Solo

The long and lonely stretch
An emptiness of expanse 
My elegantly furnished drawing room.
No one in it.

Obsession

The kiss I didn’t give you
Shreds salt cheddar on my lips
Sears fierce lava on my lips
Smears sad jelly on my hips
Scooches, French smooches,
Invades, ravishes my sleep.

Abstinence

Bodhisattva obtained,
By letting go.
Semi-squat abstinence
Attained at cost.

Enlightenment’s sad
Knowledge gained,
Heavy-duty Nirvana!
Alas, Kurt Cobain.

Flesh maimed, bloodstained.
Soul flailed, stubborn pain.
Ghost of fat cells recall.
Undead, shrink film elastic
So well maintained.

Petrification

A tony tear trembles 
At my right eye, just so.
Pure molecular expression
Of elegant grief. Chic.
Like a facial gymnast I flex
Matrix of muscles to flick away
Puerile pain pearls.

Etched into Sphinx, I squat
Ozymandias in desert sands
Stoic and bland,
Scorning rain.
Lithos trembles
Sandstone atoms.

Watching Me Watching You

The sky is filled with dead people 
At dawn 
The eyes of a whole past world…
Looking on.

Diary Of One Poet

I rose at six today,
Wrote eleven pages
Rolled out handmade rotis
Perfectly puffed, for breakfast. 
Tiptoe-kissed tall teenagers
Downy cheeks turning
Rapidly raspy. Leaning down,
Grinning, they received kisses.
Mighty mamma is so tiny now. 

Time flies, writers write
Of time past, time to come.
Time flies, reels glide
Dead birds’ broken nests
Fledglings readying wings
Leave to take life’s tests.

The poet tastes life’s flavours
Dreads to tread downstream
Liminal currents cancel old dreams
But renews and resurrects fresh streams.
Future a dream to come, sweet past adieu,
The poet must rest in the present too.  

Magic in Optics

Magic is sunshine slanting 
Light angles between floor and wall
Making milk mirror pools of
Upside-down furniture, doors and
Ceilings.
Spooky serene upside-down land.
Make belief that it is a different universe.
A fairy-verse.

~~~

Amrita Valan is an Indian writer of stories poems and essays. She has been published in online journals nationally and internationally. Her published works are Arrivederci Fifty Poems and a collection of short stories on Amazon – In Between Pauses: US & In Between the Pauses: UK. Amrita was first featured in 2022. You can find her features HERE, some of which were featured in Volume 2 – Reflections & Revelations.

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#TheShortofIt – Vol 1 The Sound of Brilliance and Vol 2 Reflections & Revelations on Amazon