The doors of hope are open once more,

Sunshine obliterating the darkness again.

The wounds of the past have not been lost

But became a forgotten tune I once sang.

Like the phoenix from the proverbial ashes

I know this time I will not rise to fall again.

I know the deeds of the past will be paid,

And the evil eye will surely boomerang.

Your sudden silence pierces my heart

Like a cold, double-headed arrow.

When words halt before they're said

I drown in my chalice of sorrow.

Like a beggar for whom the houses

On the sides of the road are closed.

Only your voice a hope arouses,

Otherwise, in life a gloom is imposed.

I saw the leader of the new world

Run ahead in his sparkling robes.

Multitudes of people behind him

To his bastion he royally strode.

For once, I wanted to follow the king

The new leader of people's delusions.

But in my heart, I'll always want to be

The pall-bearer of ephemeral illusions.

I wish the reins of my mind so fickle

Were placed firmly in my hands' grasp.

I wish the roller-coaster of emotions

Would cease when the reins I clasp.

My body breaks at every new challenge

Now that many storms I've seen die.

No more, no more - it cries out loud

Hopes of a breakthrough say goodbye.

Your love makes me feel secure,

Like a blanket on a freezing night.

It gives me hope for every new day

After a long tunnel, the bright sunlight.

It brings my scattered life together

Like the magnet brings the sharp nails.

With you by my side, today and forever

I know this love is the one that never fails.

There's a drop of hope on the table.

Only a drop, minute and serene.

The harsh winds scratch its surface;

Keeping it together is the hope sanguine.

The eternal fight of hope and doom

Being fought on the surface of the drop.

Even by slight slip of bond of faith

The juggernaut of hope will stop.

The fears that had once bedeviled my mind

The fears that I thought I had finally overcome.

Today, they stare me in the face again,

Forcing me, my past self, again to become.

I then had the gusto of the rebel for my aid

The stamina of the uninitiated by my side.

But today I feel exhausted by the days past

From this fear, I shiver and seek to hide.

The long, infinite horizon of life

An endless expanse of uncertainties.

How then can I make choices today

Not knowing tomorrow's knitty-gritty's?

How can I hit the proverbial bull's-eye

When I don't know where it lies?

How can I choose the speed to run

If my expectations the future belies?

The last breath so serene yet grand

The impending end, the end of an age

Yet the delicate strings of life so gay

Await the snap of death's fiery rage.

But will the passing away in its wake

Wash away the deeds, even the pure.

Will the untamed flames of doom,

Of my life, complete obliteration secure?

The cold words like a shower of arrows

Pierced the heart like a steel blade.

Tears came, like blood from a wound;

On this day, a deep cut was made.

Sound logic was discarded and undone,

Emotions lay bare, hanging in the air.

Air laden with love's forgotten moisture,

Of my now-battered soul this is the lair.

The untamed force erupting underneath;

Below the glossy surface of decorum.

Finally finds an opening to just let go

Of all the energy, after this boredom.

Returning stars have often faded,

Into the quiet dullness of folklore.

Will this erupting energy also move,

Into this trap that lies in store?

I came from a land far, far away

Where silence was omnipresent.

Where solitude was a hazy mist,

And I was as simple as a peasant.

And now this life fast and furious

Through it I must make my way.

But how to enjoy this dreariness

Is the greater question I face today.

The arrogance of the self-professed right

To accuse the other of the dirty deed.

The deed that only they might have done,

But the voice of reason they do not heed.

What worse than the self-professed right,

For whom to deny wrongdoing is being cool and hip.

Where has the 'basic human respect' deserved,

Disappeared from those who profess 'friendship'?

When I sit down to look at myself,

I see a decaying core so worn out

By years of love deserted in a jiffy

For some humanity within, I scout.

Loving someone more than yourself,

Either teaches you to be loved back so,

Or to never love someone so much again.

Alas, with the second lesson in life I go.

This broken spirit like an albatross

So heavy, I carry from day to day.

The walls grew up in great haste,

Before anything that I could say.

The feet of my now-broken spirit,

I drag, as I duel with this sadness.

The vanishing smile took away

With it the joy, and left this mess.

These disconnected words, my only shelter.

Rivulets that flow with the tears and the pain.

My mind a brimming chalice of emotions,

Erupts with words in order to remain sane.

The strongest of emotions diluted by them,

The faintest of hopes revved up in a moment.

My words are my life, strength and weakness,

And mostly my only source of atonement.

I do not reward friends with success

For I am neither the lord nor king.

My head I bow in meek servitude,

Before all that in this world is living.

How can I, epitome of imperfections,

Seek to give when I myself am in need?

