Acknowledgements:
​​
Manuscript 2 “Open Conversations” put together in Liberia, West Africa, Kyrgyzstan, New York, and finally, put finishing touches on it in Ukraine. It follows Manuscript No. 1 (now published as “The Sufi’s Garland” by Roman Books, 2011) put together in Kabul, Afghanistan. Acknowledging the great support and love of my parents, fondness of my children, and most importantly, the steadiness of my wife’s belief. I offer special acknowledgment to my teachers, dead and living, who have nurtured my writing.
Miyosaki says that a profession is that which one does a business that which one creates!
In this path, poetry is my profession, and my business that is the value that I profess through poetry, has to, should be, and must be beatific. My profession is poetry and my business is lives gone from rage to relief. If McDonald’s is in the profession of selling burgers and their business is measured by locations acquired, then Manav is in the profession of voicing (selling, recording, writing, reciting…poetry) and his business is measured by relief provided (lives relieved/relieved moments/relief in moments of revealed relief). My business is lives gone from rage to relief.

A Dark Vision: A Prosaic
Nihilism of the Ignored Masses
We, the people, are arses. We do not starve you of your caviar; we serve you knives to carve out the hearts of those who are serving you caviar. We, the ones who you look at and not even spare your perfectly foiled spit on, we who give no shits about who wins or loses, we who want you to know that we have no hope nor desire to win, just to see you suffer. We are the frogs who were kissed a million times, and remained frogs. We, the weeds who don’t care because we lost count of the number of times we have been whacked for your perfect manicured looking gardens to look fabulous. We who mow your lawns and sell you weedkill, we the weeds, we know your gardens are sickly and your grasses hollow yet we do not mind giving you weedkill knowing it will kill us. We, the weeds, know that the weedkill will weaken your perfect grass-fed sows for it is not the weeds, we, who can weaken you anymore; we know you have found alternate lives in your metropolis for us to be raked yes, and provide you with what you needs need; and so we went for the weedkiller so your roots and soil become soiled too for we, the weeds know, that the weedkiller will kill us but will weaken you too. We, the weeds, got tired. Got tired of being told that we matter. That all lives matter. That we have a chance and must have a chance to live. All while you talked pretty, found ways to kill us and kill us without us having a chance to say anything to you coz you talked sweet. We couldn’t even partake of our deaths coz you took that away from us. We, the weeds, organized ourselves. We, the weeds, bought weedkiller not just as a suicide but as a suicide mission pact to destroy the roots of the grassy knolls so that they may never be sure again whether they have anything of pure value left growing in their hills. We, the laughed at, uninvited weeds do not question whether we belong or know where or what we must be going; we know we belong nowhere, never have, never will so waste not your precious breath calling us further names of our nameless, worthless existence. We, the weeds, are beyond your cutting aspersions, we are hardened and the only we can revenge our lot is the weedkiller. We, the weeds, have no other saving grace; we do not belong in your ever growing need and world for faster, better, quicker. We, the weeds, simply do not belong. SO before you kill us, o grassmasters, watch us…for we have found the way to weaken you who have led us for far too long…we have found the gardenkiller but we, the useless weeds, have let it call itself gardenmaster, fooling even the fool into believing that he is the gardenmaster. We know who the gardenmasters have always been; we, the weeds, have decided to bring in the gardenwrecker pretending to be gardenmaster, to wreck not just the grasses, never mind the garden weeds; we, the weeds, have finally found a wrecker who will take down the all the grassmasters. We, the weeds, are happy we will die, finally, at the hands of the weedkiller, and not you grassmasters, always laughing your way to the grass banks. We, the weeds, have finally hired and brought in a wrecker who knows how to kill us, meaningfully, not meaninglessly as you masters did all these years.
We, the weeds, are happy now, real happy…
Ibteda (Opening Salvo)
Shouting in An Old City called Fraidoon in Gandahara (near modern day art and glass blowing magical Afghan city Herat, near Iran border)
…where they sell stuff one can't even imagine
this is an old world, the city of Fraidoon, there
I called out to Fraidoon
I called out to Fraidoon
I called out to Fraidoon from the top
of the mounds where once his city stood
where once this city stood where once the city stood
I called out Fraidoon Fraidoon
Fraidoon Fraidoon Fraidoon
I have come
all the way
listen to me
Fraidoon Fraidoon Fraidoon
I walked all around
Fraidoon Fraidoon Fraidoon
all the ramparts of his fortress
his city
giving away
Fraidoon Fraidoon
after filling my heart
with conversation
with Fraidoon…
I left

