Death: 2 minute haikus

 *DEATH*

Anniversaries

Of birth just mark you getting

more closer to death

Death is the constant

companion since birth whom we

befriend at the end

Death is the debt owed

by each of the living to

life of tomorrow

Death's an interlude

Atoms rearrange into

A different life

Dancing with death thrills

Just hope if you trip and fall

he catches you well

The last refuge of

the brave, but one which cowards

visit beforehand

When the mock war ends

The black and white, kings and pawns

Go into same box

This destination,

you reach no matter where you

are travelling to

Delivered to death

No returns possible now

Replacements? Maybe.

Ten Haikus

From prompts by random word generators...

AIRSICKNESS

Head is in the clouds

But then feet begin to float

Airsickness ensues

BARE

To feel cold or warm

when gaze or word hits you

the mind must be bare

PRICELESS

Character, health, love,

imagination, good taste

time, God, all priceless

#HOME

Poisonous traits seen

after online exposure

Time for a detox

TIME

Time makes towers tilt

Flowers wilt and leaves fall

But then new ones bloom

PERSPECTIVE

A mid-life crisis

"Half-time, but play is still on."

Hero's perspective

HANGRY

When 'friends' 'share' my food

and then there is less for me

I get all hangry

TRUE-BLUE

Speak sweet when you can

acerbic fails litmus test

True-blue may turn red

Astaxanthin freed

from crustacyanin's embrace

True - blue crabs cooked red

SCUTTLEBUTT

Don't engage assholes

They fight and debate bad, and

scoot and scuttlebutt

Music: 2 minute verses

 It can be a single note, a chord or a riff

An original symphony or an evergreen lick

But if of a soul's fragrance you get a whiff

on hearing it, then you just heard music.

Blue Moon: 2 minute verses

It's been ages since we met, you say

days and months have passed on by

I'm confused as it was just yesterday

that I looked in on you and said hi

You've grown and got older, that's true

And before I see you again, you'll die

Your time's human, and I'm a moon blue

You're a blue moon too for the mayfly

 

Off colour: Limericks

An artist with an a bass that was class

Inundated with offers from the mass

Fanbois and girls galore

Were always wanting more

Now one was hungrily eyeing his ass...

Childhood, time for friendship

We were golden, we were hip

But then a painful memory

Comes back to haunt thee

Getting the tip stuck in the zip

Another person from Malappuram

Was the mafia's most liked chum

He was almost legendary

In how he channeled his ki

To smuggle big gold bars up his bum

Metacognition: 2 minute verses

How do we know 

which ones to keep

And which should be let go

Which ones to sow

Which ones to reap

And which ones to let flow

Cut and polish some

Till they catch light

And declare them in style

Those not handsome

And dark too, fight

For attention all the while

We mine our mind

Examine thoughts

Extract elements from ore

Hit play, rewind

Connect seen dots

Forward to find there's more

We see the route

We take to see

What we are looking for

It's Loud or Mute

But commentary

Is there as an under-score

Who hears trees that fall in the forest

 the chords and chorus in my head

Who understands harmony and unrest

And thinks before I say what I said...

This track exists, and this I know

You're hearing it now too

Plot has it's twists, how did I know?

I don't now, but now I do...

(You are hearing it, it's true!)

Wait: 2 minute verses

The planting of seeds in ploughed earth

Putting down fishing lines loaded with bait

Those nine months between sex and birth

Sometimes, all that you can do is wait...

Wordplay: 2 minute verses

You love him, and you want him to stay

but 'Go away, I hate you!' is what you say

He took you for granted, now he must pay

You'll have your way,

 with foreplay by wordplay...

You want him to be taken aback in shock 

And then to shower you with many entreaties

Then, till the moment your lips finally lock

Tease him with words that disturb his peace.

