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Poetry Month: ADVICE


 

Recline by Mehul Rawat


Raise your eyes

Watch the moon rise

From your verandah

Let the musty air out

Breathe the breeze in

Let the evening fall like dew

Over and around you

The jungle-fowl

The night owl

The wolf howl

And the cricket and the katydid

Nature's orchestra

Put your burden down

Take a pause

Breathe-

You'll be fine-


Recline.

 


 

My weary bones still remember

Like it happened yesterday


The way your eyes crinkle

Before your lips twitch into a smile

The way your toes tangle into mine

Every night of that long winter

How I stayed up

Trying to gauge meaning from your sleeptalk


We were always running out of time

Reluctantly giving in to our weary eyes


I have no memory

Of our last kiss

There's no advice in the world

To heal from the loss of you

-C

 

Some wounds don't heal

So you cover them up

In lavish, embellished silk

And with a luxuriant swirl of your surcoat

You take your throne

And hold courts

Impose unsolicited advice

Pronounce verdicts

On other battle scars

Aid them

Or punish them

As you deem them worthy

While you remain the untouched Queen

Living in a glass palace

Draped in fur and cashmere

Against the freezing storm

Little do they know

My Queen of trick or treat

That under your robes

Is your cold armour

That under all the grandeur

Are wounds that you nurture

And keep alive to feel free

That you sleep with a dagger

Under your pillow

And drown your aches

In spirits and merriment

Do they know

That you have demons that trap you

In high towers each night?

Do they know they made you

Eat your heart for breakfast?

 

-a haiku by Meghna Prakash

 

Let them eat hate by Veen


The news brews a tea of rancour to sit on your knee

And simmer discontent like dark circles to spread

From below your eyes till all is black with dread,

With the deep fake pancakes you're dying to eat

Wrapped with spiteful butter and prejudiced bread.

Sectarian breakfasts just start the day

And keep you going the streaming coffees of hate,

Bilious lunches with endless servings laid

And buffets of bigotry for dinners are paid

To down with conspiracy desserts to treat

Before you return to the ancient advice to sleep

"Eat well, for you become what you eat".

 

 

Spring Cleaning for the Home (& Heart) by Eshna Sharma


i.

throw all your duvets, towels,

linens and underwear

into the washer- a capful of

detergent, too, por favor

This will remove all

lint and grime and also

the scent of their perfume,

once and all.


ii.

if your glass surfaces

are beginning to look cloudy,

worry not! Vinegar and water

ought to do the trick.

This works for your vision, too.

Take a sip everytime you think of them,

it is bitter but quite

effective.


iii.

open your drawers

throw out all grocery bills, brochures

and expired pedicure vouchers, you do not need them anymore.

we advise a similar treatment for your phone's gallery, too—

delete their number,

and all of their photos, you do not

need them anymore.


iv.

if your house still

looks a bit drab,

buy some houseplants

for a peppy new look.

Give them water,

sunlight, fresh air.

Care for them gently, and

see, for once, that love can be

noiseless

and soft,

and frankly, quite undemanding.


v.

in the evening

when you sit down in a house

sparklingly clean, and

painfully empty,

do not open another wine bottle

and try to drink your sorrow away.

Instead,

call your mother, remember the time

when you were fourteen and still

living in your parents' house.

Ask her

why she would turn the house

upside-down every spring,

scrubbing, soaping, and shouting

vacuums and dustpans and bleach

the general Sunday morning cacophony.

Why, dear, she will reply,

do you ever welcome the summer

in a house that reeks of wintertime?

 
 


 
 

Every time life gives you

A chance to be clever,

Be kind instead.

 

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