I Will Die with Hundreds of Papers Unread
(first published in The Stewardship Report,
Nov 29, 2014)
I will die with hundreds of papers unread
Books unsorted, travels undone,
expectations unmet, places un-went,
foods untasted, things unsaid
I will die with thoughts unaired,
hearts un-lightened, glories unlived,
missions unfulfilled, loans unburdened
lovers unrequited, relatives unvisited,
experiences un-had.
I will die before my time,
hidden or sought, found unfound,
though time is no one’s slave or friend,
whether young or old, frail or fit, strong or weak, I will die a human death
…and that is all any of us can promise,
that I will die a human death
for I was born and I will die,
when born I promised nothing,
when dead hold not against me that
…death is my only surety none too sad nor to be avoided
just lean not heavy when I leave
for all the weight I couldn’t heave,
these mounts I put upon my shoulder
those weights were mine and mine alone
let them go with me when I
…on earth in heaven or in between lie.
Dearth of the Cherry Blossoms
Rough winds do blow in may
melancholy notes travel on zephyr ends
delivering what was left of the time
when cherry blossoms blossomed
for just the ten days of April
adorning the national verse month
one cannot tell if the blooming buds
do know or care to know when they
gave light or meaning to mean March souls
that they may have saved a marriage
or a man or woman on their last thread
would they be pleased if they knew
that those Silk Road walks by the Oxus river
culminated at JFK
or that joshing grin one March afternoon
would have an April day
One cannot know nor say
if one feels this way
for a cherry blossom
or the hem of a skirt,
a curve of trousers
or that familiar feeling
of what the fledglings
knowingly
sweetly
softly
call
aimer

An Ode to “Whatever!”
Ah childhood where everything was “Whatever!”
Gone, squirrelled away cross-legged on a beach memoire,
And now when life’s spring, youthful, and summer arrives…
My dear, dear promising me, how shall I welcome thee?
Desolate can be its days yet seamless the nights
Falcons and nightingales I seem to see and hear
Blind peacocks mislead, spreading naiveté
While adulthood beckons round the bend
Ah but youth first—being and becoming are my easy pickings
What shall I do with my fins and feathers?
Shall I give them wings to fly or gills to glide
Or shall I await the tide to which way scatter
Easier indeed to drift and dither,
Let father time like an endless sitter,
Princesses and Princes we feign, we forger
Yet fear and wonder can I make up when older, weaker?
What shall I do with all that’s me, I ponder
Shall I do such no fellow man may hunger?
Shall I be such so troubles of friends asunder?
Shall I invent, imagine fuels like vapor fire cylinders?
Thus seized of purpose, on we thrust
Take some leaps over fence and thorn,
Burying “Whatever!” forever, exclaim—
I, too, am finally, fully born!
Oh those red tulips are indeed not prettier than your lips
And the sloping meadows will never understand
why when you lie on them and roll the way of pebble round
that heaven cannot be doubled yet doubled it was found
And when came leaders of Cyrus and Ashoka and Alexander's names
And asked what happened to these lands we conquered, what became
If only their progeny would look askew and see
that nothing more glorious need be than my beautiful dame
And from a distance bellows a wind for fair is fair
it needed to go and took petals away
I looked my love, weary through wind's way
for summer winter and that treacherous fall to go away
Ah when love my love felt bold enough
And trembled to touch those lips with mine
Oh those red tulips were no match
for those pucker lips setting sail
a thousand ships
Freedom's Lips
Love Rhythm
Love is no pot to be filled
Nor sorrow to be relived
Love is a canter
In to the ever ever emptying
Saaz* of the universe
(Saaz…song, music, musical instrument, rhythmic flow)