Salt n pepper: 2 minute verses

Salt n pepper, black n white

Sugar n spice, dark n light

Men n women, left n right

Contrast at times helps sight

Weakness can sometimes be one's might

And the faintest light be blindingly bright

Shortness is what accentuates height

Courage wells up from it's opposite, fright...

Fear: 2 minute verses

You, you ask me now, what is fear?

Tis contemplating losing someone dear

Catching the wrong fish in waters unclear

And a future unsure, where you're not near...

Being ravaged by a beast, like a wild bear

Lose friends by Letting enemies

poison your ear

While driving well, wrongly shifting into reverse gear

Getting sued for accidentally slapping someone's rear ...

Tom & Jerry: Haiku

Observe, the mind plays

Cat and mouse all by itself

It's Tom and Jerry

The Last Supper: Haiku

Wrote a Haiku for Vineet on demand.

A late lunch indeed

Rice stuffed in the open mouth

Pops as the pyre burns

He put it to music...

https://youtu.be/HojjbLfR0ps

Mr. Perfect: 2 minute verses

A two-word trigger. Served with a dose of sarcasm, most probably. 


MR. PERFECT

I eat all my veggies as also my protein

I don't like to slouch, I'm always erect

I elucidate well, and look neat and clean

But does all that make me Mr. Perfect?

I'm charming, polite and ooze sex appeal

I'd be the U.S. President you would elect

I fit all roles so well it's a perfect seal

But does all that make me Mr. Perfect?

I've millions of followers, a veritable cult

I am to them a deity deserving my own sect
I get worshipped by all, be it child or adult
But does all that make me Mr. Perfect?

My humility is as legendary as my skills

Scientists may want to study me, I suspect
for getting keys to cure humankind's ills

But does all that make me Mr. Perfect?

Maroon: 2 minute verses

 GREEN

I'm bang in the middle of VIBGYOR

Traffic control - I'm at the bottom of it

You'll turn my shade if you can't cure

Envy, jealousy or that urge to just vomit.

... next up was...

MAROON

I pushed off all my childhood mates 

They seemed too far in the past anyway

As they drifted away to their fates

I felt I had just got rid of useless decay

Made my many affairs a few night stands

Discarded with disdain many a genuine gem

Connections were just like lines in the sands

Before the waves rushed in and wiped them

I was focused, and that's what I told myself

Others were mostly competitors for my turf

Or distractions, or relics on memories' shelf

Meanwhile, I had to catch the next wave to surf

With my alienating attitude of you-I-don't-need 

They tried to cope, but left me alone after awhile

Without practice, my social skills atrophied

I forgot how to stretch my lips into a smile...

Loneliness crept up fast and I had no defense

There was no hand to hold, no bosom's cocoon

No warm words or smiling eyes, no friends

In the island of my own making, I'm a maroon...

Inert: 2 minute verses

To start, there was candle light, champagne and oyster

A soft fluffy bed, safe words so no one would be hurt

But then, when everything was hotter and more moister

Before I could get it up, everything suddenly went inert..."

Then I ask you - 'You know where I'm going with this, right? What I'm thinking of?' 

You say 'Yeah, I think so'. 

I say, 'Even though you obviously know, let me take you thru my creative process' ... And post the saprasang vyakhya...

"Well... I thought of a poor couple, who had come into some riches. This is from the perspective of the male. They got an air conditioner, the first one they ever had, and since they still had their savings mentality, he thought he would install it himself (he did a bit of electrical work and house maintenance work). To celebrate the occasion, which was also their anniversary, they brought champagne and oysters. It was a window AC, so they wanted to install it there. Since they had to handle it themselves, and there was a risk of it dropping down, they put a bed/mattress on the ground below the window. Also, they agreed to say 'STOP' if one of them felt the AC slipping from their hands - a safe word.

After dinner, as happens in the South these days with the rains, everything was more hotter and more humid/moister. He decided to go about the installation, but then.... as is normal in Kerala doing the monsoons, KSEB power cut. Everything went inert..."

Chocolate: 2 minute verses

That girl, she reminds me of chocolate...

