Happy Tomorrow

I think I will be Happy tomorrow
When the day gets short and cold
When I reach my desk with a tingling nose
Draped in wool and gold

I know I will be Happy
The day the Sun loans
Some of His aimless morning rays
To shine on my collar bones

I know Happiness is there
Just about a station away
And then I will be as merry and free
As the guitar-man on the Subway

I know I will be Happy tomorrow
Even as the morning I wake up to today
Sounds as sweet as the notes
That make up a perfect day

Even as the little white ones turn to gray
And leave a rain-kissed lawn
For me to get out of my shoes
And walk barefoot on
Even with the oven that announces
The birth of blueberry muffins
Or the empty moments of Nowhereness
That this generous day brings
In spite of everything right now
That seems to make me smile
I would love to postpone my Happiness
Just for a little while

For I know that the precious Tomorrow
Will bring the silver lines
That the gray ones that showered today
In their haste, left behind
I can't be dishonest, I know
I do feel a little bright
But I know that I can be Happier
On the other side of this night

For all the complex definitions
That my Yesterdays seem to teach
The Joy that is due Tomorrow
Seems oddly out of reach!

But beyond this idle boredom
And reveries that I seem to borrow
I know there waits for me
A Happy Happy Tomorrow.

A Bankrupt Poet

Seven words for a Rainbow
And Five for the Universe
But so deserted in his Woe
A poet and his Bankrupt Verse

One too many for his Love
And how they cease to be
In his calm,silent Resolve
Or a sincere Apology

They have long assuaged his Anguish
And sedated his Restless Mind
Now it is sleepless hurt and languish
For they all are left behind

The space between the words
Turns to words between the space
And the Silences unheard
His empty poems face!

Freedom?

Freedom is not Free,
It isn't free
It seems tied up
and comes with a price
It overhangs
and it nags

Sometimes it runs down
in streams on your face
As you try to fight the wind
On a roaring bike
It peeks through the paw marks
That the innocent puppy leaves
On a painfully vacuumed carpet
Just before the guests arrive
Or across the bridge that
Goes over the restless waves
And bypasses the uncertain tides
Going into a Free Sun
Free of the silk-draped Night
It can come down as Snowflakes
and Raindrops '
Or as a piece of unwrapped chocolate
After an honest workout

I wear it with pride
And forget to turn around
In some evil black magic moment
Freedom ties me down

Then the evident mirth over being Alone
And so blissfully Free
And my breath as I say the word
Turns into a Mockery.

Literature Review

I know now of the Happiness
In knowing what Keats
Thought about Cats
Or what Robert Frost
Thought of Love and Thought

Now it is just one of those
Papers that talk of Cellulose
And the Chinese with their frenzied eyes
Producing research like plastic toys
I hate to admit but it could be true
That I care more about some Dr.Hu
Who's recent work seems to challenge
Everything known about Climate Change

The poet is now half forgotten
Like Ether left in an uncovered Flask
My words expressing stranger's thoughts
And a little grumpy about the Task.

Harmony

Little Joys have nimble limbs
Twinkle toes and tipsy moves

Like the uninvited sprinkle showers
That refuse to drench and choke
And play hide and seek
With your elderly black umbrella

..Or the big white cat sitting on the pavement
Licking her grass-kissed, overfed, pink paws
With her tuna fish tongue
Looking smugly at your futile frenzy
With her emerald green inertial eyes!

Unexpected blooms of Gardenia
Along an everyday,presumed sidewalk
Fragrant flowers popping out of rain kissed leaves
That make you slow down and sometimes..
Even pluck a few under the ambush of the starry night

Anonymous chocolates on your desk
And inexpensive cups of Chai Latte
Good music in your mailbox
Custom-played to inspire you!
Honest attempts at playing bad guitar
And looking for places full of solitude to practice
To save your few,close friendships.

And then a little trouble, a little pain
To get it all
In perfect Harmony!

My Favorite Song

It comes back
Like lavender in old linen
Or like the hint of vanilla
That speaks of mum's cream-smeared
Butter-soaked,soft, tiny hands

I sang the same tune when I was sixteen
With half drunk dreamy eyes
I sing it again today
As I begin to summarize

Everything that changed unknowingly
Between the mathematically accurate beats
As I grew up between the frozen notes
The same verse and the same lines

It keeps me company as I toss a Salad
I half-listen to it as I run
A part of my mind's ear
Over-played yet unsung

I forget it for a while
Between papers, books and Coffee Shops
Then we suddenly meet at a corner
Like a whiff of freshly baked muffins

I see how my Life has changed since
The last time I sang along
For Better or for Worse, I would never Part
With the Return of my Favorite Song!

