Anonymous

I wrote this poem at 4 AM on November 8, 2016, aftermath of American election. It was subsequently published in the University of California newspaper- http://synapse.ucsf.edu/articles/2016/11/09/anonymous

It is 4 AM in San Francisco.

Deep night overwhelms the emptiness.

I would like to stay in this dark forever.

I feel safe here-

no one knows my skin,

no one knows my religion,

no one knows my sexuality.

I see hues chasing the ropes of the Golden Gate.

When light goes out on the bridge for a moment,

the city becomes the loudest in anonymity-

no shame of being America!

A Night In San Francisco

Murmuring breeze and November showers
threw the Westward sun into the Ocean Beach.
Neon lights coalesced into a rainbow in Castro.
Echoes of rhythmic clubs and million ambitions
crawled the tall ceilings of the downtown.
They screamed in the ears of a thousand graffiti.
Dreams were shattered on the sidewalks of Tenderloin.
Mist of the Bay conspired against
weary eyes, hungry lips, and desperate youth.
Money could not vanquish the banality of filth
and the bright light mocked incessant babel.
Undiagnosed pain lived and died,
but the city moved on as if every day. 

35 Years Later

Everything moved unusually fast,
like an afternoon sandstorm
coalescing into evening shadows.
35 years later,
I sat by snowy purgatory and reminisced.

High tides of twilight rushed
inside a buried prisoner.
I was a man of fading luster.
Tears of past blurred my eyes.
I heard crackled sounds of bones
underneath the flourish of immoral spring.
Vain sculptures of red water and stone
rose tall in the fury of disdain.
Time plundered all the illusion.
My despair became a deafening conversation
between struggle and surrender.
My being was an absurd continuum.
So was the lure of love in the Eden,
where vultures and snakes bite each other
in an eternal dance.
What a descent of man!

One Year Of A Soul

I looked down from the mountain slope.
It was a lazy day, ready to elope.
The afternoon sky was turning purple,
behind intermittent snowflakes.
I heard effervescence in the cloud.
It might rain- ah, snow and rain!
Earth soaked hope and desire.

When I woke up this morning,
doubt and fear of future were on the hunt.
I had a dream of my favorite cat,
transformed into a human.
He mindlessly destroyed
all the trees of this mountain,
history of dream and reflection.

I lost my gay friend to the cruelty of
human ignorance and intolerance.
I wish I were beside him
to listen to his struggle.
He had a soul of a benevolent river,
now meets with quiet vastness.

A sudden surge of light fall upon me.
It is a romance of earth and sun.
I remember the girl I kissed last summer-
on this mountain,
on these red rocks.
Under the starry sky was the best.
Then we moved on.

Darkness arrives fast in winter.
Night brings contemplations wiser.
Thoughts of dying alone never scare me;
living indifferent does.
If my passion fades,
will my soul wither? 

Light Sound Rain

We bade farewell to-
eternal waves on white sand,
rhythm of hues on seashells,
a lonely heron among seagulls,
rows of sprawling palm trees.

Rest of the sunset was
lingering on the blurred horizon.
We had to rush for home before
heaven burst into sound.
Defying our predictions,
water was poured upon us.
We stopped at Tampa Bay
for Cuban Sandwiches and red sangria.
Music just started a few black women.
They lit up the night brighter than
collisions of million clouds.
We froze those moments
by drinking and dancing.
We came home happy.

Colors Of Tears

Water is clear, so is a mother's tears.
She is burying her favorite son in-
Homs, Beirut, Baga, Paris....
every day in every corner of home.
Sun sets without a promise.
Cold wind whispers without a whistle.

I didn't cry for her tears.
I was busy in a coffee shop
telling others stories of-
colors of tears,
shadows of unequal deaths,
politics of asymmetrical humanity.

Monalisa Lost

sleepless eyes-
gloomy days
broken marriage
loveless sky
man or woman

lackluster forehead-
decrepit hair

absurd clothes-
ordinary breasts
fright overweight

delusional da Vinci