Animal Poets


The cows in the shed are lazy poets
reciting poetry of hay and meadows
leaning over each other
chewing untiredlessly
hanging their milk-full breasts
surrendering easily every morning
to the milkman poet with the aluminium cans

The cats are mad poets
in the morning sun
waiting for a 'sparrow' to rhyme
with 'window'
of the kitchen
from where they will steal chicken

The marching ants are beat poets
travelling continuously
climbing the steepest thing up and down
looking for sweets like grapes in american outskirts
where kerouac had many sex with ladies in grape farm
with the heels soften by red wine from the grapes.

the mosquitoes are failed poets like me
whose lives you can't predict.
Heard a Slap, then
they ooze poetry of blood on the walls
leaking their own lives

the bees are romantic poets
who wait for spring
for mango flowers, lilies, tulips
jasmine ,etc, and they love to suck
They are thieves like many i know

The flies are fake poets
who act like philospher.
give them a place
a garbage or a spit
a wet private genital or sticky fingers
they will hover around
with their limbs in their heads rubbing
as if they are in deep thoughts
as if they are going to create a gold mine

the ponies are street smart poets
but never do a thing on their own
till whipped or canned
they keep the tradition of old school
as they are fools

The dogs are the worst poets
who write and bark
at poor men and women
who snatch others' poems
They are mostly green and black in colors
they travel in group
they sniff everything they see
at nights they remain high
but stick to each other
as they fear for their lives in dark

the spiders are propagandist poets
every corner they spread their webs
attracting helpless foolish poets
and slowly they will make the foolish poets' soul dry
and will leave them dead hanging from the gallows poles

The bulls are working class poets
with no idea how to defy the status quo
they will die as poets with their unpublished poems
soaked in their own sweat
while even their dung have been exploited

the fishes are the poets in prison
they wait for their day to come
with no idea who brought them in prison
or what poems have they written to end up in prison like this
'die! Die!
The bait is, for you, a rope to hang'
they are guarded by dogs
they are spat by dogs
they are pissed by dogs

the migrant birds are the hungryalist poets of 1962
who all gathered here dreaming a new revolution
under their colorful wings
but left leaving a fellow poet in a trap...
and they never returned
since then, no poets ever drop pamphlets of their poetry
in the streets of city of joy, except in russian stories.
since then the streets are wordless and voiceless
now they only write for themselves and carry wherever
they go like robins in the eastern hills under their wings
and the lake awaits for a new flock of migrant birds

the owls are the three poets of Shingnaba
who in day time, in 1974, were very hungry and angry
but now at such night time become sober,
so sober that their poems are with full of punctuation,
to breathe for every word and line and stanza.
They sit by a hole of a banyan tree as old as withered,
observing the robbed, raped and killed animals..
once a year they fly out of the hole to see the thick jungles of Assam
but they used to kick their mothers by chests earlier to fight the enemies.

SUnday Rain Walk


5pm
Abe woke me up
saying "wake up dada
see the sky is dark, so unsual
can't you smell the dust?
dont your hear the sky thundering
like a mad dog in the deep of night?"

I asked "what's wrong with him?"
she laughed "You are more blue than the sky i know"

I woke up lazily with the heaviest heart on earth
My breakfast was Officer's Choice
I woke up
with thoughts of her, the pink girl, the tomato salad loving girl,
rememebring how she made me felt like a a very shy school boy
at Namdunlong church
she stared at me
i stared away at the window 
half blinded by her hair
neither straight nor that wavy
Jesus saw it all,
He is dumb that's why he is silent
all these months
other wise he would have translated
why i said "I like you"
I meant 'I love you"

Yes, with thought of Ma Cabin Hoten too
where I saw the fine lines of her lips
where a bowl of chicken curry 
played the most undelicious curry
on earth...
the tea was sweet like her,
the ladies in front of us with the kid
I didnt care of,

But it is too late
I miss the bus
There is no point of seeing Ripe Mangoes
in the vegetable market in spring
Upon the pull-cart
when people talk of cucumbers. 

But I dont care
I have decicded to be a full time poet
and never will write about banana i see
cos i hate to eat them or peel the for others
I will write of things i love 
I will cry of things I dont get

As i no longer care of things around me,
Let the world rot
like my own jeans soaked in the bucket of water
for days before Binayak Sen got bailed
I will not  dream to handshake anymore with lady Roy
I have got my big things with no gods
unlike her small things with gods
i have to take care of them..

I will not care of the world
when i sleep with scent of whiskey
when i wake up with table full of pegs

with all these thought
I walk in rain with my CMB umbrella
spitting in rain in my lane
thinking of writing this poem
but i know people who read this wont get it
they are as shallow as my neigbor's pond
in Imphal with some unwanted fishes in it

And if you think there are grammartical mistake in the poem
or i have mispelt the words
Blame the Keyboard of this computer
not me or my dirtynail fingers
You know, I write when i want to write with my heart
and my heart doesnt lie
nor it cares where Im
Even if im at Lakshmi Cyber Cafe...