To see an object as an object not a solution…
In non-depression, non-manic, a glimpse of the real, the true. How painless, how simple, how less it has panic of the impending arrival, in fact none at this moment in the darkened …Do I feel. None…
To see a book as a book not a solution
To see a CD as a CD not a solution
To see a place as a place not a solution
To see a lover as a lover not a solution
To see the beloved (even the eternal)
As the beloved not a solution
To see the sought as the sought not a solution
To see search as search not a solution
To see a sight as a sight not the solution
To see the silt as silt not solution
To see the solution as a solution not The Solution
I am not drawing. I am being drawn.
He is drawing me.
I am not seeking. I am being sought. He is seeking me.
I am not seeing. I am being seen.
He is seeing me.
I am not kissing. I am being kissed.
He is kissing me.
I am not leaving. I am being left.
He is leaving me.
I am not talking. I am being talked.
He is talking me.
I am not chasing. I am being chased.
He is chasing me.
I am not saving. I am being saved.
He is saving me.
I am not searching. I am being searched.
He is searching me.
I am not seeking. I am being sought.
He is seeking me.
I am not crying. I am being cried.
He is crying me.
I am not weeping. I am being wept.
He is weeping me.
I am not silent. I am being silenced.
He is silencing me.
I am not speaking. I am being spoken.
He is speaking me.
I am not quiet. I am being quietened.
He is quieting me.
I am not lying. I am being lied.
He is lying me.
I am not changing. I am being changed.
He is changing me.
I am not cheating. I am being cheated.
He is cheating me.
I am not charioteering. I am being charioted.
He is charioting me.
I am not claiming. I am being claimed.
He is claiming me.
I am not sinking. I am being sunk.
He is sinking me.
I am not solving. I am being solved.
He is solving me.
I am not straying. I am being strayed.
He is straying me.
I am not seething. I am being seethed.
He is seething me.
I am not me. I am being me.
He is being me.
I am not seeking. I am being sought.
He is seeking me.
I am not skirting. I am being skirted.
He is skirting me.
I am not
I have no soul.
He has my soul.
​
​
Who is the Agent,
What is the Act
Silence is a language too
she understood my silences. she had her share of difficulties but she understood my silences.
A Stormy Afternoon in Voinjama
The smell of rain, Liberian rain
Young boxers, ballers; boys of the battalion
A light wind swaying birches, troubled...
I lost myself years ago
and I sit on a white plasticene
in the doorway of my make-shift
in a blue suede and gray with brown, local tawny socks, and black
shoes, and yes, an ID, an ID that gives me strength, access, loss of
and presence of meaning
Why did I leave love
Why did I fill faith in me
to save, to work, to grow,
to be one away from the world
I am now
distant,
now distant as I couldn't see then
And there are beauties here
and flashes of light and roars of the sky-man
just as loud and just as bright
Why did I leave love
I have a bad back but I'm still young
Yet I'm not sore for haven’t been sung

Red Leaved Rainforest of Voinjama
Red leaf rainforests of Voinjama
Need I say more.
Need I describe to you that roads do not exist (a proposal is underway)
Need I tell you it isn't beautiful (in ways that you are packing it now and for away)
Need I tell you there is plenty of eat (and people are hungry but not in a way you let change fall)
I need to tell you for they are Africans, West Africans, Liberians to be sure
And their voice is the same as their complexion: surface
I see you turning, turning to someone, someone 'civilized'
some who can explain and ease you, someone slightly
light, lighter in sight
at least yellow or brown alright
I see , you see we don't exist
the place does
we never did
A Dull Dead
A dull dead is here
It pervades the boys and civil alike
It takes the kids and the 'with kids' alike
it's someone's house we call 'field'
affects us still, those on and off, alike
A dull dead is here
I cannot hear the cuckoo calling
I have seen my (b)earings spike
A dull dead is here
Of Quotes, Misquotes, and Greatness…
a poet is great only when he is misquoted
...and corrected
(…by some to his face, unbeknownst, that he is the poet; by others, unwary of the wastefulness of verification, in his absence)

