LOO CYPHER

 

The cipher in the loo

That was to be answered was this:

Why was it that

Somebody’s secrets be taken from him or her?

The king need it!

The king need it!

Why was there an official secret

And secretaries to keep it?

The king need it!

The king need it!

 

How was the king taken to the loo?

In a procession, no doubt!

What constituted a secret?

Everything secreted including you and me

And infinity which he could not take

And the shit that we carried in our bowels-

Who could do Santash without it?

 

Why were they secrets?

Because everybody had it,

No doubt

And nobody should know.

The secret that was there

Was the shit in and out.

When it came out

There was no more shit or waste.

 

The secrets where the miss- takes

The secret was greed

The secret was everything that Lucifer made for you.

Because king was for loo- cipher

And Lucifer

And for licences and not  with love and sensuousness

And not  with God

And god was for every one

And with everyone

And not just one.

But the king couldn’t see it

The priest couldn’t see it

And would take away the food from every one

And serve it to just one

And became a glutton

Who carried all the shit

And couldn’t take the other

Who deserved his due

And so couldn’t take God.

The god was also in the other

And could only be taken

When the other was taken

And the doors were open

And when everything flowed.

The god was in you and in me

And when you threw the other out

It was the  god in the other  

That was also being thrown

And that couldn’t be!.

 

AS THE CURTAIN FELL ON THE ‘THEATRE OF CRUELTY’

AS THE CURTAIN FELL ON THE ‘THEATRE OF CRUELTY’

Recently  I met with that director

From the theatre of abuses

He came in a skull cap

Which could as well have been

A hell- mate (sometimes spelt helmet)

For all I cares.

 His techniques of humiliation

Honed and perfected in the attic of caste

Hounded people every where

And in every walk

Quarantining the world

And teaching it disrespect for each other

And the rat race

That leads to nowhere.

With the tape worm that slithered around his belly

Securing him from the impure folk around him

He would mount bhajans all around for a grim faced terror

That was eating into the entrails of every man and woman.

Every flow had to be dammed up and siphoned to the purposes of utility

Freedom had to be freed from the domes

And used as a tether, an impossible one, that.

The stones thrown stuck to mid air

The lashes did more to wet the eyes

And for the bursts of fire

And many knots

He had no answer,

And the actress in her frustration

Went up in air

The well planned music

Stuck to prime time

And the footloose dancer

Meddled up the taste.

Hiedeggar had his name changed a bit 

To play in the Hedge war.

Doctors killed off their patients

People fell from the train

Spells were cast and locks invented

And every pie in their pockets were drained with

His fountains and water works

Nuclear trouble

And empty pipe dreams for everyone

And would steal the nectar from every spring in the making.

The skinned torso

Upon which they had carved a swastika

Hooked to the past

Hung there helpless

From that troubled tree.

But then the scenes underwent a change

The directors nose that was poking in so often

Was no more to be seen

Having been cut-off

By the crowd, off-stage,

The hiran escaped from the twilight zone

And the lion- headed monster

With his bloody grimace

Turned to the world

And let out a roar.

The mahisha took away his mask

In a muria ghotul

"Are you Gomata Yaksha?", or Rishabha natha?

They queried.

And the kids came around to ask him about his sins

“There were many,

And one was that I Loved,

I admit to it,

No doubt, I did!”

The snake of eternity

Upon which the master took to rest

In a swing did throw him under

And danced along with the sun to meet with the falcon

Its body, recovered.

The nagas spoke to Parswanatha who knew well of the ledges

And of Janamejayas( born to win/ victory to the people)
In whose name itself there was a big lie.

Snakes danced together in the backyard

To the unlimited song of the sirens

And rose hissing from every where

As did trees, coupling freely, in the wind.

Playing out again

As the chakra rolled on, no more a weapon.

The lotus returned to Buddha’s pond

And the sound trapped in the conch came back to the world

Amidst peels of laughter,

As an age freed itself

To a new beginning.

 

 

 

 

 

SHYLOCK WRITES TO HIS AUTHOR

Then they came for the merchants

And I was not a merchant,

Except perhaps someone like Hoshang Merchant

And knew that the Merchant of Venice

Was not always selling death

As some of our Shakespears do.

Shylock stood up and said in the court

I will cut off these locks

And just be shy

Or maybe not even that

And I have no spear to shake

In your wake

Except my own, which I do shake.

MY FRIEND, THE BAT(D) WOMAN

once at home

I had occasion to hit at a bat

Which was flying about in the night

Drinking  honey from

The plantains in the yard

With a stick that was in my hand

And it fell down,

It’s wings bruised

And screeching in a strange voice.

This grimacing face

Which made such an impression

In the movies

That it made your blood curdle,

This tiny little face

Wincing in pain and humiliation

And made out to be a lesser being

And such a terror,

To be somehow disabled and deficient

Because

She didn’t properly belong

To one fold or the other

Neither animal nor bird

And made ominous by virtue of a story that

They had tied up to her absent tail.

These accursed birds clinging with their heads down

To whom no Rama would allow his place

This flock of spirits

That had clung to god

Even in their direst moments

Accused and abused by the world

As many a prophet was

Made out to be a criminal

Without a crime

Another being altogether

Travelling in the darkness

Without the empty fears that

Hound the faithless

One with a radar to navigate with

In the toughest of environs

And god’s compass

To guide it everywhere

And was not averse

To travel with the flock

Almost imperceptible  among them

And deeply connected

A being from a far off time

Even before men were around

An early visitor

And a late sleeper

A lazy one who spent his daytime sleeping

Modest, even indistinguishable

But unique, nevertheless

With transparent wings

Claws and mustache

And a formidable otherness

Which had to be reckoned with

A bats-man from the guava thickets

One connected to the primordial darkness

That had clung to god

And was spread over the depths

Even before the coming

Of  light.

From his mental frequencies

Came another music

A call and reply

That those tuned in could well listen to

A cry for an open world

Where beings don’t fight amongst them

But give care and love

To a world

That was upside down,

No more letting it

To remain that way

It didn’t drop a feather

For your majesties crown

And with sharp teeth

Cut through the twine

That bound the world to unfreedom

And tried to tether it that way.