And Poetry is all i got
dont ask me to stop writing
Im sorry if i have used you in this poem
but I use only the things i love in my poetry
unlike the History, you know, filled with hate 

with this poem


With this poem
I throw away the memories of her
in my polythene of garbage
with the left over spoilt rice

I know the memories
will often come as my heart is soft and tender
like that of jackfruit tree leaves
but i dont care
I will throw them away continuosly
like i pour down every peg of whiskey
in my little dry throat.

She lied she lied
when she continously said to me;
'you lied you lied'

With this poem
I deleted every pictures of her
from my sister's camera
from my netbook

With this poem
I erased the memories of last september
I erased the memories of me and she
in holy family hospital

with this poem
I burnt her two black panties
which were of no use to me
other than reminding of how she smelt

\with this poem
I sit right now in my stair
where the dog left his paw marks
Time says 2.19 am
as I write this
But i dont give a fuck

with this poem
i call it a day
but a 400ml of whiskey bottle
awaits me lying on my bed
like my whore
............................

Computer

The grandson arrived
after four years of computer engineering
with a computer.

The gradma smoking her hidak chafu asked
"what is this 'computer' all about?
Heard a lot about it"

The grandson replied
"Abok! with this you can do anything....
all u need is to program it to do what you want
like ,like.....u can make it cook ur meal
wash your clothes
find firewoods"

Grandma said "Great! Program it and refill my Hidak Chafu"
''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Hidak Chafu- Traditional Meitei Hookah


Goodbye Ginsberg

Ashley always said
"You cant like Beat, Akhu,
cos you are not homosexual"
And today i silently give up
my obsession of Beat
as Bukowski replaces it all

but Bukowski always comes
with a can of American beer
or wine in his German hands
and I can't afford beer or wine
so i sit with him with Old Monk
Or Sikkim

Goodbye Ginsberg!
Don't let Nixon talks
about your America in heaven
here i will take care of Obama
in my poetry

Some Shits

I die more than i do my living
I wake up again and again
As they forget to cremate me again and again

Trap me now
In richmen's world
Undress me now
among the flamboyant gentlemen
I have got poverty to offer to them
I have got my body for the scars they want to carve

Rape me now
with your boots and tooth
I have bled enough
Nothing more to paint these streets of my own shadows



My Mobile Phone

Every time i get drunk
I take it out of my pocket
if i am walking
or pull it from under the pillow
If im overdosed with cheap rum
and call the girl i love
call the girl who loves me
we will talk for 40 minutes
we will wish each other
I will also talk mad
I will say I like her

But I slammed the phone on the walls
many time when my ex said "Im a loser"
when i fought with drunken frens
in drunken nights of delhi

I remember the day the girl i love called me
when i was having a drunken auto night ride
on ring road smoking the snatched bidi
from the driver's lips

She said" You never acknowledge my love
i dont think you care of me
There is a boy who loves me
i must start seeing him soon
Take Care..keep wrting poems
I love them all as much as  love you"

I replied "Ok good, Have a good life"

I reached home and slammed the poor cheap phone
on the walls where i slammed my head before i owned a fone
it got broken into pieces like my own shattered heart
next morning i picked up the pieces
Yet it worked except the LCD...

It never betrayed me like my own poems
after fifteen days i repaired it
and deleted all the fone numbers of the girls i knew
i loved i hated i admired i envied...

since then it has clean like my throat at this moment
which was just rinsed by 250ml of whiskey

And How unkind i have been not to write a poem
for my own mobile phone,,,

It is new year and here Im writing it
for my mobile phone,,,
stay with me till i slam you again



Scent of a Poem


Among you in suits and boots
Among you who stood or sat
for what you believe in
Among you, young or old
Among you, tall or short
Among you, ugly or beauty

Have you ever read a poem
that smells cigarette butt?

But I have

Consider me as Bengal Tiger


Consider me as Bengal tiger
Save me
Im going to extinct
you dont have to feed me meat
I can survive on mustard or cabbage

consider me as bengal tiger
cage me
the freedom you give me
brings nothing but blood, sweat and death
I have shivered in summer
I have sweated in winter

Consider me as bengal tiger
I wont sing or read anything
I wont even roar
I have lost my voice in the streets of Imphal
when they stuffed my mouth
with the barrels of their guns

Consider me as bengal tiger
my lover is gone far away
find me a female as bengal tiger
i want to copulate
let the race of bengal tiger be increased

consider me as bengal tiger
when i lay in the lazy winter sun
after my free meal, reading newspaper
yawning over the pictures
of Primi Minister and MLAs
and sexy foolish half nude mindless models

consider me as bengal tiger
I will give up poetry to be a bengal tiger
I always wanted to be naked
and to see others in naked
thats why i write poetry

consider me as bengal tiger
let me doze off naked
showing off my balls
inside the cage snoring
with my tongue catching flies
dreaming of wild African jungles

save tiger

consider me as a Bengal tiger

save me,
im going to extinct
adopt me,
Im an orphan on the run
feed me
Im as hungry as your son

Bukowski

I blame Bukowski
for the pool of whiskey
i had, for having me felt like singer poet
at 4am in the morning singing duet
with curtain in my window,
... remembering the widow
I love

April Fool! Susaina!

