Step into my skin
The scaly, leathery, half-baked
covering of my soul
Step into my skin
It doesn’t feel the snow.
It has long abandoned
all inane senses
as it outgrew the womb
Step into my skin
Probably then you would know
This moss,
did not grow
Sitting at home.
Photo by Alexander Krivitskiy (Unsplash)
Surrender, they say
don’t fight,
accept.
Don’t be deceived
by tricks of the mind,
reach inside
find
a self
go delve
as do I
in questions unanswered.
How can one abandon
the quest?
Answers elude
Questions chase
How can I seclude
or, erase
the seismic trigger
for bigger
universal divinity?
Infinity is what I see
in what they call
transient.
Am I not meant
to strive, to prove
worth of every breath?
There’s no death
you say, for the soul
roll the dice –
fate, karma or,
mundane everyday race-
I face
each moment
with zeal
I feel
I see
I hear
Fear,
is just as universal
as love
or peace
or empathy.
Humanity fights
to survive,
and then,
to thrive.
I fight
to be
what I am
destined to be.
If not victory, peace.
I raise the white flag
is this what is seen
as surrender?
Photo by Jackson Simmer (Unsplash)
Standing in the shade
with lengthening shadows
I see surfers
soaring with the tides
Couples
walking hand in hand
on wet sand,
Kids
building castles
Bandanas- bright green, orange, red..
myriad hues and colors
fluttering threateningly,
almost flying off
the small brown hands
offering them to every passerby.
Everyone is living their day,
as destined
or, designed.
Do they grudge my shade?
Or is it me
carrying the guilt
of my own idleness?
Picture by Sean. O (Unsplash)
Today I met my soul
Right outside my front porch
It was apologetic as it said goodbye,
And I did not know
Whether to hold or let it go.
Picture by Ronaldo de Oliviera (Unsplash)
For all the times
That I reached to you
And you weren’t there,
I pray
That someone else found you
In their solitude,
And YOU gave them your hand.
You are now forgiven.
Picture by twinsfisch (Unsplash)
As I go to sleep, the world inside my mind comes to life,
Unlike the one, I wake to tomorrow bearing bright light.
I will be one with the one I seek
Away from judgment, truths, and lies.
And though I know it will all be a dream,
Sweetheart, I will wake tomorrow by the bright light,
Knowing we will be one again in the night.
Painting by Salavat Fidai
We compete with time,
To postpone its inevitable consumption of our being.
What if, instead we leverage on our ability
To touch lives and create shared experiences?
And through this process which might be time-consuming,
We will be a part of someone’s stories.
Stories that will be told,
Far beyond time’s inevitable consumption of our being.
Then we won’t have to compete with time alone,
And what will become inevitable is not necessarily,
Its consumption of us,
But the stories told and retold that will postpone it.
Painting by Salvador Dali
True beauty is sadness
For it can never last,
A flower found in bloom
That shall wither too fast.
True beauty is loss
For it shall never stay,
Losing sinew chasing it
Only to lose your way.
By Navin Gettu
Painting by Alexis Fazio
I fell for who you were, for what we had. Red roses that stood for what we had. But time passed and things changed. Now I’m holding onto dead roses.
They remind me that beauty is never permanent. And as they wither away, soon all that will be left is the memory, which too, shall fade.
By Navin Gettu
Picture by Keith Dotson
I had lit myself on fire for you till the wick was all but burnt out.
And yet you couldn’t comprehend the darkness that followed.
By Navin Gettu
Picture by Daniel Amor
Road to Sangam 