Magic

Your mind is a labyrinth,

A wild, wild mess that beckons,

Your eyes keep swirling,

There are so many stories

That play hide and seek

In that vast ocean of chocolate.

Your lips part just enough

To tantalize me with a secret

Hiding beneath, as it dissolves in

The air with the breath that

Whispers to me of patience

And the sweetness of the fruit

Ripe, that is plucked in its own time.

My entire being, every tiny sliver,

Is a slave, I feel a spell pulling me

To you, oh tell me, are you human

Or just pure magic, playing charades

With us mere mortals?

 

Masterpiece

What secrets do you carry around?

I asked Enigma as she paid me a visit

Listen to the beat of your heart, she said

This is your Melody; and the secret is,

When you do find the words to go with it,

You will become an enchanting masterpiece.

This world Cherie, is your treasure land,

So set out dancing to the Beat,

With your head full of ideas

And your heart full of hope,

Let Wonder reside in your eyes

And Glee make a home in your soul.

Let this Beat guide you and you’ll see,

Life is a better adventure than the ones you read.

Whispers

Eyes wide with wonder,

I searched for magic

In every nook and corner,

My heart sang a song

That I couldn’t understand

(My feet however danced and danced)

Until I came upon the sea

And heard her come up in waves

And crash upon the land.

Ah! such kindred spirits we were

So I sat down by her side

And as the sun smiled

Down upon us from the sky

We whispered our secrets

To one another

 

I told her they mock me

(And my Dance)

For I look and search

For Magic everywhere

In the world, only never

Do I find it

She sang to me,

“Better to Dance to

A Mermaid’s Song

Than never to dance at all.

Look for something in the

Wrong place to never find

Why search in the world,

To yourself you turn blind

‘Tis the secret as old as time

Matters of the heart require faith

Put yours in yourself and,

All magic shall be thine.”

The Kaleidoscope: A Pen Portrait

When she was a child, her father always told her she could be anyone she wanted. That’s because, he added “you’re a chameleon soul my girl”. She believed in magic and longed for a world where she could attend balls in surreal castles and have tea with the mad hatter.

She grew up to be a fine damsel, yes. And then reality struck at her. Someone did take her for a ride on a white horse, but he was no white knight. The devil was funny and handsome and had such  beautiful eyes that she bartered her heart for his demons without a second thought.

She was shattered into a million million shards, reduced to zilch, but then after a century of nightmares, hope whispered in her father’s voice, “you can be anything you want”. So she rose from the ashes, built herself back tiny bit by tiny bit and became a queen, a warrior queen and wore her scars with pride.

It’s true she was a chameleon soul: she was the damsel and the dragon, both. She did not know it, but she had become a kaleidoscope of a woman, iridescent and resplendent; she shone like a diamond but never stopped burning for the things she loved.

Mask

It is another step,
Another step in a dull march
Towards that endless slumber.
It is another chapter,
Another chapter in the book
Of a journey wise men call life.

It feels like just another day
Another day in the series of
Days that I will go through,
Merely existing, carrying vivid
Dreams and untold stories
Buried somewhere deep in
My heart, as if it were a cemetery.

They call for pomp and show,
They demand merry making and celebrations grand; little do they know,
I die bit by bit inside
As I hear the clock ticking
The knell ringing a bit louder
In my ears now.

I recall that glee of childhood,
That gaiety of adolescence,
When I lived as if all of life
Were a carnival, magical and fascinating.
Now I dust off a mask, from that
Long lost celebration and lo!
A girl:lovely and bright eyed, springs back to life asking me
Again and again, “Hide from the world however much you want,
But tell me, how long you think
You can hide from yourself?”

Spell

As if they were oceans,

swirling, churning, deep, dark

oceans of delicious molten chocolate,

those eyes of yours,

they tempted me to wander and lose myself.

Those eyes, they wove some strange spell.

 

As if it were the first ray of the day,

lighting up the world, painting that bleak

grey sky into colors of dawn,

that smile of yours,

it beckoned me to shake off leftovers of nightmares.

That smile, it wove some strange spell.

 

As if you were some white knight

from a long lost lore,

making sad children smile and

nursing injured puppies

that heart of gold, that resplendent heart of yours,

it enchanted me to fall, fall for you.

That heart, it cast some strange spell.

 

 

Antidote

Come to me like waves
crashing upon the shore,
Come to me with fire in your breath
And rain upon your lips
Come, I beseech you, for I
Am no better than the parched earth beneath my feet.

Fly, fly to me, borrow time’s
chariot if you must.
Fly, fly to me with thunder in your wings and stars in your eyes
Fly, fly to me, I plead to you,
For my life is darker than
the black, moonless night.

Hurry, hurry, hurry before I crumble
Hurry, hurry, hurry before this nothingness claims my soul
Hurry, hurry, hurry for now can’t be soon enough; hurry hurry
hurry because you promised,
a drop of love, just one tiny drop
of true love will be antidote enough.

December

I feel it swirling around me in thick waves,

all around me, as the air that I breathe

turns heavy with its weight. This magic, it

seeps slowly from lands unknown, like a gift from

family that you’ve never seen. Oh see,

look out your window, the leaves all fall down

to weave a colorful carpet for you

The morning air greets me with a bite,

like a nip from my playful puppy.

 

It’s that time of the year again

when children in my neighborhood will

play with snowmen again and my grandma

will bake apples covered in chocolate and

caramel sauce. Soon, a mist will accompany

my evenings and descend upon my garden

like a curtain from a fairytale and remind me,

I could be Snowhite, Cinderella or Belle;

that I can be a child again with wonder

in my eyes and my dreams reaching the stars.

 

December, it’s flying to us in time’s winged

chariot; so I hold my breath, you hold yours too

and believe me when I tell you:

There are magical moments,

that wait for us to stumble upon them

and good things are on their way,

as we’ve waited for them, now they

wait to unveil themselves to us.

 

Don’t you worry, December is almost here,

it’ll be an end and it’ll be a beginning.

Be merry, for December is almost here,

there’ll be love and there’ll be magic!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gifts

From the ashes of a

burnt dream, from the

ruins of a shattered heart,

It rises like a phoenix.

Born within the embrace

of magic and the tenacity

of earth, it takes root deep,

deep in the very soul.

Playing a lost melody again,

it enters the blood like

the elixir of life, it seeps into

the skin and whispers from within,

“My dear, don’t you know,

this too shall pass?

My dear, don’t you see,

they lie here still wrapped 

in mystery, you haven’t

opened all your gifts yet.”

A Memory

A cool summer evening,

echoes with the song

Of a cuckoo bird.

It fills the soothing breeze,

The scent of mangoes ripe,

Full of their sweet juice,

Ready to tumble on

the ground.

 

I see a little girl

Slurping on a cone of

Icecream: chocochip flavoured

And a similar memory

Stretches within my heart as

If awakened from a deep slumber.

Pangs of bereavement slice into

My soul, oh! I ache for the

Cozy comfort of my home

And the soothing touch

Of my mother’s hand

Tapping my forehead.

 

With the setting sun,

I realize how life is like

A tender quilt, stitched

Together with goodbyes.