Love Spoke And Reason Laughed, Reason Spoke and Love, well, still loved…
“A belief well founded in a task well planned is being on the road to success,” said Reason. Replied Love, “Anyone can look and talk good in a suit. It’s those who can without one, who’ll go far in life.” Reason Laughed, Reason Spoke and Love, well, couldn’t help still…and still loved…
Insomnia
You come to me at odd hours
when fatigued and drenched I sit there
tired and sweaty this final crunch
I pass the hill and you meet me there.
The waxing moon, the winking stars
The fading sun, the lingering fears.
What contains the night no one can fathom
realizing your need you come to soothe.
The phantoms rejoice the circles they form
The weird dances these ghosts perform.
Scare thee soul, the fears amount.
Unrest splattered, cleanse only by you.
Dark mysteries revealed, several others confounded
A faint smile a distant squirm.
Try as I do for you to come
The life I feel, the yearning unrequited.
Close my eyes close the ears.
Succumb as I do to the tough life.
Pain you surround me my body and soul.
Sleep—you come and rescue me…I love you.
Dishonorable Tomato
Honor must be protected, truth avoided
Truth is made of dangerous stuff
Potatoes and tomatoes and poison
Subtle mixes of antidote and curry
Death of Romeo
Has my love finally died today
Has it ceased to finally desist
Has no more anguish filtered through
Has my love axed itself too

Witness Existence
If nobody exists
then do you?
If witnesses were imaginary
Is memory created
(of the events)?
If Adam was the first
And there was no Eve
Would Adam have existed
False Dichotomies
I do not bide the dichotomy king nor slave divide
for me the world is wide,
and wider still is love's tide
and so may I get the strength
to tide, and never walk
but in His stride
Judge Her O Great Patriarch
Don’t judge; listen to her
Don’t judge; listen to her
Don’t judge; listen to her
Don’t judge;
Don’t
Don’t try to help; listen
Don’t try to help; listen
listen
Acknowledge…
The Unspeakable
This leaves me bereft
Swilled over, no desires within
Banished and blocked by
This
This that doesn’t allow definition
Or recognition
A moment even of salvation
Dead many times over
This that is troubling
This that is tangible
As a wasp of thin
air…this that is behind all this
this that knows me
but not me this
this that is sadly mine
tis that thy would lovingly bestow to thine.
Alas, this, but this, is truly, sadly mine
This…that doesn’t even let me hint
Or give you so much as a whiff
This

The Curse of the Youthful Lover
With every gentle breeze
And every little sneeze
The love of your life
Misses the love of mine
The daydreams of times we’ll spend with each other
And the golden memories of time already spent together
Mingle beautifully and echo a wonderful chime
With the only dissonance coming from time
Time that separates two lovebirds apart
And distance that makes connecting hard
Are all but obstacles in this love divine
One day I’ll be yours and you’ll be mine
That day will dawn with a strange halo
The sun will possess a different yellow
The fields will slowly lose their mist
And slowly reveal its beautiful cyst
The cyst will resemble a shell of pearls
And from its core as it unfurls
Will appear the two lovebirds divine
United forever in space and time
Or so it seemed in that moment of time
Until a savage of this world saw our exuberant smiles
And shot an arrow and left us dying
Still united in that cyst sanguine
The curse of the Indian female
My hands know not how to touch
When the heart is not with it
My hands are tied
Oh I have cried
Many a thousand sigh
For you not I
For I, I have it all
Women buds booze balls
You who in your home unwed
Can’t bulk, balk even quietly sulk
For your gender in our culture so fair
Isn’t allowed to live, nor die, my mare
Can Help
I am not helped
I can
Help
I am not helpless
I can
Help
People do want to help
But I
Can
Help
Orienting the Lost Migrant
As I went through camp on my daily soul search, Orientation Advisor asked if she could orient or direct. And I, I just cried, an outer unsoft, ungainly cry.
Take me across, yeah, across to here, where,
Here where I can hear
You raking
Weeding, careening
The blossom

