night n day

lash

cherry picking

corner office

booths

squirrel and the city

beams and sunbeams

dog pack

landscaping the sky

windows

interlopers

jade

certain shade of the blues (lady in red)

where the two walls meet

one found love 

where the two walls meet
forming a straight
rigid
right angle
nothing wrong
about it
just that
one can't
like an infant does
curl up
against straight lines
the lines don't move
they don't line up
and form
arms
rearing
by nature
holding gently
the tender places
aligning perfectly
where the back
and hips
and thighs
and knees 
bend
when one finds love
where the two walls meet
does one really find love

trigger

the ferryman's master

hades

me and good ol hades

we go a long way back

back

to the times

when we crawled 

on our knees

with scruffy hair

torn shorts

and a shirt

no

we did not wear one

we did not need one

the sun

yes the sun

made it all hot

and sweaty

and sometimes

almost unbearable

we used to knock

one-to-ones

at the corner of the dark alley

an occasional game of 

upmanship

played by two

one on one

no audiences 

or maybe just a few

he was meek

mostly

galvanized layer

of scowl on the outside

a fowl temper

hammered into place

out of necessity

it is my duty

he used to say

i used to call his bluff

i was the tough one

the conniving one

the one 

in my head 

the only one

to put ideas in his head

and thoughts

that veered towards

the extreme left 

of a shade card

somewhere between

dark and very dark

sometimes 

we used to sit

on a pile of twisted

steel

and we used to wonder

about the sculptor

who so beautifully

read and replicated 

our well-hidden

temperaments

but everything said and done

we were just kids

me and hades

like a million others

found 

sprinkled across

the vast landscapes

of wastelands

the unneeded 

the unheeded

like rotten furniture

pathetically trying 

to justify the living

in the living room

with their carpets

and fireplaces

only here

the only wood we had

to keep ourselves warm

were the bone-dry bones

of a quitter 

who could not go on

and it wasn't easy to use them

we had to peel the wrinkled

shrivelled dried up 

skin

off them first

and then make a pile

and sit around it

with our palms towards it

and gather warmth

as greedily as we could

and then we would cusp 

our palms together

to capture whatever heat 

we could

we thought we could apply

that fleeting feeling of warmth

on our palms

like a lotion across our entire body

silly of us

we knew

we knew even then

as if we could

and this we could do

on a good day

the bad ones

mostly

thankfully

erased themselves

from our memory

and then there were days

when 

well-kept boys

and gals

from the other side

would come and visit

us

to see 

us 

exist in our natural habitats

only they thought 

of it as an exotic

museum 

of misery and pain

and everything under them

everything they stood upon

and never had to see

because never in their lives

had they any need 

to look down

and sometimes 

they would circle

around us

around hades

more often than not

and

pull his shorts

and call him names

Plouton Plouton

Look What Dastardly Thing

This Scrawny One Has Got On

they would say and sneer

and hades 

would crawl

into the crevice

as far as he could

he used to look at me 

for help

but i 

his best friend

used to look away

out of fear that they would notice me

and forget about him

or along with him

pick upon me too

and i being the clever one

would go and hug and console

and hold hades

as soon as they were gone

and their backs were turned

we will get them hades

i used to say

we will get them one day

you promise

do you promise 

hades asked

wiping his tears

i do

i said

then take this coin

and keep it safe

someday

you will know

and you

will be 

as good as your word

and the promise you broke 

or kept

keep this coin safe

it will stand you in good stead

and slipped away

quietly back deeper into his crevice

leaving most parts unsaid

amber

the black widow

perfume

salt n pepper