Susaina!
It is 29th February
and I become Irish
propose me
ask me "Will you marry me?"

April Fool.

Susaina!
I have forgotten Manipur
when i see you,
listen to the irish music
look at the irish rose i grow in my head

April Fool

Susaina!
You and i shall never get married
till they repeal AFSPA even if im irish
you shall never conceive my child
as there are stray bullets and dogs
in the air, in the streets

April Fool

Susaina!
If all the lies I whispered in your ears
had colours
you would not need a jewellery
No silver No gold
You would have been too colourful
for the bloody streets

April Fool

Susaina!
Pound me with your high heels
Grind me in your kitchen grinder..
I can't be the bull anymore to till your irish soil
Let me be the onion to make your eyes cry
even if i fail to make you cry your heart

April fool

Spring wish

Spring be my canvas shoes
like kerouac's
to take me all over this country
to be the pop out leaves
of old trees

Spring be the song i sing tomorrow
with birds be the chorus

Spring be my love
as it lasted only a moment
I shall have the best.
find it among the nests
and for me, them,  go catch

Spring be the whiskey i drink tonite
with ashtray be the companion

Spring be the silence i play
with string less shoes in evening
spring be the broken glasses
the morning sweeper be the god
I knew who is blind deaf and dumb

spring be me under the shed
with cyclists be the wind to take me away

to her


Pound me with your high heels
Grind me in your kitchen grinder

A wish in bangalore


Once i had a lover
who thought i was a rubber.
She thought i would go back
to where i was.
She was bit in hurry
she changed from pink to yellow
waitng for no seasons
she took me to the chemist shop
in the morning
holding me through voice
from shop to shop
looking for Nycil
she loved tomato salad

I took her to pee
at nights
she wanted to get married
all i asked was for sometime
to feel my heart beats
but she is gone now

where is she?
O tomatoes of Ema keithel!
did she come here
with her father?
I remain her lover

O cyclists on the road
did you see her
with her bicycle?
She must have been around
she doesnt cycle that fast

If i meet her again
and if there is no one by her side
I would hold her tight
till im eighty or seventy

Just for a night

whether you accept it or not
 Let me present myself to you
I will not grow the china rose
out of your navel in your sleep
I will never again take away
the sleep from you eyes with my filthy kisses

Im next to you lying
when you spread your hands or legs
in ur sleep
please be careful
Im fragile
I may break anytime
Im softer than what you are
Just touch me tenderly
I will touch you back dearly

just for a night
just for moment

my hammer


To the ones she loves
She is a cushion
or a furniture.
But to me
She is a hammer

Replacement

In kurta he comes with beard
From north
and replace me

her love comes wearing a hat
from east
then she keeps me aside

Saying I will never change
I weep
then she gives me a tissue

the rain pours as we stand
under the shed
I smile as I have an umbrella

but a man with a raincoat
comes from south
and they walk away

we meet again after spring
she comes from west
but she wears a thing called ring

Ode to Music at Dawn of March 22, 2010

There are too many beautiful music
with which I can Kill myself.

A Suicidal Drama Hero (When spring comes)


I
a suicidal drama hero
dreamt next to the cemetery
with crosses sending signals of silence

the moon above so big and low
making a vow
to the curtains of his windows

how do the trees know it is spring time
when i dont know what's in my mind

spring be my lover
insanity be my spring
Soko be my insomnia
Charles Bukowski be me
wondering 4am in the morning
what such a lifeless poem
doing upon my white pages of me-peace-lover

dawn time, no more caffeine in my vein
the chinese pencil broke its lead
leaving a hole in my dirty pillow

I heard this purple city
singing colours
and i sang black and white
and the morning sky showered loneliness
and everybody in the streets got an umbrella
except me and i was wet,
wet like in dreams of night swimming

A sucidal drama hero
who was stuffed with songs of fraud in his mouth
at drunken nights of Bangalore, I am

some hopes some loves
some tear drops some spits
I left on the dusty roads
for those who love to pick up

II
cry for me, spring
with your new leaves of old trees
and the wind shall mop away the fallen leaves.

die for me, you street dogs,
with your howl
showing off your naked vein-full of testicles
in winter morning

save some love for me, lovers,
on the warm benches
where you hold each others' hand
Im going to lie flat on the benches

flower for me, you tiny little red roses,
at places where my lover lives
Im not going there anymore

Sing for me, you beggar singers inside the bus,
the song i have betrayed from my heart
to sing for “Dear Country” and its glory.
Im not gonna sing that ever.

