By: R K Singh

1.

ENERGY BLOCK

Frazzled and restless
bouts of anxiety
addiction, sleeplessness
spinal degeneration
pain in the neck and back
numbness in the legs
loss of teeth, libido
anal bleeding etc

failure to stay focused
and dying desires to do
what I used to do
are not mere ageing

things get hairy, scary
with body failure
ailments pop up
spirit dries up
mind disconnects

I’m hardly centred
to clean my age’s turd
on inner chakras
meditate and forget
the memories’ load
and die a new being

2.
SELF-NEGLECT

Meditation—
living long but failing
to live wide
says Seneca we are
fugitives from ourselves

the busyness
and weariness of now
we toss about
regulating our sleep
by one another’s

love or hate
what others dictate
we get duped
our time lost, without
inner wholeness

3.

ROT

Moon energy
fills up the inner space—
call to wake up

or be hostage to wounds
that don’t auto correct
astral faults

knitting the luck
amidst the waste gods spread
I smell the rot

4.

POST-ELECTION

They don’t hear
the silent screams of
millions

tired of misfortune—
play games of convenience
innocent voters

sordid life—
nation’s destiny
heaven-fed

5.

AFTERMATH

Between the mossy and thorned pathways
shadows slant. He trumps the press and praises PM
wisdom splashed in gonzo arguments
cocks the walk. Others too feel his sting but prefer
silence. They know the caged parrot’s free
to shame seven decades of democracy groomed
differently. They know how weak they are
to stop the burning forest’s ash from reddening
now aberrations clot in the mind
await Ram’s hanging before the wounded converts
count the cries, lashes and piercings

6.

ROOTLESS

Hidden from the eyes of others
I was made in secret
but I can’t remember my birth

from foetus in the womb
to severing of the cord
erased the memory

now rootless in the valley
fading sensations of years
pierce the darkling wings of
world wide web that blob my being
twisted and tangled, brushed

away like a fly hate mongers
hashtag my creation
pirouetting platitudes

7.

TEN TANKA

No one around
before the paper deity
dead flowers
giving me the push
“quick, get up,” I hear

Waking to a morning
tainted with prayers
on the toilet seat
nude nature waves a dull sun
smitten by the night’s long eclipse

Earthy body
and nightness of silence
fear in mirror
return to the river
echoing hollowed sound

Before retiring
swallowing pills to mitigate
her rising hackles
that walk me through to death
of desire for love in bed

Life is beautiful
when you enter another
body…mind
and become one
in each other

No cakes or cookies
to celebrate my birthday
this New Year eve
lunar eclipse and blue moon
cheer the cup in foggy chill

Short nights and long days
sleep loss rustles a friction
echoing in bed
the cycle of cravings
over and over again

The busyness
and weariness of now
they toss about
regulating their sleep
by one another’s

Light switched off
for love sliding on
window pane
moon too shies away
behind the bare trees

A moment of love
and long silence for years:
from dream to nightmare
again fear grips my soul
I sense her presence around

8.

BEAUTIFUL LIKE SIN: A Haiku Sequence

Their nectar
radiates heat
body’s smell

flames rise
their coloured faces–
full moon

inciting
her silence–
cell phone rings

trying to reach
through her twists and curves
the lips in the crotch

drowsiness
after a short pilled sleep–
morning sex

rubbing gulal
between her private parts–
holi stroke

hot on the trail with youth
she scales up the heights of dream
and leaves me stunned with chill

lying in her nightie
she wipes the stray rain drops
settled on her cheeks

transparent
in her red saree
she tiptoes

her first kiss
beautiful like sin:
clitoral clinch

she plays her body
hide and seek in naked dress–
sizzling summer

unzipping her back—
hundreds of nights grow wings
with wasp touch

closed eyes:
smelling the cleavage
crescent wanes

###

Ram Krishna Singh, an Indian English poet, has been writing  for about four decades. Professionally,  till recently,  Professor of English  at IIT-ISM in Dhanbad, he has published more than 160 research articles, 175 book reviews and 42 books, including Sense and Silence: Collected Poems (2010), New and Selected Poems Tanka and Haiku (2012),  You Can’t Scent Me and Other Selected Poems (2016), God Too Awaits Light (2017), Growing Within (2017), and There’s No Paradise and Other Selected Poems Tanka & Haiku (2019).