Amma, today I talked to someone Whom you would approve To lay me in my grave. Driving home, I said to you: Have you heard, have you heard? The sound of her heart beat filled to the brim with kindness that doesn’t...
Every time she looked at him, she saw a new stranger. Every time he looked at her, he saw a new friend. Polite she: “Sure!” Skeptical he: “What did she mean by that?” Uncertainty strings...
“So what made you approach me?” I gulped back my leaping heart at her question. In that microsecond All the reasons I was going to simplify Became complicated. Oh, I don’t know. The sharp look in her...
After an intense 2-month work including a complete front-end overhaul, Saaranga Magazine is now relaunched, with a new English section. Magazine here, and my article, How will they receive me, for the inaugural edition.
Some women got together and came up to me as I lay on the ground. In our days we caged our hearts in each other, Now one said, “What a strange man he was,” and nodded some others. Spiteful ones, they turned...
In May I began my man’s cycle Fell into a world Where everything was you and everything was in you My clarity of purpose was sharp My respect for your power was firm My patience for your love was eternal Now...
Why talk of the unknowability of death? Nonsense. Let me tell you what death is. She will never think of you. Not out of spite, Nor because she doesn’t want to. While your body is cremated You let your heart burn...
And so, Chairs sat in a line that went around Into another line and came back around With us in them, in the conference room. I sideways to you, but half my heart, (Was it left ventricle, or the right one?) Already...
When it comes to a woman
You are only what she accords you
Framed in her silence,
Only that.
And if you are offended by this
Then you are not madly in crush with her
Fix this first.
He wandered over them again. He had called them into view, and it was not easy to replace the shroud that had so long concealed them. There were the faces of friends and foes, and of many that had been almost strangers...
A wave of somethings appeared out of nowhere Thoughts, recollections and some debris Some, questioning if my memory is true Others, smiling with kindness at me— but still unhappy at my worries That I didn’t create...
Just a few moments ago, Hearing a sudden eruption of noise I stopped washing my face, Hit the tap on its head And stood listening. Crows. Making ruckus, Bringing me back my cuts. Each black flight a cut From you, you...
Plucking out and throwing away The world stinging her as thorn, This girl walked swiftly away somewhere. Translation of Ismail’s Telugu poem, original below. ఆత్మహత్య తనని బాధిస్తున్న ప్రపంచపు ముల్లుని పీకి పారేసి...
Yesterday I realized From the white-knuckle silence She wouldn’t let go That I am still unborn A point of no focus Not ready yet For her words that ring love May never be ready yet For that chuckle from her eyes...
Do I not see in your face The growing pointlessness of me? Did I not get used to you Not even trying to ignore me? What then is this longing still, For a feeling for home, For an uplifting of moods? I must announce this...
Lust never sleeps, It dreams of you Your face in my head Questioning me, confronting me With those big conquering eyes Prodding me to be straight And honorable, to you, to you alone Squeezing the last breath out of me...
Here I am thinking, You were nicer to me When you were pregnant Now all you do is Give me a frown, An abrupt look away So I urge you, Become pregnant again, And walk in through the hallway On a bright sunny morning So...
If you let yourself go fat, and a bit of you begins to be amused by the world’s tantrums, And another bit of you is a witness to this amused you but in a passing way, then, my friend, there’s hope for you...
Strip, strip strip strip Strip everything strip That look from the corner of your eye, strip That raising your eyebrow in a tease, strip Strip that microsecond look of longing at me, strip Strip that touching my...
Let me begin by making you a woman again And tell you who you actually are Beneath the snow of indifference that piled up on you And made you stop feeling womanly. When you speak on the phone, Your voice goes inside me...
Days are going by. And I hold you With content that comes from imagining you A steady hand, Calming my restlessness Those searching anxious eyes Staring at unresolved questions And, Brightening quietly on seeing me Such...
Saying “this grave is for you” you put me to sleep one night, Years ago. Erased me from your memory. Now, when our lost intimacy presses my heart, I roll up my full sleeves, touch my naked forearms...
I know this is the end. I am saying this to will the end to come over me. To forget you. To will myself to go back in time before I saw you. To have been looking the other way in that moment when you walked in. To be...
(On stage, she is sitting crouched, lamenting, wailing and cursing Death who is standing quietly, about five feet in front of her, with its back to her.) If you are so focused on not seeing me What is this urge in me...
What if I look straight on While you look at me As we pass by And your heart leaps And catches my shirt button Do you think I would hold it carefully And put it in my pocket, forever mine? Or would I let it fall in my...