Kill me, you killers,
for i have no purpose nor my poems
burn me alive with my suicidal instinct
like those effigies they kicked and slapped
and tore before being burnt.

Steal me, you theives
from such times of my life
place me at times of innocent laughters

whistle for me, you night trains
the tune that i once listened to along with her voice
at nights of beating my head against the wall

write for me, you liar poets,
with your good handwriting
read them out to your audience
they will have a good laugh,,

Gossip for me, you gossipers,
I am poor, Im rich
I need a stitch
but for every words you have
i can write you a poem
my words shall run faster than your automobiles
my poems shall be longer than your hair

A nest for me, you morning sparrows,
in the tree i can name Home
where i see no chameleon in the morning sun
where i can lavishly write poems of your fallen feathers
and my grey hair








My Blue Bag

I bought a blue bag
on my way to post office
with my aunt
to collect the things
that come sailing across the ocean

I hanged it around my shoulder,
(I love it)
here and there
as i walked
empty and vacant as my soul

Even while reading Bukowski
I remembered it
and thought how wud it be to carry
a quarter of cheap rum in it

i told my friend from sikkim
that i carried it even to grocery shops
she said she would never do it
and asked me to carry my harmonica in it,
an apple or a banana
or a diary and pen;
(but no to pen down this poetry for sure)
or a hanky to blow my nose
remembering the mother goose

I would still love to carry
it to the vegetables market
and fill it with tomatoes
and feel the weight of red

my blue bag is not fake
It got its blue from the sky
it got its emptiness from my soul
as i am a man in Nirvana
who has seen love
and known it is too easy to fall in love

my blue bag
I aint a sad story
lets pluck some flowers
for these streets of my feet


Thoughts in Kongu Express

carried a bag on my back
wearing an old pair of slippers
i stood waiting for the train
while the cobbler came
looking at my dirty slippers
so gave them away to be polished
while he let me wore his chappals
my feet felt the softness of his feet
for ten ruppees...

the train came howling shining
unlike those which go to Guwahati

of the crisscrossing dirty tracks
i did not care
all i saw was the starving crows
as it was not the season for farmers
to commit suicide

the fields were lifeless
like the farmers
but my yellow mustard flowers
all over spreading
like my dreams of daffodils

i let the wind blew on my face
through the rusty iron windows
let the wind wrote of a new face

the monkey shook the branches of a dead tree
waking the death out of it
like a mother in my valley
shaking the body of her dead son

the railway track labourers squat
holding empty water bottles next to the track
showing off their sad smiles
as if telling me like there is nothing ahead
except emptiness like their bottles

the far away chimney smoked
against the empty sky of blue
like an old man with his naked chest
that coughs out blood for the socialist poets 
to write poems with their propaganda

Bhopal arrived with hot sweet little samosas
but i had bolied chanas with green chilli
Smell of hot biryani carried the train further to Hyderabad
I wanted to take Charminar with me for my lover
but she didn't want it as she had no place for historical monuments
in her heart as it was already filled with stories of "You wont believe me"
So i just smoked a Charminar Cigarette

And Egypt turned so cheap in the Newspaper
every page talked of it
"Mubarak, We have go to take bath"
I saw a man reading tehelka next to my cabin
here again they showed the face of the man
who begged for his life with joined hands
and the caption said "One man that made the nation cries"
but who made him cry?
everyone knows, he who sits upon lotus like god.

trashing away the thought of Gujarat Carnage
i looked out again across the fields
the crisscrossing of the wires and tracks bothered me

'i want to own a sugar cane farm in cuba
not in india
 as lives of farmers last only a season

I have a friend who is pink
His fists are red
University never let him hold a chalk
 to write on black board
Now universities are teaching Pornography
calling it sociology'

with my mind like dirts in a pothole
I arrived here in Bangalore
That night I was just a whore
raped by my own existence
with my own poems and thoughts

Sorry Preety


My sweet freind!
Poetry comes to me
just like you came to me last night
out of darkness
of a strange city

but now Im stuck
i want to write you a poem
my fingers tried hard
but they are like a child's fingers
upon a Beethoven's piano

Sorry!
Preety!
This night is silly
it gves me nothng
just asking me to chat with you
telling you how the paranthas i had
were withered inside the pastic bowl
tell me how many eggs you had
did you stick out your tongue again
for the your friends or your lover?

Sorry
preety
Im so blank at the moment
just lets chat :)

Ode to my friend that comes smiling with the dawn


I left the city behind with my broken heart
with those empty whiskey bottles
with my bed with wrinkles from sleepless nights

Again here im, stranded in a sleepless night
in another big city with thoughts of life and death
suddenly she pops out of thin air
and say hello when i am so hollow
we chatter and chatter like morning birds on electric wires
and i stumble upon her sweet little photograph
with her tongue out and i say “you look beautiful”
and she says “dont flatter me ”
and we go on with the lady from south next to me
questioning to me like i was a prisoner of war
but who cares, the dawn is here we have day long ahead of us
we have a life ahead to chatter and swallow what life is

A RAY OF HOPE - A poem for me by Rosemary Moore (Thanks Rose!)

