Street Poet: April 2012

she turning thirty soon

it was an usual evening
she said "i going to be thirty soon
i want to get married
my parents worry too much
and all the persons who love me
or like me dont even understand this"

wish i could help her
but i really dont belong there

she said "you are doing your parts well
writing poetry about me"

Those naked days

many years ago
Khuman Lampak was our play field
much before all the buildings came up.
many times we crossed the Imphal river naked
winter or summer we didnt care
we dug the earth for kakthum
we ran naked across the field
we caught fishes from the streams
along the bank
we hunted wahi from holes to holes

but one time
we decided to sell the fishes we caught
then we all headed naked wet and muddy
for the little tea and bora (pakora) stall
near the complex of Sports Authority of India (SAI)

the old woman refused to buy our fishes
but in exchange she offered us teas and pakoras
we had them and came back happily
naked and covered our butts with dry mud
we did not notice anyone in the hotel.
we came back talking
of how often we should come to the hotel
with fish

the next morning,
me and my mother went to buy some puris
for breakfast in a nearby hotel
then that spinster said to my mother
"Lembi, is that ur son?"
"yes" mother said
"please dont leave ur kid like a stray dog
it is very ashamed to say that he and his frens belong to my locality
they all came naked near my office and even had tea and pakoras
they are so shameless, how can they do that?"

Mother gave me a day long lecture then
while breakfasting,
while lunching, while dining.

and now i am no longer naked
unless drunk and forget my pant in toilet
nor khuman lampak is a play field
now it is with full of IRBs
and has become rich men's jogger's park.
that spinster too has got married in my neighbor
and has two sons and a daughter
but she still does not look at me

Ode to my parents

Last week was my parents' 33rd anniversary
I wanted to wish them but could not
as my phone hates to have balance
and i am their lazy and broke son

years ago
Father was an actor
he acted in GC Tongbra's play
Leisabi Chithi Kala

Mother did not know of it
till the day he said
"i am acting in a play
which will be staging tomorrow at MDU"

They had a huge fight
which i watched like a play
The fight happened cos one of the actress
in the play had given my father a sky blue colour sweater

I was fortunate enough
Mother undid the sweater
and knitted a new sweater for me
which i wore and became my favourite

I was hardly seven or eight years old
Mother took me to the Play
Father's first scene:
He got down from the bus

and said "there is nothing like eromba of Mao"
Father was the protagonist
who is a bombay returned
with a beautiful girl

There was a scene
where two girls fight over him
at that moment
mother wanted me to scream "baba"

which i could not
mother still says "i was a coward"
later i know why she wanted me to scream
she wanted everyone to know that actor is married and a father too

that night too
they had a fight
but it has been years
i have not seen them fighting

father quits acting
but still dreams to direct a film one day
sometimes he jokes
"Lembi! in my film u will get to act as a mother and i am the hero"

Happy 33rd anniversary, mother, father
I am thirty one with hundreds of poems
Thanks for this life
even if it is bit fucked..

she

Playing knuckle bones
She decided to change the world
then she wore what she wanted
and the world watched
and she became the color
of the earth and its joy

Tissue Poem- on the way to Sukhothai

The Highway was full of poetry
Some were playing hanging from trees
some were busy climbing up the lamp posts
The sun soon rose up
and melted them away in the streets
reminding me of many things
that happened back home in the streets
I am sure it is happening evrywhere
every dawn for there is Sun
for there is them you dont want