Grass is green I know it’s true
But sometimes I wish that it was blue
The sky is blue but I really think
It would look nice if it was pink
Nature had no care for the ground
Because if it did it wouldn’t be brown
There is a place I like to go,
A place of wonder.
I wonder why trees are green,
I wonder why the tower of Pisa leans,
I wonder why the sky is blue,
I wonder why we wear shoes,
I wonder why the sun is there,
I wonder why people stare,
I wonder why earth is brown,
I wonder how we learnt to frown,
I wonder why there are clouds in the sky,
I wonder why…
Are we three-quarters
and 49 minutes
away from the shop
with 53 purple crickets?
Are we two-thirds
and about half an hour
away from the place
where they have a giant sunflower?
Are we 2 minutes
and 53 days
away from the green rhinos
with their green rhino ways?
Romeo and Juliet
Loved each other very much
The hatred between their families
wasn’t enough to keep them apart
Their love was deep,
as deep as a pool,
a pool of darkness,
a never ending pool,
a pool with crystals,
crystals that shone,
a pool of wonder,
wonder why,
why their families fought’
Why did they have to be born,
born into those families
that hated each other?
Why oh why
did they have to be born,
born into these families
that hated, hated, hated
hated each other?
Once upon a midnight dreary
Were the colonists weak and weary
As they had been for many years before
They paid more prices
And made sacrifices
To make up the cost of the war
So while the Brits were gently napping
The colonists came slowly tapping
Onto the boat’s wood floor
Sneaking down below the deck
They went to wreck
Anything else that was in store
Then in the boat, they overthrew
some of the cargo into the blue
And then they threw some more
Soon when the soldiers awoke
They saw that they were broke
They’d lost all of their tea packs
So the Parliament all agreed
To go ahead and make a decree
Which were called by colonists, the Intolerable Acts
These acts helped to empower the King
And soon he had outlawed town meetings
and they didn’t repeal the tax
So the colonists declared freedom
Because they didn’t need them
Their tolerance rose to the max
So started the Revolutionary war
With so much in store
And the rest, is well, just the facts
six hexagons, carved we—
on the crystal ball of our world
for each month we spent together
I stepped down from my roller coaster,
and told you—
that I’d left my footprints on the sky
you looked.
six hexagons, carved we—
on the crystal ball of our world
for each month we spent together
I told you, one night—
that the sky had lost a constellation
you looked.
six hexagons, carved we—
on the crystal ball of our world
for each month we spent together—
I claimed, one afternoon
that I could weigh the evening
you smiled and
got me the weighing machine
you looked.
six hexagons, carved we—
on the crystal ball of our world
for each month we spent together—
pausing before the road not taken
I asked you to check
for sticks and stones
yet, you colored a bit of breeze
with the bitter hues of sour grapes
merely mentioning the ointment
just in case my feet bled
six hexagons, carved we—
on the crystal ball of our world
for each month we spent together
your intrigue, when I ask Santa
for a seven sided hexagon.
(Dedicated to Sanya Taneja Maam’s English classes)
the sun sets into a blur of dictionaries
the wilted winds blow on the herbs
and somewhere,
holding onto the fragile ends
of a passing cloud
a soft, slow syllable
tilting horizontally
a last evening cloud
dipping into the greenness of vast seas
every ripple carving, crossing
and we, as sailors, see the sky
through a cookie cutter
and the multitude of shapes it takes
through a cookie cutter
the moon rises in a scatter of conversation
globe trotting,
star counting, dream sewing
disentangling the moon from cloud shine
and then slicing the moon –
and tossing it as well
then plucking strings of stars
to stitch them all together
looking above the dictionary –
to find a synonym for “tear battles”
looking beneath the dictionary–
to find a synonym for “sob stifling”
putting up the facade of a smile
when the subject
agrees with the verb
fingers stopping on ‘abstract nouns’
cramming all dreams
into the spaces between verses
clustering all conversation
tilting vertically
a last summer cloud
drenching its wispy ends in starlit waters
yet, brushing off the stars
and clinging to the thread-like ends
of fragile clouds –
one last spring syllable
looking between dictionary pages
a synonym for ‘memory’ –
remembrance
a synonym for ‘amazing’ –
astonishing
a synonym for ‘imprint’ –
impact
a moment of butterfly —
a wing twirls, into a blur of color
dropping softened stains
onto the colorless breeze
wisps of twilight cloud,
between commercial chimneys
a restless dreamer seeks shelter
what it takes to tell a child
Santa Claus’s secret
plucking frozen rainbows
from sheets of sky
frozen rainbows in overturned hourglasses
and along with the sand
a mess of melted rainbow
weaving a dream into this melted rainbow
questing for a star along its edges
that father, who went on a long journey
and promised two raindrops
yet, he never returned
tears stopping midway
on mother’s heart strings
rotating a crystal ball
again and again
standing by the shore
the day trickles into
the roots of twilight
stained winds leaving their color
on my pale cheeks
what if all the seasons—
entered the world together?