Hope in hopelessness
speak silently to me,
pour words into my heart
to help me understand,
what is the reason for
the behaviour of man.

Doom, doom
you scream at the moon,
counting the hours
until daylight returns,
as the one leaves,
the other one yearns.

The twisted and torn
and still the unborn
lie in wait, left in the
hands of fate,
who forgot to close
the latch on the gate,
and now its too late
and they cannot wait.

Money is the menace
when greed is the master,
when the two go hand-in-hand
it can only lead to a disaster.

Unbalanced and chaotic
the world is shifting on its axis
pay up, pay up
your sky-high taxes.

When lies are the weapon
words are the cure.
In the desert of time,
it seems like nothing grows.

Look at the cracks in the tar
where the grass pushes through,
aim higher for the sun
before the woods close on you.

Even as the last man is standing
and the last tree falls,
a ray of hope still covers the earth,
light in deep darkness
until its rebirth.

Embrace me Burma!

 
Burma, if you have a heart
Embrace me please
I have stopped looking at my own shoes
Now I look beyond these lofty mountains
I see nothing in them except a handful of useless dust
I stop looking towards west
To me it is all just a waste
I stop leaning on India
Delhi crushed me among its sky scrapers and dtc buses
Mumbai left me stranded in the railway tracks
Bangalore didn’t let me smoke at my own will
Kolkata is too much of mouth revolution.
And we have been the niggers of India;
Read Pacha and Samarendra.

Burma if you need a lover
That’s me
Embrace me
kiss me please
Let me spread my wings in your poppy field
Let me sail in your smallest river with all my songs
Let me cry out all the tear that I save in this punctured heart
Let me shit out what I have eaten
I have eaten what have not grown in my land
I ate hilsha from Barak River
I ate wheat that grows in Uttarpradesh
I slept on the mattress that was made in Delhi
I sang Guthrie and Pete Seeger
I  wear VIPs
I drank 8pm of Haryana at 8am in morning
i danced in the song of Indian Ocean
i climbed the Western Ghats with Iranians
I smoked the dry leaves of Manali
Still I was my own man standing alone
Singing “Ema Nangumbi Leite”
Now, I can’t praise my land with my poverty
Now I need a new land that gives food


Burma, Le me see your prison
And makes me feel I suffer less
Less than your outlaws and criminals
I was told you dump your criminals
In a Polang like chickens in Chingmeirong Bazaar
Burma, embrace me
Let me wear that bamboo hat
Like famers that farm everything
You will not regret to be my lover
No great poets write a line for your Tamu
And cheap sex inside your wooden cabin.
But I do, if you don’t believe me
Look at e-pao.net
You will find me whistling singing;
“Go fuck yourself with your AFSPA”
Along the Indo-Myanmar border.

Burma, Let me be a drug lord
Let me wear those golden chains
Let me measure the angles of Golden Triangle
Let me smack cocaine, let me smell you
Let me bleed out all this blood
That this heart churns breathing oxygen
That comes out from death and all these fake revolution.

Burma, Just give me a shelter
You are the closest to me.
I love no monks except the seven year old monk
I even hate U2’s  song on Aung Sang Su kyi
I don’t know what the freedom fighters do in your Jungles
I haven’t heard about a hero of guerrilla warfare
Who emerges from your jungle.
But I know what I can do with myself
If you provide me a shelter and a guitar
A blank page and a poppy flower.
Burma, just embrace me
You will find me very fine

Embrace me Burma!


Burma, if you have a heart
Embrace me please
I have stopped looking at my own shoes
Now I look beyond these lofty mountains
I see nothing in them except a handful of useless dust
I stop looking towards west
To me it is all just a waste
I stop leaning on India
Delhi crushed me among its sky scrapers and dtc buses
Mumbai left me stranded in the railway tracks
Bangalore didn’t let me smoke at my own will
Kolkata is too much of mouth revolution.
And we have been the niggers of India;
Read Pacha and Samarendra.