I can see her saying she loves me. Barely the words left her lips and they are already reverberating a millionth time in my head. Already reconfiguring my brain circuits. Raising the action potentials, reconnecting a...
Your baby, standing on her tiny wobbly legs, Staring at you, her fingers joyfully in her mouth I am like that, when it comes to you. Who are you, then? I’ve heard it said That there is a phase women go through...
They won’t believe it, No one will believe it. How you held my body, my heart, and my happiness, Firmly to the ground, And flew them in the air, With one and same smile, And with one and the same turn of your...
Saw you walk by A little boldly today. I turned away, but only a little Worried that my very look at you, Would afflict both of us. You with more derision of me, I with more longing for you. How I yearn to talk to you...
SHE: Saw him first, Groping in the dim light of my allowing eyes, So I squeezed him in, with my gentle hands. He stepped forward, wishing only not to be a stranger, But just a friend for now, Maybe, if God willing, even...
There was a time, Two sisters enquired about you. Two brothers joked, Made my face flush. A mother and a father, Anxiously asked for your name But I, I only loved with possession, Groped between your breasts, Pushing...
How with feeling your eyes smiled today I cannot describe it, simply cannot They ask me to come for life And stay for children They promised me, That the thighs will remain curious Why the breasts are heavier, And why...
And so here I am, Back again in your blindspot. Not in your thoughts, Nor in your fascinations, Not even a chance, years from now, To be in your recollections. To be in your blindspot, Is like not even being born, But...
This is the story of how I live in S-lane, And how I love the little things here. There are a thousand houses in the S-lane, And when I walk here, a thousand looks, Each a thousand carat diamond, greet me in the S-lane...
Pouring coffee into the cup, I realized something, and smiled. I don’t have to die for you. Your machinations Of not even ignoring me, Will bring your own ruinations. You will no doubt go to heaven, But only after...
One look, one word
And I died everyday
I didn’t kiss you
Now, after 23 years
I still live
For one word, for one look
And for one kiss
To encode life
Into my 23 pairs
How long are you going to smile a public smile when you see me Sweeping me out the door of your kindness and grace How long am I to go on feeling a private guilt when I see you Hoping one day you will see the chains you...
Don’t hold back It is not your love I want Nor your affection, not yet anyway Not even your attention—maybe just a little But you allowing yourself, When you see me, The softness in your heart, The ease in your...
Curious thing, this crush is Second after second, the heart tugs For some look, For some smile, For some touch, All from you Only from you, All the time from you But you don’t know it, You don’t care for it...
You ignore me with a purpose Believing that a cloud of unknowing Will soon set in between us And all will be professional, and knowing Like how a plastic doll knows another plastic doll Let us make a compromise. You be...
Crushed, I turned inward “Whatever’s wrong with me,” I kept muttering to myself, “That she wouldn’t even look at me.” Then suddenly taken aback, I saw, That all these “I”s...
Upset with me, Suddenly opening the door, You left. For bursting open the door I closed for your sake long ago, And letting in sunshine and air, Many thanks. [Original Telugu poem “Talupu” by Ismail] Telugu original...
Looking forward to reading this book by David Shulman. From page 117: “She is perfectly aware who this god is, who they say he is, what stories they tell about him, but actually none of this matters much: They say...
Seeing you first, I rushed From first fill of the heart, To first tenderness of a poem Seeing me then, you stared With that diamond look of silence Black from your black eyes Shimmering from your shining face Blinding...
SHE: ఏమనుకున్నావూ, ఏదో చెత్త పోయెట్రీ రాస్తే మనమేదో మాట్లాడుకుంటామూ, దగ్గరవుతామూ అనా? నా సంగతి నీకు తెలీదూ? అయినా నువ్వెవరు, అసలూ? HE: నేను నిన్ను నువ్వు అన్నప్పుడు పర్లేదు అని నువ్వన్నప్పుడు, మొట్టమొదటి రోజు ఇంత పెద్ద...
Ignoring me, you let your Beautiful big eyes rest on your screens Fine. Be that way then. I will brush your cheeks As an old memory Breeze into your shining hair, newly highlighted, As a vague question in your mind Rest...
Like a fool I am trying to Match your indifference With mine. But I will eventually Die of indifference poison While you, You will soak yourself in The love of your twins, of your children Growing ever more bright Ever...
Like when the wave, after splashing you as if you were a child, Recedes, as if you were a stranger As if you will muddy her waters She too, began her indifference God, tell me, why everything Turns out like You...
Head down in it, I was fiddling with the back panel, prying it open A shadow, silvery, appeared, almost stopping my heart I looked up, dropped everything, saw the silvery shadow turn into you golden My nerves...