The foolish immortal
Thousands of poets of years before
Remind me of an act fully futile
They who die trying to change nature ultimately
Die
Observe and report that’s all you can
So echo the past and present blunder
For not the attempt of that which is,
Failure
Ha Ha I laugh, I laugh, Ha Ha I laugh
I challenge and wield my unique power
That which has not been attempted or achieved with thunder
That’s which I fight and accomplish daily—
Improve nature
From its future
Whose Eye is this?
Oh in decisions big and bigger still
I speak to deep, of deeper still
“The I” I call this observing eye
This I
Looking at I
In the eye
Aye?
Naye?
Ah but that is simply now
I sleep at night able to quell
And sigh no more
Why no more?
The “I”
Looking at I
In the eye
Whose Eye is this?
Oh in decisions big and bigger still
I speak to deep, of deeper still
“The I” I call this observing eye
This I
Looking at I
In the eye
Aye?
Naye?
Ah but that is simply now
I sleep at night able to quell
And sigh no more
Why no more?
The “I”
Looking at I
In the eye
Young, Dumb, and Ready to…
Oh I hear in college everyone wants to come
They just need to hear, “Here!”
It was never about you
I was not born to think of me
To think of you
Of my me’s and you’s
I was not born to think of you
As mine
Or your own
I was not born
To think at all of you
Each head sprouting, sporting that fiery
One part teary one part querying askance
What of me?
Are you too
Joining the NRI and the PIO
Generically uncary, tentacles looming
Food food food; stomach; liver, cranium.
Are you too
Joining the busy bees
To be the un-busy
A day soon
What of me?
What of me?
I was born
To think
And think of
YOU

Losing my best self
A cloud of fog surrounds me
And shrouds my body and soul
I wonder if I will lose myself
If I run fast enough
I run a hundred yards, turn back
I have lost my past
I “be” happy, run some more
Funny, I lose some more!
The cocoon of whiteness I drift in
The purity of the blank outstretches
Carry me yonder and yonder
Until I know I have lost all I had
Or so I think
Until there is no yonder
Then it is me again
No one to turn to, nowhere to run
And then there is, an image,
One I wouldn’t discern, at first,
A mirage it seemed from afar
But Kaboom! It materialized.
A dying tender white dove
With an arrow piercing the heart
Writhing in pain, too beautiful to be earthly
Yet, so tragically mortal…
Approach as I do, this lovely creature
What’s ensuing, in the dark.
Empathetic as I am, the arrow I take out,
The bleeding doesn’t cease but the dove does.
I befuddle, was that a dream
Get up, look around and walk a few steps,
The fog clears, a strange heaven appears,
A place matched by none me trodded on.
The arrow still in my hand, I turn around,
And see what cause me to comprehend
Take that arrow and stab my throbbing heart…to be one with the bleeding you.
Love, Bread, and Peace
​
No man I know has ever wandered
If not for the disjunctive love or work
Masking it, calling it lust, a dog’s quest
Painfully revealing personal unrest
Why this ominous un-peace
Where is my tranquil, my soul’s bread and cheese
For no man I know has fully achieved
Both love and work, and total peace
Why do I have to go?
Alone not lonely
Sitting cross-legged
Like 34965 times before
Grass mower close by
Purple and pink skirt walks by
Lots of ink
Flowing yet contained
By paper, by plastic
By carpals, by construct
Of mind, state, surround
Church missionaries at a distance
Approaching, undeniably fierce
The conversion quota they need fill
Or no heavens for them, they shiver
Moving, shifting
My tarsals, my metatarsals
Away away, to be with
Just me, myself and I
The Useless, No Good Poet
He uses metaphors,
When others would use swords instead
Walks straight to his innocuous notebook,
Others waiting to be called to the battleground
The ink bleeds out his mighty pen
He is enraged, grabs his 8 by 11 at its collars
Chests pouring pints of red and white blood
Some of these could be used for donation he thinks
He is crying, his pamphlets aren’t published