'Sweet?' No, the 99% cacao one, mate...

'Healthy, then?' Well, definitely low-cal...

'Exotic, maybe?' dude, she's pakka local... 

'How, then?' Remember that ad for Cadbury?

'Kuch khaas hai zindagi main? Favourite of mine!'

She's my ex, man, and ever since I have been free

I've never been more appreciative of that line

Random Hinglish verses etc

CLICHE...

Ladke har waqt oopar, ladkiyan letein neeche

Ladki aage aage, ladke unke peeche

Sex scene nahin dikhate, bas phool aur bageeche

Yaheen sab hain jaaneman, humare cinema ke cliche. 


KAMZORI

Apni kamzoriyon ka ehsaas bakhoobhi hai humein

Par khamoshiyon main dafna dete hain kabhi unhein

Manzoor hai ishq karna humari aadat ki hai majboori

darte hain magar kehne se kahin na ban jaye kamzori

Invisible: 2 minute verses

There's something about her, she's incredible

But when I look for what it is, it's invisible.

May be it's the lilt in her laugh, the curl of her lips
whirls of fragrance as she walks, the tilt of her hips
The grace she exudes in her Insta reels and other clips
and that aesthetic bouncing when she does backflips

She's so good with animals, maybe she's a bit wild inside
Even on roughest roads, she appears not to walk but glide
In an artwork museum, she would take the pride of place
Her aura, I imagine, could be seen easily from outer space.

I've been down this path before, though, and I know 
This incredible, invisible thing that does not it self show
is the perception of beauty, created by me, in my eye    
which will cease to be when I see her with another guy.

Survive: 2 minute verses

I wake up in the morning, get coffee in bed
Put myself through the perils of being fully fed    
Then go see which Clubhouse chats are live    
Yes, it's a tough life, I know...  but I'll survive.

I open the laptop to get through to my urgent mails
find none, so then window shop at Amazon sales
Then, it's time for the latest OTT series deep dive    
Yes, it's a tough life, I know... but I'll survive.

I get inspired by the YouTube musical prodigy again
Pick up my dusty ukulele, put fingers through the strain
I play two chords twice, then manage to lose the drive
got to preserve my digits, need them to survive.

I work all day and night at being me, a full time job
There's so much tribulation, yet no one sees me sob    
I'm at time envious of others doing their nine-to-five
Mine's a tough life, I know... but I'll survive.

Clouds: 2 minute verses

When does a cloud finally burst?
The chicken or the egg,
                    which came first?
Life's delightful little mysteries
to be contemplated at your ease.

Why does the cloud turn black from white?
Conservatives or liberals,  
                                        who are right?
Where are you looking from? Because it depends
on light and sight, these conundrums, my friends.


Why do clouds gather and who drives them away?
Why is there still reservation, 
                                         and gender disparity in pay?
When you think and think, but don't care enough
to love and work together, then things get rough.


Why do clouds come in all shapes and sizes and still mutate
Why do I have this indigestion?
                                                must be something I ate...
Our plate is filled with nutrition and information
Appetite's peer pressured, digestion's on vacation...

Sound: 2 minute verses

Haiku - Adi Nadam.

First a vibration

Then a thousand in its wake

He Said. Sound came first.

Saprasang vyakhya: (I guess there is no one better to explain the hidden meaning of the poem than the poet itself :P) In Hindu mythology, sound is said to have been the first thing that came into existence. Some others say, God said - 'Let there be light', and that is how it all started. Well, even then, He did Say. You can still argue that sound came first. 


More Sound.


The precious stuff is that which when you lose
you won't find that easily in  'Lost and Found'
Your childhood, innocence, your freedom to choose...
Your health, your wit, your sense of sight and sound.

Even more Sound.

All these debates and discussions on Clubhouse
Verbal wars being fought on hallowed ground
slaughtering narratives and many sacred cows - 
it shows the power of free voice, unbound sound.