RETURN
just returned
from the war
came back
scarred, horrified,
from killing people
all shapes
ages, sizes, many,
many
everyone of them
just like you
spiritually, emotionally,
psychologically
ticking all the boxes
in terms of
shared humanity
things
in common
yet
in physical appearance
so crucially different
as per those small things
which
really really really matter
above everything,
nothing like you
or me
at all
VARNISH
he vanished
because he lost
his varnish
the gloss
fell off
end of the licence
afforded to clown face
debate now raging
openly, covertly,
between
reflect
and refract
pitting the opaque
up against
the transparent
no space in this world
of everything hidden,
full disclosure
for the serious serial
beauty of the translucent
the mystery if the word as
it conjures killer fact
hard to
live
where condemned
to reflection, purity
of copy
completeness itself
IN THEORY
words
words
words
put horizontally
put vertically
are what he tells the President
he is reading
and what is the difference
between a prince and
a pauper and
a prince and a
president
at the end of the day?
you
ask.me
Oh let me travel to
the end of my leash, reach
the end
of my tether
sojourn in Paris, lounge
on the left bank
become
eternal student
many a brilliant idea imported
along with appertifs
and expressos
as I chart my way
developing the system
to conquer
limitation, figure out
what is
different
a system so open and
yet subtle
it can pre-
determine every nuance
eveb as it crosses the page idly
as any other text
word word word
text
(nothing we believe ever
outside a text)
OVER
I killed you
as act of political revenge
which upset you
and shocked me when
you protested
your innocence
later
give and take and negotiation
and more give and take
and more and
more of the latter
the situation changed
no more thought of murdering
each other
over matters political
happy that
recourse to such violence
could only be the result
of neglect or jealousy or
bitterness
of a far more
intimate, homely, face-to-face variety.l
in the
final (by which
we mean
human) analysis
Killing each other for or over
love not seeming so bad.
We might
honestly kill each other
for the joy and
Hell of it
again and again,
poems 2 die for