No way to reach masses, or fellows in the guild
Thousands of eyes blankly staring, sky wards, wide open,
Wonder if they would care what those pamphlets contained
Opens his caches
Braves it more
Publishes them all by himself
Puts his money where his mouth is
Hops a third class sleeper rail
Forms a network, passes them at each city
Bishkion! Thha! Thha! there goes another one
“Those AK-47s sure work” so laughs the dying sipaahi
Galvanize! Wake up! Electrify! Stop the madness!
I deserve it I spent many an hour and inkpots
My son is dying, you want me to listen to what…
Bullshit! Has your finger ever bled, you piece of goat meat!
No it hasn’t actually, you are right, not at all!
But I’ll tell you what has
My brain, every nerve, every neuron, in disbelief
How many sons-less fathers and mothers will it take…
The Rapist
You want me, you want me so bad
I don’t see it, I don’t see it at all
Your eyes seeking and searching,
My fully clothed body already naked
You cannot wait
Eyeing across university ave.
You tell me later, now I just wait for bus 63
You start to move sideways
I notice you, I don’t suspect
Impeccably dressed and well shaved
A man of your look and manner
Certainly not one with any intentions…no way
You cross the street, casually
And move to the bus stop
A couple is sitting by me
I am not afraid, oh no, not me
You politely sit, say hello, I am Charlie
I am tired, I reply briefly
The couple schmoozing, you notice them,
They don’t like attention, they leave…
Suddenly I am all alone
With you, and no one else
The place is well lit, the city of Irvine a big one
And me, certainly not me, “ain’t no one touching me!”
Besides I talk to you
You talk nice and sweet
The boy next door
You couldn’t even think of…
A gun, a gun you point at me
Out of nowhere, you push me
Command me to follow quietly
Paralyzed I am with shock, and fear
You follow behind, I quietly move,
Thinking of ways, not knowing what’s next
​
Charlie I ask, “What are you doing?” as if of a friend
You yell, “Shut up Anna. Move on.”
I quietly cross that well lit avenue
With not a soul in sight, I wonder,
Tears well up, my kids flash before my third eye
I just want to live, just for them O God!
You push me towards a university classroom
I just hope and pray for this to end
You are ruthless and callous
Suddenly you remind me of my long lost brother
He was ruthless and callous, too,
Just like you
Did he also…I wonder
Did he also what? Oh no!!!
It hits me thoroughly and deep,
There is no escaping
I try to run, but my legs are frozen,
I fall, get slapped, and pushed closer towards the room
On reaching the room 1024
Keys fumbled for, grabbed from right pocket and used,
Opened and shoved in, my mind astray,
Keys! Keys! This guy is University faculty or staff.
Once in the room, he is at peace,
While I reach my height of unease
I beg, implore, kiss his feet, kneel before God,
Slowly but surely, then forcefully, you take my sweater off
I run around the room, the room is square and small
You grab me, throw me on the floor
I hit a desk; you push a few of them away
Then get on top, slap me once again
I am numb now can’t struggle
You are happy to see that
You Charlie…violently unbutton my shirt
Tear my bra, lay me raw
Defeated helpless faithless I lay
Don’t know if you have herpes or AIDS
But foremost you brutally, brute-ly violate
My buttons, my jeans, and today I wore no underwear
Twenty minutes, thirty, then forty
Should have worn undies
This class isn’t ending, teaching, demoing
Every step, every plan, every rejection known to man
While lying there I remember
This dear Physics graduate student friend of mine
He always argued, rape-an act enjoyed by the woman
Always between two active people…if he was watching:
Eighty minutes, you have violated me every possible way
You get up, grab your clothes
Devastated, Crying, Relieved it has stopped
You change your mind, back with the knife
And again I look away, then straight at you
You still look no different
The boy next door
You couldn’t even think of…
Me not me no way never
Can I say this anymore…

