Friday, January 30, 2015

Time

It takes me
Less than a day
To forget a
Shared routine
And go back to
Old routine

It takes me
Less than a day
To forget what
I had for lunch
Or breakfast

It takes me
Less than a week
To forget what
Articles will be published
In Sunday's paper

It takes me
Less than a month
To forget
Friends I thought
To be the best I would find

But

It takes me
More than a finite number
Of days, weeks, months or years
To forget
People
I hold close to me
I love deeply

So time is not just
The speed of the arms of a clock
Or the movement of the Earth
But the ability of
Our minds
To replace

To forget


And I need more
Time.

Monday, January 26, 2015

Needed: lover of words

I need someone
I can share poems with
Whenever I come across one
I fall in love with
And he,
(Yes, it needs to be a man)
Wouldn't offer interpretation
Or backstory
Wouldn't attempt to
Read in between the lines
And 'read at xx:xx' would suffice
As reply

And he would
Send me poetry
He falls in love with
And maybe
By falling for each other's
Choice of poetry
We would
Stumble upon
A love
We could, together,
Write a poem about.

It's a test

Spell my name
All five words
Forty one letters
Two surnames
A first and middle
Spell it all

(If you must
Throw in a joke
About the length of my name
And I will laugh
An obligatory laugh)

And then I'll know
You've paid attention

A poem

You've written a poem about love
And my heart leaps at the thought
You've written about me
Or even, written for me
Then I see her name
Hidden among the labels
And your words turn into needles
Tearing at my skin

Saturday, January 24, 2015

Erase

Replacing pen with pencil
So my words can be erased
And if I don't add pressure
When pencil touches paper
I could easily remove any trace
That these words were ever written
Kind of how you did
With the memories we made.

Everyone around her

She walked around
With a smile
So amused she was
By the world she lived in
  And everyone she met
   Asked her why she was
   Smiling when the world around her
   Was crashing to the ground
So she wiped away the smile
Painted tear-stains on her cheeks
Frowned and allowed her forehead
To wrinkle
   And everyone she met
   Asked her why she was
   Crying when there was so much goodness
   In the world she lived in
So she wiped away the tear-stains
Smoothened her skin
Extinguished the fire in her eyes
Stilled her expressions
   And everyone she met
   Called her a heartless
   Emotionless monster
   Who couldn’t smile or cry

Saturday, January 17, 2015

A+

(Written about a classmate who cheats during exams)

They cheat so shamelessly
Because they know their
God isn't watching

They cheat so shamelessly
Because if god didn't grant them intelligence
He would have at least made them criminals

They cheat so shamelessly
Because morals and values
Are buried under dominance and power

They cheat so shamelessly
Because they aren't afraid
To do what's wrong

They cheat so shamelessly
Because what difference does it make?
Their hands are already dirty

They cheat so shamelessly
Because that's what their god preaches
That's what they are asked to do

They cheat so shamelessly
Because an A+ is more important
Than honesty

Coffee

She had no special
liking for the
dirty and earthy taste
of coffee
And yet, she drank
cup after cup
of the dark liquid
sometimes too bitter
sometimes too sweet
and yet she savored
those last sips
when the powdered
remains that
settle at the bottom
of her mug
are forced to
travel in her system
swimming in the last sip
of warm liquid
caught in a tornado
created by her
swirling of the cup
so she could feel
the dusty remnants
scrape against
her aching
throat.

Wednesday, January 14, 2015

If she loved...

If she loved
The way she was loved
Hand-holding would be
Sandpaper on smooth surface
Lip-meeting would be
Glass shard on soft skin
Love-making would be
Gravel under tired feet
Leave-taking would be
Band-aid pulled off unhealed wound