In this world where learning never ends

Of what 'success' can I be the seed?

The veil of suspicion so dark and dense,

Relegates the true face to the unseen.

Noble intentions die the shameful death,

To remove this veil nobody is keen.

The masters of the destiny so glorious,

Are mere hapless prisoners of the veil.

This veil of constant public scrutiny,

A lifetime of misunderstanding it entails.

The path of forgiveness is hard to find,

And tougher it is to walk on the flame.

The flame of rage that still flares up,

And those of pain the heart can't tame.

So let us not reach that stage of life

Where success is like a petulant bride.

Forgiveness is a path you can't walk

So let us not make mistakes in our stride.

The man who stabbed and ran away

Now stands proud among the crowd.

His shimmering smile won them over

And to his rustic charms they bowed.

The secrets of his deeds held back

By the pain inflicted by his action.

One day the gates will flood open,
To his web of lies, a natural reaction.

What power surrounds an empty bow!

What applaud greets the hollow words!

However, the goal of word is the action,

The elusive conclusion we run towards.

The action needs the grit and determination

The word needs just sorcery with alphabets.

The delusional castle of words we might put up

Would one day fall due to truth's trumpets.

He charged at the heart's closed door,

Shut hard by the times of pain gone by.

But the door that hid the pain inside,

Refused to open as hard as he'd try.

For the pain was full; still overflowing,

Like an endless river of dense sorrow.

And the person now knocking at the gate

Was the one who left behind life so hollow.

The simple life in a pure, limitless expanse

The words of anger and despair left far behind.

The serene water flows on the grassy greens,

And the chirrup of the bird soothes the mind.

Into such a world, o Lord, let me awake,

Far from the maddening crowds of the day.

Where my mind could rest in everlasting peace,

And hearts of people won't have shades of gray.

The fire that lights up the night so dark,

The fire that glows with toil and passion,

At its very center burns up the fuel it eats,

And leaves its core devoid of compassion.

The fire of passion is hard to handle,

Lest it burns the one who summons it.

Thus, to sit down and not take a stand,

Often is the best possible gambit.

Time flew like a tornado past the house,

Disarticulating the serene house's charms.

Like a poor neighbour she was disrobed,

Leaving behind a scarred and barren farm.

Some started a race they eventually lost,

While others gave up before the start.

The winds of time move unrelentingly past,

To stand up to it, few have the heart.

A dam can block the peaceful flow of a river

It can hold back, disrupt and torment.

But the river comes back with mighty flow,

All its frustrations on the dam it vents.

The dam, God permit, one day shall break

And the river will flow with ever greater force.

Such are the numerous obstacles we face in life,

With perseverance ends the journey's every strife.

A broken heart that love left behind,

Rarely would it have been so kind,

To forget and to move on with life,

To not spend nights in emotional strife.

The world didn't see the tears that came,

Not 'moving on' was often seen with disdain.

Deep inside the surface so calm and gay,

The pain forever would remain the same.

The two birds flew together, hand-in-hand

Into an evergreen future of limitless expanse,

Of starry nights and days like heaven.

Far away, into the lap of joy's eternal dance.

Never mind the broken hearts they left behind,

Never mind the emotionless beings they put in place.

And that to those who loved them, they were cruel

And that a broken heart can never stand up with grace.

Like the seed so wile and rootless,

I sway from one place to another.

The purpose of my existence is clear,

Yet I fear to face the rough weather.

I have to perform on the grand stage,

The effort is like the mountain I face,

That I still tend to sway rootless,

On my effort, is a big disgrace.

The self-appointed protectors of a legacy,

Seek to keep it close to their hearts protected.

They keep it from the 'cruel' winds of change,

Lest its serene purity be desecrated.

What they, however, sadly don't realise

What doesn't change will wilt and die.

The very secrecy that they bring to the legacy,

The pain of the legacy's death it will magnify.

The free birds that flew joyously together,

Both on sunny days and in rough weather.

Each one of them had something to explain,

Every lip wanted to tell a story of pain.

Yet they never understood each other,

For each was deaf to the others' wail.

To make the others listen to what he said

Was what friendship to each did entail.

The iron fist that holds me tight,

My wings clipped by its evil might.

Where freedom is but a lip service,

My creative urges simply out of sight.

I know the steely chains won't break,

But I know responsibilities I have to take.

Let the tyrants just try to hold me down,

My own little difference I'm sure I'll make.

Lonely is the mighty sun so bright.

Lonely is the moon this silent night.

The river is calm on the surface,

But faces within an unending plight.

Every day like a chore unending,

Over the soul a weariness unbending.

The sound of the ceiling fan rotating,

The only music to hear I'm getting.