Utter Depression
No man
No woman
No child
No offshore/springs wild
Quiet
Completely
Disturbance
None at all
Word
None
Touch
None
Eat
None
Drink
None
Tantrums
None
Whining
None
None, none at all
Crying
None
Laughing
None
Praying
None
Playing
None
Thirst
None
Hunger
None
Living
none, no, not, ever, never, at all
Unforgiving Inner Parent
My alter burned
Toiled; toileted
Many a sleepless week
Many a despairing eve
Despising my self for
Encumbering me
Cursing me, sparing me no rod
How dare he
My self quiescently bearing
Aware of the forthcoming leaves
And flowers and fruits; willing
To bear the shove, hail and chills
Now that it is here, the diploma
Hey human, the self questions
Wasn’t the pain worth it. Don’t you
Have the flowers and fruits and leaves.
Sure I do, dear self, sure I do but when
My dear, will they be sweet

Lies My Lover Told Me
Ends are not known
Of strings
That tie and bond
Man and Mighty
For extend they do
Like DNA
Histones and all
Twisting, turning, binding
And like true DNA they are
Original
A fingerprint
Inimitable
Errors happen
As in DNA processing
Endos and Ligos help
Sorrys and Roses do too
True love me
For maybe you don’t and I don’t
And we don’t and we question
And soon it is bye-bye and we die.
Mortgaging My Life, All For My First Wheels
Barely legal
Barely employed
A small diner
The university cafeteria
5 bucks an hour
Serving main entrees
Washing plates
Giant dishwasher
Larger than life
Desires within
Running the country
Of birth, not of present dwelling
Only one step
Only one a day
End of the year
Nineteen nine five
Walked with fervor
Subterranean pride flow
Into the dealership
“Where’s my new car?”
They all look at me
Then the man within
The undeniable firmness
Show me the way
The way to the new cars, that is
I chose a black stallion
They threw over the keys
I drove away
Not exactly this simple
But close
I signed my life away
And drove away with another
My “SHARP” holds what my sharp mind cannot
The imagination it captures in words
The programmed monotone of everyday life…
Interspersed with an imaginative task or two
The 9 am wake-up alarm, the 9:15 shower and shave
The 9:30 freeway commute, the 10 am push and shove
The cars roaring around the lot, the parking spot,
Limited by the bottleneck, the population explosion
The meeting at 11, the lunch at 12
The usual baloney, the hackneyed jokes
The pager bawls, its time to call
The corporate boss, the big project
At 1 my planner beeps, beckons me back
To my desk where my hand belongs
The John Hancock’s the documents need
The silly memos I pass around
At 5 I walk to my Jaguar
Or so I dream and perceive my Fiat
My planner says buy some cheese;
My car finally starts, I jerk along
The Alpha-Beta I enter, a lavish enterprise
I get lost in the myriad of possibilities
I become fascinated, I buy a lot
And of course obey my planner’s command
I set the cheese and all in the car
And go home as my planner demands
The Stupid, or Organized…
Till Death Do Us Apart
I don’t quite remember when we met first
Or what’s the first thing we did together
And I don’t quite remember the second or even the third
Or exactly the millions that followed
But I did remember this and still do
Every year, year after year
The thread through our glorious 25
Simply put, you were there
Yes, my dear, you were there
You were there at every nook and every corner of my life
When friends were busy and family afar (too far away)
You were there
When fevers ran high and throats were sore
You were there
When spines twisted and my tennis knees hurt
You were there
When close ones died and new ones came
You were there
When new courses were taken and businesses ventured
You were there
When the children were young and needed your hand
You were there
When ugly lawyers knocked and legally stole our gold
You were there
When some colleagues and friends were less than friendly
You were there
When I felt lonely, sad, dejected, and alone
You were there
When I knew not who to turn to
Your magical you were there
Your magical you
Ah, what choice ingredients he must have had
When choosing to concoct a creation like you
The elaichi, the gulukand, the kaju, the laddoo
It’s all you
And now that I look forward
A glow, an effervescent glow radiates my eyes
A fleeting thought, my joy abounds
The golden road; the golden jubilee
Just you and me; silver 20 and 5 gone
To Golden, 25 and more to go
Only one thing left for me to say
I’ll be there. Will you?
What my possible, potential lover is missing — The Sass that’s Me
He who hasn’t seen an ocean in his life
Is missing an ocean of life
He who hasn’t seen a mountain in his life
Is missing a mountain of life
He who hasn’t seen a waterfall
Is missing a waterfall of all that’s life
And he who hasn’t seen, of all, me
Is missing a whole lot, and of me, even though
He’s not missing me
Speaking to You When You are Not There
I love you and that is mostly true
Only there is no me anymore
Apparition of appearances
That’s all I have been
Some here, some not so here
Yet
Never too there, either
Not free or freeing
Bound, to self and your’s
Better, willingly so
Not wholly, just full and fully
No you, no I, no morrow, alas
No we for the rest to simply just see
Constant Lament
Chances lost; places ungone
People unmet; things not done
Lament, bemoan, soft cries
No tears, just pearls formed, unformed
Heights un-scaled, goals unachieved
Loves unrequited, mates unconsummated
Lament, bemoan, soft cries
No tears, just pearls formed, unformed
Expectations unmet; murals unmet
Delicacies untasted; morals untarnished
Lament, bemoan, soft cries
No tears, just pearls formed, unformed
Racism, Over-education, and Model Minority—Freedom Lost
​
I burned my degrees
One fine day
From the ashes
I created
My desires
I burned my knowns
One fine day
From the ashes
I created
My unknowns
I burned my references
One fine day
From the ashes
I created
My essences
And I burned my past
One fine day
In the ashes
I saw
My fears forecast
So I burned my fears
That fine day
From those ashes
I started creating
A fiery future
Died of a Global Heart
And he died. And they did a post mortem. And they mused the cause, the causes. And hummed and hawed and finally said, “This man had no heart; not for the last 50 years!” He was 73.

