the space between sleep & the leap I hear sounds of cracked mirrors & torn veils

59. FED UP Can’t I grab a little warmth, fresh air & love simple, sound & innocent? I’m fed up playing life across the net shuttling nightmare in cold

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

60. JOY moonlight lingers on mango boughs like the fruit sweet yellow sun in my courtyard cool shade travels with thin cloud I see love dance

61.

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS LIGHT Memory fades like her body in dim light I bury my head in open hands to escape noises

62. WAKING standing at the edge I long to float with waves & wave with instant wind on the dream water’s breast I read tomorrow’s wonder: the secret of waking

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

63. VISION teary eyes with sparks and lightning dried vision caged existence seeks deliverance muttering old prayers

64. BODY’S SONG Awake in dream he looks for the candle– love’s invitation lighting up in the dark and sings the body’s song

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

65. BEWARE Professors beware intellectual success lies in inventing lies to conceal common truths and sound holier-than-thou

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

66. SHADOWS the mirror swallowed my footprints on the shore I couldn’t blame the waves the geese kept flying over the head the shadows kept moving afar

67. ISLAND at the river she folds her arms and legs resting her head upon her knees and sits as an island

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

68. ROTTEN RAT Man is an animal with a peculiar smell says Bertolt Brecht: he smells a rotten rat as he waves his khaddar arms with fake smile

69. NIGHT’S SILENCE

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS Unmoved in the wind the rose still stands erect in the night’s silence i imagine my teens the street is lonely & love-ache ever fresh with stolen fragrance

70. MEDITATION Unable to see beyond the nose he says he meditates and sees visions of Buddha weeping for us

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

71. PRAYER On the prayer mat the hands raised in vajrasan couldn’t contact God— the prayer was too long and the winter night still longer

72. RIVER Ripples of darkness tear the river flowing within I hear shrieks of shadow amid savage hails

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

73. SEX IN PUBLIC sex in public background folk music in Weston Park love masquerades under a foreign tree I await driver to take me home

74. WATERY WEATHER The watery weather continues to shatter the mortal shell

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS one by one washes the paints that hide the face

75. HIGHWAYMAN in the forest of her body & steeps of her breasts is the highwayman I saw escaping the moon over stream last night

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

76. WATERY LIPSTICK a happier image with salubrious top turns rapturous as she tamps her love with watery lipstick

77. WATCHING The painted paper-god & christ on the cross stand on the dawn-colored wall of my bedroom watching sex, prayer & restlessness

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

78. MILITANT Caught between flattery of politics & democracy of opposition he turns a militant & kills both left & right

79. HERE SHE GOES

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS Here she goes in the long light and swiftly a shadow moves with her

80. SMOKE Who sees the smoke of the thumb-sized flame the body burns the ashes of silence float on the holy breast tears pollute

HERE SHE GOES: A COLLECTION OF MICROPOEMS

81. NEST Taken out of me the bone of my bones I grow into her and be each night discard the covers seeking each other return to the ancient nest

Copyright: Ram Krishna Singh, India

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