Starry Sky

I walk across a hundred fears
And I think of You
On the Evening full of Despair
I gently sing to You
From the giggling brooks that beckon
And the Orange Earth that heaves
We are born in the musky roots
And fall off as Autumn leaves
One of Your tender whispers
And everything missing is found
As I fight Reality and Illusions
You gently put your arm around
The hymns sing of sins and pleasures
A million sorrows die
Then at the end of the Bridge waits a Promise
Of Your endless Starry Sky!

PS: Please do not interpret this as a love poem. It is my version and my effort of translating one of my favorite Grace poems from Marathi.
PPS: Please do not compare the original with this one if you actually figure out what the original version is because obviously they are no match. I wrote this because I have been thinking about the poem for a very long time. :)

Footprints

As a little girl I walked on the seashore
And turned around to see
My footprints on the wave-washed sand
And wondered how I would want them to be!

My feet grew long,round and pretty
And the ocean got smaller
Within the folds of my memory
And I measured my prints in Cold Despair
In Friendships, in Love and in Victory

A little Joy and then a little Sorrow
To check Euphoria with Anguish
A host of seashells to make a pretty anklet
And sometimes just a dead jellyfish

I made scores and I kept accounts
Of the Good, the Bad and the Surreal
Making my own mark on the sultry sea sand
Struggling with the Common and the Ideal

Now all the footprints are washed away
Into the waters where the Dolphins dive
But books that I kept as a curious child
Have blossomed into my Life

Dear Notebook

Dear Notebook forgive me,
For I confuse you with eccentricity
And bring you half way through your pages
To where Chemistry meets Poetry

If they open you legally
Like they should in a world full of Rules
You would enthral them by Logic and Statistics
And thoughts from various schools
All neatly organized and highlighted
For the ease of a probable Return
And paper markers with question marks
Where there is still a lot more to learn

For those who don’t follow rules
And flip through the other way round
You reveal a mess of merry thoughts
That float without a ground
Between the lines, inclined to the right
Self-obsessed and unkind
Like the clouds that turn into pictures
Or wavy hair against the wind
Adamant verses that refuse to grow up
Or a Happy Thought broken
By the persistent cell phone ring
Words, recycled and forgotten

I never let you finish
Straight from Left to Right
Your salvation is somewhere in between
Schizophrenic and full of the Night

But would it make a difference
If I confess that you are the reason
For all the Joy and Peace in my life?
So even if the world finds it odd
And frightfully abnormal
For you to be so scientific
Front to back
And recklessly disorganized
Back to front
We could make sense
If we just stay together!

Us

What do we have between us?
That seems to set us free
Like a fragrant Gardenia on eighty five
That lingers on page three
The farther we stand, the closer we grow
Past Horizons we try to see
I see you as you see yourself
And you see everything that is not me

The Day is full of Electrochemical Detectors
And Pumps that whine in Glee
The Dusk lights up with shimmering lights
And the Night is a Reverie

There is so much room for Theatre with you
I can be all that I can be
Worry and Anger - or a Giggling Schoolgirl
Using Indifference to hide Jealousy
And the sheer amusement
Or the Happy Realization
That this nameless camaraderie
Lets you see through all the Jazz
And show me the Real Me?!!

It percolates into everything I do
And I sing as I chop the Broccoli
Scribble verses at the back of my lab book
Organize the lines methodically
For once it is not about the Future
Nor about the imperfect Past
I wonder if it is about the Present either
Or just the moments in which these Daydreams last?

Sometimes it is You and sometimes Me
Sometimes song and Sometimes hush-hush
But the Happiness and the Innocence seems to dissolve
What might stand between us.

Punctuations

One day comes with a Question Mark
A funny frown and an unsure walk
Seeking answers between Commas
But never ending in a Full Stop

As the Hopeful Healthy Heart beats
Faster than usual in moments of Glee
Slower and weary after a rainfall of Tears
Never a moment where it ceases to be!

One circle leads to another
As the River shimmers and moonbeams shine
It may go up or spiralling down
But it will never turn into a boring line

As we sit with our label-makers
Trying to stick notes on moving wheels
One for the Rain that came down in July
And left us full of Autumn Dreams

Trying to control where we want to go
Eclipsed by our own Helplessness
Afraid of being a Curious Child
Lost in a long, harmless wilderness

Coming back to an Exclamation!
Well behaved words between the lines
Organizing feelings in definite folders
Challenged and Blessed..

By the lack of Stop Signs

As The Boundaries Fade

I walk out of my mind
Now and then..
And always find
A brown girl

Speaking the same words
in a crisp tropical accent
Speaking the same language
Millimoles and Micrograms

Looking into Green Eyes
and making yellow heads nod
Watching the thoughtful Horizon
On a windy Ferry ride back home

Analyzing the difference
and marking similarities
Going back more than often now
to where she comes from
And fighting with the eventual questions
About where she wants to go