The endlessly lost migrant
I do not allow you illness
Neither wish to become an American eagle
At age and stage of fluttering peacock manes
Nor inflict I with transferent whatever ails
You, you I do not allow any illness
Illness that clogs my body wheels
Oiled in and out, departs in to out
When flag-bearer looks un-fresh, un-green
The red, bright coaches become dead, pale down and out
Only My Heart Smiles When it Sees You
there are some seeing
whom we break into a smile
and then some
seeing who
nothing is visible;
only the heart smiles.
Unaware of my weaknesses
Roses do not know thorns
Roses of Kosovo
Roses do not have senses
Roses
Do not have thorns
Roses do not know fences
They only know
How to be born.
Love is not a house to be possessed
I am not going to stop
Loving you
Just because you don’t
I have love to give and
It is mine, and mine to give
I will not stop giving
Love
Just because you don’t
Your love is your’s, your’s
To give, your’s to keep
My love, mine, mine love
Mine
Between Love and Not Love
I can’t say I have not fallen in love
And I can’t say I have;
It is too early for either
First Aid to the Hurt at Heart
Go to the quietest one
They are not crying or yelling
They can’t.
Go to silences.
First Aid before they allow or
Before family
Or friends or
(the love)
is found.
Drifter
Not for me to swift through vales of beauty with Martin
Mine to drift, to sail through heights of Villa Escudero

Corruption Digestion Issues
I won’t for that which my heart will not allow
My stomach
Will not digest
Traumatized Birds
Listen to the Birds
In the Balkans
They will not balk
At telling
The truth
Of trees
And will chirp away
The silence
Of axes
Listen to the birds perched
Unafraid
Of the Serbs
Listen to their voices
Unafraid
Of their choices
Listen to the birds of Pristina
They sing the region’s
Rudraveena*
Rudraveena* - sitar like instrument that evokes the melancholy in music (of India and sadnesses everywhere)
The Long Arm of Abuse
Self-censored
Self-silenced
Miles away miles miles miles
Away
Still silenced
Censored
Far from sensors
In India
In Nuyorica
But
In me
Still
In Kosovo
In me

Of Victims and Killers
We are all victims at some level
Of someone or something
Yet
We are all victimizers at some level
Of someone or something
(the latter harder to digest)
Heart Smiling Friend
there are some
seeing whom we break
into a smile
and then one
seeing who
nothing is visible;
only the heart smiles
Jumpy Skin of the Drugged Wanderer
I see so many
Visions
I could
Die
I drink
Wine
Cognac
Just to contain
My gizzards
And the jumping
Jackals
Within
In
The skin
Sexual Exchanges Between Flower Fangs and Honey Bees
flowers riding motorcycles on the streets of Kosovo...male pollen honking away at female stigmata on vespas showing off their sweet honey fangs
Anarkali Sweet Daughter of the Development Sea
If not for the development heart at sea
I shall not have met, sweet pea,
your mother on that beautiful eve
whilst celebrations were on for Uncle Bee
It was a magical time my little blossom
when the winds of war had left that earth
With the season of fruits and flowers on song
A sweet one, your mum, for peace arrived
Whilst nations and regions set us apart
Home is after home at heart
And a simple hug while dancing still
signaled the time to settle at last
So sweet pea we started thus
And now you're here a mere six months
For years we to each other showed love
to bring dear thrush our best in trust
And now dearest pomegranate dear little bud
though father papa your pops lives far away,
in each child, baby, little girl's eyes, sees
sweet ringing laughs of his six month old Anarkali

A True Nest
Comfort, personal, together presence
Yet air, wings, safe
Without doors, unhatched, unsecured:
Safe only by coziness felt, the need for being.

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