1. rivers in verse
rivers inversereverse rivers
rivers re-verse

2. The Periyar is my river
Our river
The secret of the river
is that it once had banks
on which people settled
for giving them water
the drink of life
and no river is more
or less
than any other
holy

Celebrated in a song
in Malayalam
in a film
it holds intimate memories

I have sailed on it in a huge boatsat on its steps
gazed at it for hours
from behind it wall
adjoining the YMCAnear Aluvamanappuram
admired its depth and blue
and how the sunshine sparkles
and at night the moon
on its creased surface
and how the river flows

I could stand or sit for hours
just watching it flow

3 Nature in its peace
quiet
calm
aglow
symbolized by the river
used to make me slow-
ly wake up to what was saidin Holy Writ
Creation shews forth thy power
and make me feel its song
making me a poet
akin to the sylvan ones
of Romantic fame
and akin to Hopkins
who knew to learn from it

I too would jot down thoughts
but only in my mindhow green became greenr
framed against the river's blue might
how pretty was the contrast
'tween blue above and blue below
and how the reflections of the sky
made rivers put Dali to shame

For walking on its bank
and watching the clouds float by
in the mirror of the rivermade me feel in the sky
in which the river was flowing
that'd let me get off by and by

It was a tipsy feeling.

Glopowrimo #9

Hatelist

You know the neeru?
Funny name - not -for things that looked
transparent and filled with a kind of orange blood
scary-if-blown-up things
When one bit me I would try to drag it off
but it would not let go
and getting its pincers or legs or hands broken
to put it out of its misery
I used to be forced to kill it, you know.

I never hated them
but then I met these un-alien creatures
who were also transparent
in their hatred for me
and bit into them with my words
which they had to ignore
to pretend they had killed me
while I spat my insides out at them
hoping I was transparent
orange-blooded, bloody
and a giant in my own centaur world
so they fled
pincered, broken-legged or broken-armed
and dragging their broken bodies with the intestines gushing out
across my territory
while my mates stood and cheered
the neetal I had given them
for daring to fuck with me

You know the women?
Martha, Desiree, Caroline, Jane
When the moon was high
they used to come out of my irises
and stand on my eyelashes
to dance
Going blind, I would close my eyes
and claw at them blindly
but gouge out my eyes
Every woman was that reader I broke
for not being able to understand
my verses

You know those boards
black, green, white and smart
You know those coloured-differently chalks
Those marker pens
permanent or erasable
and those pointers
that killed the best
Every time I stood at the desk
I wished the laser would transfix my breast
Death was better than the system
I only wanted to blow up the empty cistern
and the leaking faucet of education
that dripped like stinking sewage water
black and rotten, to the core, my partner
I wanted to dismantle its bloody core
and give back to the world the days of yore

You know that fucking word?
Yes, the one that changed the world
I would so gladly go around these days
putting its sass, balls and lights out with a stick
so darkness would engulf the night's bill boards
and the dancing moon would again appear
over the fields to make me feel
the word and never say it out loud

Hate list hit list and fuck list
You read them all
Now tell me I'm not
Ever going to be rich and famous
and I'll show you my bare backside
because beyond my bile and rage is a world
that's full of another kind of a list
I would write it but before that need to write out this list.