-the man, the parakeet and the rock-

                         I
as i walk on the green grass
crushing the sharp blades with every step
i look up at the blue sky
carrying with it the afternoon sun
i look around me
the greenery blending with the brown tree trunks
i close my eyes, soaking in the beauty of it all
the silence so peaceful, i heard my thoughts
i open my eyes, walking further into non existence
i find a stream, our paths impeding
i watch it run over white rocks
gradually but permanently altering their faces
i bend down and pick one up
i look at the white rock
clutched in my two brown hands
walking a few steps away from the stream
i toss it onto the green grass
crushing more of it
i find it land, another toss away
from a giant pear tree
the network of branches of the pear tree hung low
overladen with green leaves and yellow pears
casting on the green grass below it
a circle of shade, the trunk at the centre
a hard days work done
i walk over to the center of the 'shady' circle
and lie myself down on the green grass
no sooner than i was horizontal
a yellow parakeet arrived to give me company
she sits on the branch, under whose shade i rested
a tiny beak looks down at me
as my drowsy eyes look back at it
'chirp' it chirps the chirpiest chirp.
"a penny for your thoughts, little friend,
a penny for your thoughts', i say.

                         II
i took flight
taking off from a sturdy branch
of the apple tree
i flap my frail wings
soaring higher into the blue sky
flying towards the golden sun
like a moth attracted to a light
i rise as high as i can
before adjusting my tail feathers
and tucking in my wings
giving myself in to gravity
free-falling towards the green land
picking up speed
the wind ruffles my feathers
from flying to the blue
i was now falling to the green
it was a vivid green of many shades
with a thin blue line drawn across it
curving and bending irregularly
i spread my wings out again
floating towards the brook
i watched the blue stream flow along with me
as i flew over it
following its every crook and turn
as we meandered together, the rivulet and i
a rock that sat out of place caught my eye
i altered my course and flew towards it
deviating from my intended path
i circled over the rock twice
wondering how it got to be where it was
unable to solve the mystery
and tired of all the wandering
i fluttered to the nearby pear tree
perching on one of its branches
the flying coming to a halt
i looked down at what lay at the bottom of the tree
a man who was looking right back at me.
"a penny for your thoughts, young man,
a penny for your thoughts", i chirped.

                         III
i wake up from my siesta
the water was the warmest
at this time of the day
i was bathed and cleansed
sitting as fresh as i could be
i looked up through the surface of the water
towards the other world
the sky was very blue today
almost as blue as my world
i watched the sun dancing
through the ripples of my stream
i look around me
my brothers being rinsed
as they still sleep
a school of fish swim by me
a few over me
their fins flailing about
and their shimmering scales
glistening in the light from above
a few fishes later
darkness envelopes us
i look up to see, the alien face of a man
his head blotting out the sun
ending the day, beginning the night
his two fore limbs penetrate into my world
and haul me out into his
as i make the transition, day begins again
he hurls me onto the green grass
where i stumble and lay
becoming stationary again
i watch a bright yellow parakeet above me
it hovers about, completing two rounds
before zipping to the pear tree
under whose shade the man now lay
i watched the two of them watch each other.
"a penny each for your thoughts, my two friends,
a penny for your thoughts." 

-for the women-

she lies weeping
one of the many

shes everywhere
every village of the country

we know shes there
but remain oblivious

we feign concern
ignoring her grief

stuck in our own fake lives
forgetting what humanity once stood for

the victim becomes the culprit
the culprit lives free

we still live inert
for, she who lies weeping, is no one to us

what we fail to realise, is that
she who lies weeping, could be one of ours

lets wake up
bring an end to this immoral crime

kill the offenders freedom
telling him, we the people, standby by our people

show the victim, justice still lives
wiping her tears off, making her smile once again

show the country, men are providers
not the animals they seem to be.

-a soldier's final cry-

your bullet rests in my chest
my camouflage dyed in crimson
i fall on the battlefield
giving company to our already dead comrades.

its strange, how i wonder, in these last gasps
not of the reasons why we wage this war
but what consequences it brought upon
the few folks who had opposed our decisions.

a mother's heart was stabbed
the culprit none other than her son
she lived dead
alive only in her memories.

two children played in the green fields
a boy and a girl
no more willing to listen to stories of a father
they had never seen.

a wife's brown eyes remain watching
through night and day, through rain and snow
the cobbled pathway
that her husband once left on.

the bullet releases its venom
the looming darkness recedes into a vivid glow
dont frown but smile, for, a second later
i would have done the same to you.
 

-cry-

a child exits the womb
she enters our world
she joins you and i
we grieve together
you, for the loss of dreams
i, for the death of me
she, for her birth, into our world.

-jokers and clowns-

You say you are not a joker
I scoff at your 'intelligence'
You glare at me, its all right
I am a clown too

I paint my face
You put a mask on
You hide from me
I hide from me too

You want to make me love you
It only makes me despise you
They will laugh at you
Its only because they are jokers too

I will never know the inner you
Because all you want for me to see is not you
Dont fret though, its not really a problem, you see
For, the inner me, i hate too

Its night and the shows over now
The paint on my face fails to smear
The mask on your face refuses to come off
Tell me now, that you are not a joker
And i will honestly laugh at you.

-unreal reality-

I lay sprawled on Mother Earth

The sizzling sun blistering my naked body

My dry tongue licks the dust off the naked field

Helpless, unable to swallow it for lack of saliva

The tiny particles lay speckled across the inner walls of my mouth

Laying on my chest, my eyes rolled

To observe what the left of my face rested on

The sight of the barren field with intertwining networks of cracks drawn upon it

Made me feel real.

Closing my eyes and taking a deep breath

I guided the scent of the green grass that once grew here

It took me away from real

Summoning all of the very little life left in me

I rotate my head on the frail axis of my neck

I look around the light brown expanse

I do not miss the friends

That once stood on this ground

I felt real now.

With a valiant effort, quickening my death

I tossed over and lay on my back

The agonizing pricks of the rubble shifting from my bare ribs to the back

I gazed upon the azure skies

Not a cloud sailing in the blue sea

I waited to be freed.

When death did finally come

I was the realest i had ever been.