Requital

A stranger passing by,
A kind look in the eye,
A smile, warm and shy...
Smile back... should I?

Why should I?
Its only a stranger passing by!
But she smiled at me... why?
To be friendly, should I try?

Looking for a loophole, I
Let the beauty of the moment slip by

Will it happen again?
Will I be ready then?
Will I catch the eye of anon.,
And be ready to smile back then?

[Inspired by a 5 year-old girl sitting in her grannie's lap - It was dark, and I was passing by them - she smiled reticently while I squinted to get a closer look. I smiled back... :-) Seems like only kids can smile at strangers without wanting anything back from them! ]

© 2010 Praveena Slathia

I stand

I liked to stand like this
By the roadside...
Green and bright...

Now my myriad lovers
Caress me by day
And choke me at night

It is funny how
The same thing can mean
Both life and death at once...

I stand, a silent spectator
While they speed past me
Not sparing a glance

With this the case
How could I hope for
A moonlight dance?

How would I care
To tame my unkempt locks
Or my shabby hemline?

A pair of scissors came along
A nip here, a tuck there,
I stand, beautiful again

And yet at the end of the day
The gift I get
Is a coat of gray...

It's too warm for this
It's stifling me
I need to breathe again...

The rain came down...
And washed me off the pain
Readying me for another day of loving...

I wait for the morrow...
I wait to wallow
And wilt in the smoke again...

[Inspired by a lone Asoka tree that had been pruned in the ASC Campus - It was looking on us while we were stuck in a traffic jam on Friday evening!]
© 2010 Praveena Slathia

The Flight

[One of my really old ones... I probably would've published it if I had found my diary. I had luckily sent it for some online poetry contest of sorts... So here it is :-)]

Chains...
Liberty to move?
A question mark.
Commitments,responsibilities,
Expectant looks...PRESSURE.
The load holds me down.
"JOY,Bound to these earthly pleasures,
I'm unable to explore you."
"PEACE,I've no earthly time
To discover you."
Closed eyes,deep thoughts....
Darkness...
A ray of light.
THE ANSWER.I saw JOY within.
I saw PEACE within.
I saw the broken chains,
I felt the FREEDOM.
I flapped my wings.
I took THE FLIGHT.

Growing Old

We were leaves that clung to a single tree.
Autumn came with her fiery orange and amber
To take each one separate ways with the wind.
No memories of the fellows that grew *together*,
And no isolated events remain in the mind.
Only an isolated thought of times Happy.

Anti-Gravity

In a daze
Right leg hanging
Above land
Thousands of feet away


A piece of rock
Left the top with the message
Of my arrival
Can't hear the delivery report
Splash.


Listless
Looking glass-eyed
Into the distance ahead
Blank in the head
One step
Away from the abyss


The left leg parts
From Earth
To kiss her again
Ere the final adieu


Started walking
Knowingly
Can't change the course
Anymore


A free fall.
No one controls again
But Gravity...

Oh! the exhilaration!
One last time
When the speedy wind
Tears at my skin
My eyes can't be forced open
To look down


She won't let go of me
Her grip strengthens
As I come lower

Release the trap.
Easing my fall
As the air fills into the flaps
The chute opens
And I float
Towards the abyss
That held my End.