Burma if you need a lover
That’s me
Embrace me
kiss me please
Let me spread my wings in your poppy field
Let me sail in your smallest river with all my songs
Let me cry out all the tear that I save in this punctured heart
Let me shit out what I have eaten
I have eaten what have not grown in my land
I ate hilsha from Barak River
I ate wheat that grows in Uttarpradesh
I slept on the mattress that was made in Delhi
I sang Guthrie and Pete Seeger
I  wear VIPs
I drank 8pm of Haryana at 8am in morning
i danced in the song of Indian Ocean
i climbed the Western Ghats with Iranians
I smoked the dry leaves of Manali
Still I was my own man standing alone
Singing “Ema Nangumbi Leite”
Now, I can’t praise my land with my poverty
Now I need a new land that gives food


Burma, Le me see your prison
And makes me feel I suffer less
Less than your outlaws and criminals
I was told you dump your criminals
In a Polang like chickens in Chingmeirong Bazaar
Burma, embrace me
Let me wear that bamboo hat
Like famers that farm everything
You will not regret to be my lover
No great poets write a line for your Tamu
And cheap sex inside your wooden cabin.
But I do, if you don’t believe me
Look at e-pao.net
You will find me whistling singing;
“Go fuck yourself with your AFSPA”
Along the Indo-Myanmar border.

Burma, Let me be a drug lord
Let me wear those golden chains
Let me measure the angles of Golden Triangle
Let me smack cocaine, let me smell you
Let me bleed out all this blood
That this heart churns breathing oxygen
That comes out from death and all these fake revolution.

Burma, Just give me a shelter
You are the closest to me.
I love no monks except the seven year old monk
I even hate U2’s  song on Aung Sang Su kyi
I don’t know what the freedom fighters do in your Jungles
I haven’t heard about a hero of guerrilla warfare
Who emerges from your jungle.
But I know what I can do with myself
If you provide me a shelter and a guitar
A blank page and a poppy flower.
Burma, just embrace me
You will find me very fine








--
Dept. of Physics
Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi 110014, INDIA

ode to yongchak

It is already february
and no more cold in the capital
and you arrived here
...wearing an overcoat
or is that a bullet proof jacket?
but there are not stray bullets in the capital
only rapist
and they wont know how to rape you
as they lack taste of good things in life

Blink on an eye


Evening fades under my door
I can see from my bed
night comes just like the husband
with the empty tiffin with no new stories
i blink my eyes
the clock strikes 4am
and i stand naked at my balcony
lighting a smoke
and then a smoke again
the last stick lights the sky
and the sun rises
as i fall back to my bed
with Dharma Bums

November, December, January
flew away with few poems
some written some unwritten



19th November, 2010

I have a friend who is a poetry maniac
He married on the day the dead poet released his latest book
on the day a school girl was crushed to dead on tiddim road
on the day he gave me a poetry titled "Khungee huranba"

those faces on his wedding day he said he saw them as incomplete poetry
started by some amateur poets and left when the town was called out on the field
for another routine combing operation.
The short story writer too came riding an old hero bicycle chewing kom kwa
i took pictures of him and posted in on the wall's of many bourgeois pig
who wanted gratitude of the puppies and fishes they raised in the soil of a rotten valley
filled with corpses and male whores who happily sold off their dicks for few thousands
to any political parties

On the day, the fields were bald with flames burning down the piles of hays
the bullock cart driven by the lady clad in torn phanek with khudei around their heads
chattered away the tiredness under the sun with smiles and as the can whipped the bulls

On the day, the warm alcohol washed the bitter poetry from my throat of my past lover
at Oinam Kabui Khun with a man who owns a fish farm
On the day i saw a broken bicycle leaning against a broken wall
with few boiled peas on my aluminium plates
with a whiskey bottle filled with local liquors with a bollywood tits behind my back

November is long gone now
and my friend he thinks he can;t feed poetry to his kid
unlike me who think i can feed it to anyone i hate or love

ode to my neighbor

my neighbor is kind.
whenever i feel there is nothing sweet
in my life
he will bring me a hot sweet cup of tea

he will get me movies
for my sleepless nights
he will lend me his camera
to capture my happy moments
with my sisters and friends
against the backdrop
 of this depressing city

half kilo of pork
he will save for me
in his refrigerator
even in my absence

many time when i thought my breakfast is death
after reading online news of my home
he brings me eggs and beacon

sometime he would ask me about love
that i had in my kitchen cooking pork or beef
i would say "i dont know, Tabish, you believe in theory of evolution?
it is evolving"

my neighbor is sweet
he will laugh reading Calvin and hobbes
and would say "Calvin is sweet
but dont wanna own a child like him"
he will talk of Obelix beating romans
and Asterix falling in love with Cleopatra

He reads Ghalib in urdu
like he was left alone
empty in the streets of delhi
drunk and wasted

My neighbor is kind and sweet
everytime he sees my broken cups and plates
he will buy me new ones
Once he gave me the book
"Jonathan Livingston seagull "
but the book is gone and i never learnt a thing from it

He too loves haiku

Come come


The tooth brush is gone
and no more tooth paste
please come back

“one of the great joys in life
is to brush someone's hair”
please come back

two unwashed black panties
and a pink short boxer
please come back

the silver ring misses the thumbs
Gorky cries to be back with Tom Joad
Please come back

drunk or not
winner or loser
please come back

sex, spears
or Shakespeare, i dont care
please come back.

