COURTESY

A heart that smiles with a golden shine

Receives the gift of everlasting bonds

That last through thick and thin times

And with time grows more strong 

A sweet 'hello' or a cordial 'goodbye'

Has so much strength to give

This heritage of good courtesy 

Refreshes even the primitive 

They that greet all men as friends

Never encounter sorrow alone

They that shares their joy in abundance

Find in every heart a home

There's little to do in being kind

A thoughtful gesture, a polite discourse 

Courtesy is the mediation of mind

That can't be bought, neither be forced

-Karan Ghosh

DEAR DOG

Dear dog of unknown breed
How familiar is your greed
I wonder easing your summer thirst
When did you feel hungry first

And when you did what did you eat
Surely not any milk or meat
No place for luxury on the street
Here dog eats dog & catcalls greet

Little thing, I pray show me your scars
Or mud stains from speeding cars
Or pelting wounds from angry kids
Who hurt you as their fathers did

Show me love that's free of danger
That which you've offered strangers
Your wagging tail with no demands
Beside a soft petting of hands

You've taken what you have found
No losses could shake your ground
God's own pet in a godforsaken time
A protagonist in my blessed rhymes

If we meet beyond this world again
Promise me you'll teach me then
The art of love and letting go
And only this and nothing more

-K.G.

MAMA INDIA

There is something she had to say
Continuing what she said that day
But our memory fails to recall a face
And so we begin to save her grace

This memory game that’s on the go
Never finds a stop, never likes the slow
Thus it fades from all such minds
That are convoluted across the line

We only liked the good she found
The other things never came around
So she searched again with innocent eyes
Not distinguishing between wrong and right

She seeks, seeks what attracts the mind
Whether adult, infant, or infinite
And when she finds no good anymore
We quench her ‘thirst to explore’

And wrap her in a tricoloured divide
Where we can home, where we can hide
But this mother of ours was never a bride
Or a daughter, or sister, or a friend, or anything else..

-K.G.

CITY

I have visited a strange city
With buildings that reflect sunshine
That even on stern October days
Dazzle the eyes of passersby

Still passing at the stop
This city knows no ease
A place for the sturdy mind
To suffer the fitness disease

So able in their swanky cars
So feeble on their lonely feet
They reclaim yesterday's victories
Standing tall in the face of defeat

From here, innocence is a dream
Stairways emerging from stairways
No more friends, neither enemies
Every morning some earth breaks

And if you look close enough
You could find yourself too
As a reflection on windowpanes
A special place just for you

-K.G.

HERE

Here, now, presently
I want you to myself
And desire that you invest
Your bit of everything
For no one holds the key
To the various mysteries
Of the next moment

Because in the upcoming
I could be future
And you could be past
Our dream of convergence
Could be just dream, alas
Our inhibitions aligned
Sleeping in a future past

We could wake up one day
Next to peaceful dreamers
Or petrify our nightmares
By those who never sleep
Or may be this coffee is
The sweetest memory
Just in our twisted heads
Another taste that's on repeat

-K.G.

20 LINES

Look, we are defeated again
We that were anarchy's children
Stand hand-tied before our times
Mastering new tunes in old rhymes

We escaped the mirrors in pain
A slice of reflection still remains
Yours in mine, mine in yours
All the afters of our before

So fond of the night, we stayed
Awake until it was too late
And when the Sun greeted the sky
Warm blankets nurtured our lies

When sleep departed we found
Just that listless, mundane sound
That crawls between two friends
And awkwardly finds an end

Now we must rest, I suppose
Our paradise has found a close
If heaven is full, give me hell
I just hope that you're doing well

-K.G.

DECEMBER FRIENDS

Let me make you a poem
So if we may part, I’ll remember
You, like I have known you
Since that long lost December

As I am so good at forgetting,
I’ll remember you as a few lines
Some ink upon an old page,
A collective of some rhymes

Some things about your anger
A few occasions of laughter
Youthful plans that failed too soon
Some wonderful ever-afters

I will pause you wherever I like
And several times begin you again
Addressing matters that affect us
I’ll remind myself why we’re friends

-Karan Ghosh