By: Pramod Rastogi

The Land of Cuckoo

I pay a visit to the Alps long overdue
Where in a hut live my cousins so true,
Awaiting in awe my visit impromptu.

They are born wizards of the flame issue
Who love to light their alphorns under the blue
After they have enjoyed a barbecue.

They have burnt the ghosts of their past tattoos
To live on the Red Cross main avenue
And have milk and cheese on their dawn menu.

I too now live in the land of cuckoo
Where white is the colour of its virtue
On vistas green stamped with its residue.

The cuckoo rhymes with an ardent breakthrough
In a land famed for its toil and fondue
I love ambling by its glaciers shaded blue
And Alpine peaks to bump into.

A fairy-tale that chimes the candy cuckoo
Under the choccy charms of the Swiss view.
 

Keeping Alight your Smile

My heart hid in the riddle of galaxies
And in the endless voids in the universe,
But could not boast of unearthing a clue to life
Beyond my neighborhood on this earth

Until the day I met you by chance
While exploring a shelf in a library
And your smile rained down
And cast a meek glow over me.

I was laden with an intense sense of loss
When you left before I could dare
Acknowledge your smile-soaked call.

Struck by your warmth and dewy charm
And by your beauty unworldly and naïve,
I deviated a shade from my path
And spent time inking inflaming verses

That explored the overindulgent love
That your smile left lit in me for you
Before you vanished in thin air
Never to reappear in my life.

Now I cannot banish you from my heart.
You knew how to soothe my torn mind,
And I want to keep your smile alight in me
As it had conspired slyly for me to take
Two paths converging but leading
To different worlds ages apart.