I have taken bath with rose water
soften and sweeten my lips with honey
please come back

curly or wavy or straight or coffee or tea
next to him or next to love, dont care
Please come back

i have got a brand new hindu god
on my walls with dates of this year
please come back

No more poetry or protest
no more songs only your thongs
please come back

“30,000 Brus who had fled to tripura
during 1997 violence are now on their way back to mizoram”
please come back

About the sticky stuffs of hills
shhhhhhh! whisper as secret
Please come back

Free sweet tea are being served
in disposable glasses tagged with “Free Binayak Sen”
please come back


you dont see it, it is raining
please stand inside my shoes
please come back

my tear, a drop of water on sand dust,
my fear, you would say so
please come back

At Jantar Mantar
I was summer in this winter without you
please come back

before they make a statue of me
for this endless wait like that of Hachiko's
Please come back

the borrowed warm air blower
blew out warm poetry on my cold thighs
please come back

A brand new sewing machine has arrived,
It wants to stitch you a colorful petticoat,
please come back

Thom Yorke in my woofer woofing;
“i dont wanna be your freind, just wanna be your lover”
please come back

those piles of clothes in the shop near my place
they miss your touch and smile
Please come back

Sweet mango shaped breasted ladies all around
but no heart underneath the breasts
please come back

Prostitution is a good business
come my penis is on sale
please come back

The armies have gone
deserting the cemetery for lovers
please come back

Im better than Prodigy
i sing of you your land your beauty
please come back

James franco failed to be Ginsberg
but i can ..see “Go fuck your self with America or Siberia”
please come back
the pianist don't own a grand piano
just like i dont own a gun to dream of death
please come back

Im a dancing black swan
from Africa from Hollywood from Imphal
please come back

you don't need me like anyone else
but today is my day
please come back

today is my day my day my day
Lets march in the streets like peasants on May day
please come back

keep me in your prison
feed me your attrocities
please come back

the portugese singer sings my heart beats
unknown to me in portugese
please come back

Even Elvis meets Walt Whitman
Even Einstein meets Ibopishak
Please come back

Nivedita Menon wants me to sing
standing upon the hairy chest of Nehru
Please come back

bought a family pack tooth paste
along with a free tooth brush
please come back

Yoko writes no Haiku
She knitted Peace with her toes on Lennon's pelvic gardle
please come back

the painter is fucking fine and great
his girl friend is a flower
please come back

the sky refuses to be in my pocket notepad
it underestimates the small blankness of the page
please come back.
“$ kirikou is tiny but mighty $”
Kirikou Kirikou, give me back Kabara
please come back
rhyme my body my name my life with yours

Hachiko


No one waits for things
only dogs wait
only fools like Samuel Beckett
wrote about it
So shall i stop and fly away

English booze and beer available here

 
cooking poems in my pressurised head
covered by my unwashed hairs
and unwashed hood of my unwashed jacket
i walked along the footpath
scented by smell of burnt tadoori rotis
it was evening
and as usual my legs walked till it dropped me
at where the angel has captivated my heart

all the heavenly smell i smelt
all the heavenly sweat i could sense in my tongue

Like the rapists of delhi all over a poor manipuri girl,
the rickshaw pullers, the bus conductors,
the suited booted capitalist pricks and me
were fighting crushing each other's balls
For the Crazy Romeo Rum
some to wipe the days off
some to join to mourn
some like any one else
and me to sleep

Everyone was a crooked version of Shakespeare's Romeo
Everyone was a fighter,
no one could move anyone
we were as firmed as mountains
for the English Booze made in Uttar Pradesh

Screams and shouts!
as if we all had just listened to
“Stop Whispering”

I knew it , i knew it
i would be last one to get the last bottles
the qoute or the song remains the same
and i walked out from that mad rushing crowd
with two Sikkims in my both Manipuri hands
one for the evening
again one for evening

and the poetry i cooked was
“Im recording silence”
that too a stolen line from '24 Hours Party People'

this morning

I heard the morning sweeper
sweeping like a brush stick on the drums
by a jazz musician
I heard my neighbor's alarm
like an ambulance
on some midnight street
carrying a half dead man.
I felt a poetry at the nib
of my ink less pen
I heard silence crying goodbye
sitting on my staircase
as i broke it with my cough
I heard my sister talking
in her dream to me
"Brother, you dont need to be the man"
I felt the cold of dead corpses
in the poetry book
"Waking is Another Dream",
(Corpses of Sri Lankan Tamils)
I saw the foot prints of Goddess Emoinu
upon my naked chest
I heard the old woman
from my ktchen window
cursing her sons
as the milk steamed away
as i stirred the coffee
with a spoonful of hot water
I saw the morning getting readied
to come out of the hole of my pena
like a mouse
I heard the writer whispering
on her dead bed
"This land is my father's"
I heard me telling me
"recover my holy child"
I heard all the lovers snoring
on each other's face
i saw my bed carrying away
the marks of my back
I felt this poetry can never be complete
as another morning awaits me

