चाहिये एक विषम

एक दिन का राशन
एक साजन
एक प्रेम मनभावन, पावन
एक लगन, सनातन
एक ही शपथ का एक बार पालन
कभी पलायन
कभी स्थापन
एक एक पल का सजीव उद्घाटन
एक एक पल का फिर नवीन चलन
अपलम् चपलम्...

दस दिशायें, दस अवतार, एक हि अहम
फिर भी एवम
घट घटता जाये
तगडम् तगडम्
रुकती जाये, थकती जाये
नयी ताजा कलम
जैसे ओझल होता आंखोंसे
गया, पुराना बलम.

ना हूँ बला, ना हूँ अबला
शाम से हारा मेरा यौवन
ना हूँ गंधार ना ही पंचम
जीता जाऊं एक मजधार का मन
सर से पतन और पैरों में धन.

एक उठे कभी... विचार, सोच, प्रतिबिंब या सम
फिर जाये थम
एक कवी का आलसी मन
सो जाये
निरंतर, निर्मम, बेमन!

चाहुं अब मैं एक विषम,
बस एक विषम
अनंत ही हो जिसका धर्म
थम जाये, सो जाये
पर फिर हो उगम
घटनेवाले घट की भान्ति
दौडा जाये तगडम् तगडम्
अपलम् चपलम् दुनिया के संग
संसार मे दंग
भरपूर उमंग
पर एक तरंग.

डुबती जाये फिर स्याही में कलम
थिरकती जाये, लहरती जाये
एक क्षण, और वो ही लक्षण
के सम पे हो जाये मिलन
दोनों छोर, हम
और विलीन होनेवाला एक गगन
समा जाये सब सगुण, सरल

पर फिर भी बचे एक सज्जन
सोला आने में एक कम
या फिर ज्यादा
जो हो विषम
मेरा एक विषम
मेरे एक दिन का राशन, एक साजन
मेरा एक प्रेम मनभावन, पावन...

कुटुंब

कुणा एका तपस्व्याच्या घरी
जेव्हा काळीज जन्माला आलं
त्याचा धगधगता भाता पाहून
बाळंतीण म्हणाली, "हे माझं नाही."

सुईण काळजाला फटके मारत
ते रडायची वाट पाहत होती
तर तपस्वी काठीवर हात ठेउन
रामदासांच्या पोझमध्ये उभा होता

शेवटी काळजाला पाणी फुटलं
"हुश्श" म्हणून सुईण उठली, बाहेर आली
पाहते तर तपस्वी अंधारी येउन पडला होता
लाल-पांढरी काठी मात्र तशीच उभी होती

बाळंतीणीने मग काठी उचलून
तपस्व्याच्या पोटावर तीस वार केले
सुईण बघत उभी होती
काळजाला थोपटत पगार मागत होती

तेवढ्यात जवळपास कुठेतरी स्फोट झाला
दोन्ही बायका काठीवर स्वार
हॅरी पॅाटर सारख्या उडून गेल्या
आल्या तशाच सडून मेल्या

स्फोटामुळे काळीज उडून
झाडाला जाऊन लटकले होते
आणि तपस्व्याच्या छातीतून
रक्ताची पिचकारी उडत होती

आता हळूहळू पिचकारी
लांबपर्यंत जाईल
वीस वर्षांनंतर
काळजाच्या तोंडाशी पोचेल

मग काळजाला हुशारी येईल
आणि तेव्हापासून काळीज
आईच्या दुधाची तहान
बापाच्या रक्तावर भागवेल

On Melancholy Out Of Sheer Love

On other occasions of life
When Love subsides
Beyond the confines of necessary things;
One needs to beckon it
To come back
And hold one's hand.

Such are the only moments
That make one privy
To the immense power of melancholy
That realises in the heart -
An ocean of sadness and longing
Of Love and wanting.

A force that only drives you closer
To Love;
For all those times
When it had been out of your mind.
(But not your heart.)

And you want to embrace it
With the force of that newly acquired power
Of melancholy!

Momentary Deliverance

Stolen thoughts have been buried somewhere in the near future.
As the mystery train that travels through time
Comes to pick my garbage in the morning;
Of memories and desires that I shagged off through the night
I still skip a beat
For my children of yesterday that went down the drain
Without seeing the darkness of the womb.

As the sun burns over my hair in the morning
I try to click over exposed images of the light filtering through them;
They come out all charred
And the spaces in mind reserved for special thoughts,
Done up exquisitely in red to seem like a developing studio
Give in to the blue hue of timelessness and vacancy.

Regression...
Doesn't deem fit to be quite the phenomenon.
Its a simple word - Falling.

I fall through the rising debris of my semen -
Like a sperm,
Through dead sperms of thought
And recoiled reflexes of action.

Its a state, I have been told -
A phase, a stage, a passing moment in time.
It comes to everyone
And thus is non-new.
I struggle to catch those soothing momentary glances
Who could tell this on my face
And not through some virtual altar
Before which I am kneeling
More since I lost my virginity of the trained mind.

It remains to be a dream to rise again,
And will remain to be so.
Until some fit, bearded, white, old man
Comes to me
All dressed in white
And through his long white hair
Tells me that this was how it was meant to be.
Maybe I shall then rest in time.

But as things stand now,
While it is all still black
Or dark maybe;
While tonight's night is still passing
And the debris rising
Why not I take a moment to console myself
Saying this is how it is meant to be
And rest in the moment
For the time to come?

Star

You know I was once a star
A star in their skies
Glimmering
Shining
They pointed at me from their shanty towns
Far far away
Into the intestines of the country
And said I was theirs...
Owned by them
I owed them
My shine
Their gaze
My haze.

I had a job once!

One day the star in my eyes vanished
I opened my eyes
To a bright, beautiful world of mine
A world of thorns,
Of stones
Of water
And of the night.
A world of fields
And of the villages
To which I belonged.
I left the city

I left my job!

Today I thrive
Strive to thrive
In the clouds of my own doing.
I find my star
In the bright sunlight
Scorched by satisfaction
And still not see it.
In the night
They miss it.

And we continue
They, on the moon
From where they keep falling
Onto the earth
To die
One death after another

I, on the sun
Where I write
I live.

Weeping in vengeance

Tonight I am gullible.
Take from me whatever you like
And leave me empty!

For the sins,
There needs to be space
From tomorrow...

Long, tumultuous;
Is the journey on barren virtues.
Admire

Oh Love! If you can't
And give me some warmth,
Grant me a little moist...

In which to dip my eyes
And pretend to cry
For the passing night.

The bright, brazen sun
Of the morrow
Will bend a little more,

For the burden
Of the lush, green evils
Is more to account for.