Hidden Answers

In the stars & the sun

In bonds & alone           

In love & hatred

In life & death

In men and women

In distant and dear ones

In the whole world's confine

Allwhere I'd been to find

But in the end I learnt, 
That what I sought,

Wasn't n
For 'twas always dwelling within

Am I ...

Am I he, who smiles at humour
Or the cynic who spots the lie
The ambitious who strives for ends
Or the purist who prizes means

Am I he, whose heart fell in love
Or whose body longed for another
The one who pined for that company
Or was it, for solitude, he feared

Am I he who competes
Or the coward who surrenders
The one who runs to win
Or one of the gullible dreamers

Am I the one who deceives
Or the saint who suffers truth
The one who believes in the light
Or who's simply afraid of the dark

Am I split or singular
In places one or plural
He who flourishes 
Or the doomed who perishes
Breathing here and drowned there

The sands I stand on,
With me, are they ridden ?
The faces, at me, that smile
Does nothing lie beneath the sheen ?

Is there something - anything
Of me, when I'm gone, worth recalling





Picture Courtesy - http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshslash/6240211080/

Soul ' s A Vagabond

I stare for hours at the partition
Opposite my bed, at the apparition
Everyone misses which
I notice that minor glitch


I stop at the teeming boulevard
And the forlorn graveyard
As if for a rendezvous
With, no one knows who


I pretend a purpose
To obviate its loss
I walk at a nameless goal
That pines for shape & soul


I call on my pal's place
Hoping to meet solace
I forge a frolic so lame
Hoping to stick to the game


Its a lie I've long lived with
They know who know its a myth
The veneer may look strong
Inside, the soul's a vagabond

Death Had Come

I woke up from a slumber
Felt as if I had been sleepin' forever
Somehow I didn't turn around
Else I would have broken into a shout


I felt no weight to carry
I felt the absence of worry
Yet when I wanted to touch
I couldn't get anything in my clutch


Supposed to fringe on frustration
On being subjected to this derision
Nothing I felt  though
Calmness prevailed somehow


I glided through space
I left no scent nor no trace
I recalled scenes from last night
Hazy memories of some fight


Since long I had a habit
To go through the paper tit by bit
The world's news was no more needed
I wouldn't have read even if they pleaded


Then I saw the birds staring
And stood still without moving
I heard them speaking
Felt something in my head was creaking


I thought of the garden ahead
And found myself transported
Who said anything about walking ?
It isn't blabber, what I'm saying.


I could hear incessantly
Words spoken endearingly
Somebody calling me somewhere
Blended in the invisible thoroughfare


Barked the neighbourhood cur,
As I walked to its near
Reassuring me of my existence
Returning some of my lost sense


I said Hello as a friend passed,
I jumped out of its way else he would've dashed
Knowing not how to react
I fumbled for the wall of my flat


I knew I was a loner
It was difficult for me to be a talker
Ask the people walking by
Questions full of 'What' & 'Why'


Stuck with these thoughts I sat on the step,
Just then I saw all my friends shouting for help
They had gone past the door
I saw a few crouching on the floor


I eased past them and reached my bed 
And found my motionless head 
Nothing around had changed
Save the fact that I was dead.


                                                                                 Anupam


(This poem depicts the poet's imagination of the events his soul witnesses after his death without realizing the fact that he's dead. That realization dawns when he follows his friends to his dead body inside his house ).