The Yellow Dawn and The Coffee Mug as She named

Like The light on the cup
wish i could cup your chin
with my dirty hands and tell you
I want you
..............................
I started it all giving you this yellow cup
and now you end it gving me back its fotograph
but the yellow hasnt changed a bit
except the yellow pillow drenched in my tear
..............................
you did yell
and it echoes back
pounding my heart into dust
............................
I was called a beauty with no face
I was called a Man with no heart
but today im just mad bout you

Ode to Africa


Africa in every drop of ink
from the nibs of pens
Africa on pages
Africa on the stage

Africa in every drop of sweat of farmers
Africa streaming down in the river of words from Himalaya
Africa in my valley
Africa on my bank reciept
Africa in the lips of Sabitri
Africa in the poem of Pakistani poet
Africa in my dream
Africa in my book shelve
Africa inside the hole of my acoustic guitar
Africa in museum
Africa in newspaper

Broken Things

The city stood still.
broken men and women at bus stop
waiting for broken buses
that collapsed long before
the red light pole collapsed

broken people stood still
“People are poles”-
unbroken glasses whispered

I asked the plumber
to fix my water tape
and he said “but who will fix a broken man”

I asked the cobbler
to mend their boots
and he said “ but who will mend
the broken hearts underneath their fine suits ”

the broken singer sings
“the river of warmth from your eyes
are not to keep your cheeks warm
but to remind 'you are broken'
broken like everything else is broken ”

I asked the poet
to write a poem of my broken cellphone
and he said “but who will write of this broken country
which send poets for trial for writing of broken things”

I asked the lover
to teach me how to fall in love
and he said “Can't fall twice as a whole,
if once it is broken”

I asked the coal miner
to give me some coal to burn
and he said “it wont get burn under the broken sky
under the broken roof of yours,
the rain will leak, your destiny is here with this coldness”

I asked the revolutionary
to teach me how to revolt against this broken justice
and he said “Revolution too is broken into peices.
only they are in books or in the lips of those bearded faces”

I asked the cook
to cook me pork
and he said “the pressure cooker is broken
the plates, the spoons are broken too”

I asked the dog
to bark at broken things so that i know they are broken
but he barks back at me
as if it was me
who collected all the broken things
of this city,
who made a portrait of himself
with broken things

January Blues

The professors, they keep writing good books
and the singers , they sing old american blues
and im worrying bout money to pay the dues
my landlady not at all she is cute

my kitchen tape leaks like it is pouring rain
As life leaks away as i remember WH Auden
when ever i have headche and worries bout life
“Oh It cant be life, the picture can't be my wife”

My skin is thick even for this coldest winter
but my thesis is too thin, I can't be a winner
yet i wrap around my neck the used mufflar
And walk like a handsome man in Manchester

Summer's gone but somethng bout it is caught in spiderweb
like a helpless fly, but i feel not so bad or sad.
The pickle of colors from the jar, listening to Dylan's Joey,
I apply on my body, no im not trying to David Bowie

the coins make noise
as the bullet hits the child in joy
It is the voice of innocence
robbed by violence

the hot sweet cup of tea turns cold
in the callousness of my thoughts
my colorful friend in orange hat comes so bold
He abuses the country calling it a fraud

The french philosopher was not funny at all
but few laughed like they were doing him a favour
and the post-talk tea was good, even the woman in shawl
and the pakoras on my plate said “Politics of Nature??”

Strolling down the narrow lanes of Darya Ganj
I look for a better capo of my life to enhance my soul
They were too expensive, more than the air gun
Then, across the road i saw a wine shop

Again my broken phone LCD beeps
calling me once again to Jantar Mantar
to sing out the heart beats India has skipped
So here I am whether it is summer or winter

“Im getting wiser day by day
as i m getting poorer day by day”
I sing out loud with the father of two girls
and he says “Godamned Renaissance!”

new year day


Happy New year
It is a freezing saturday afternoon
The red roses are blooming at traffic lights
The lovers have gone away from the citylight
the poets are busy greeting their friends
everyone is a singer, the voices crack soulful melody
out of such lifeless lives...
Dancing Dancers all around
inside the rooms, in the streets
in the campuses, in me
The coffee mug is filled with whiskey
the man across the buidling greets'
“Happy New year”
“Same to you”
the popcorn popper sprinkles white
like snow from the sky
and the smell too
and the children stands in queue.
At INA market
The big knife chops slice after slice of pork
and lovers walk away with it
some like to have it mustard
some like it simple
some like it with bamboo shooth

happy new year
i say to my blanket
and wrap up myself
and watch the silent Scarlet Johannson


guava


The first bite of this season's guava
I thought i would have wth you
But it was so cheap today evening
it was ten ruppees per kilogram
so i had one big one all alone
sprinkling salt all over it
as i strolled the evening
looking for spring onion