Hello friends! You'll be pleased to know that my collection of poems titled BIRDS LIKE US has been published and is now available on Amazon. Access the link http://www. amazon.in/dp/B07FR79YRP and order your copy today. You can also access https://lnkd.in/fZiBumS of BLUE ROSE STORE (owned by my publisher Blue Rose Publishers) to order your copy...

A CITY UNDER CONSTRUCTION

A war-eaten city
Awaits rebuilding

Treasured old tools are
Searching for new hands, 
New corridors cropping up
On the old relics

To accommodate
Some gilded intermediaries,
Some complacent pontiffs,
Some desperate yuppies,
Some perplexed mandarins,
 With
Their cackling progeny

(© DEEPAK DARSHAK) 

REBELS

(A TRIBUTE TO FEDERIGO GARCIA LORCA)  

Rebels are not always the folks

Wearing black clothes,

Holding flags of protest in their hands,

Shouting sharp slogans

Every now and then

In an incensed crowd, 
It’s not often that 
They can be made out easily, due to 
Their clenched fists, 
Their rambunctious yells of fury, 
Their impassioned harangues, 
Their incisive war calls for freeing 
Countless budding dreams
And crops of anxious hopes 
Caged by iron-curtained tyranny 

Rebels do not always wear

The signs of resistance

On their faces,

But they burn with

An anger, an anxiety, a discontent,

A deep thirst,

Seething in  

Their introvert conduct and tacit traits,  

Waiting to explode like

 Torrents, humongous, irrepressible,

When the time comes calling for  

The collapse of

Impervious Bastilles’ 

FATE THE GRIMALKIN: A MISSING COMPANION

My witty grimalkin,

The purring dream companion of

Solitary hours

Purchased from a vendor of thoughtful pets,   

Has been missing

For quite some time                                

If you see it anywhere,

In any street, in any thoroughfare,

Kindly inform me                                              

It has a tendency to wink

At every passer-by,

And throw a mysterious smile,

When addressed by its pet name, Fate   

(© DEEPAK DARSHAK: MAVERICK MONOLOGUES)

A HOUSE IN THE CLOUDS

a house 
in the clouds, 
the Moon 
within its reach, 
trees and twigs hanging by, 
a crowd of colourful ecstasy
basking in the blue aura of
a tender, young dream
gazing down, 
eager to welcome visitors 
emerging from 
the belly of 
searing waters below
(© DEEPAK DARSHAK)

SMILES!

Smiles!  Why are you so unpredictable At times? Why do you stay for a while On some lips, And longer on some others? Smiles! Dear smiles! Why do you show up so easily sometimes, But take ages to appear otherwise? Pray tell me if You have become too diplomatic, Or I’m too naïve to understand  Your labyrinthine, meandering arithmetic!

(© DEEPAK DARSHAK)

BESIEGED

we were 
still thirsty, 
guarding a crop of

dry longings,

famishing temptations,
tired eyes, 
gestures sweating, 
when 
the monsoon romance
came to an end   

rather abruptly

‘You are under siege’, 
a wanton gust

blowing through our lane

whispered, 
‘put on masks to 
stay alive, 
the city has 
a viral emergency!’

© DEEPAK DARSHAK