SOCIETY

They won’t let you be a romantic 

And they won’t let you love for free

Dare not hold each other in public

Have you forgotten, we live in society

This is the civilisation of our pride

We’ll allow you to sell your dreams

But if your business is found be to love

Minding is the job of society

Save the children from the curves

Secure the innocence to let it breathe

But gloat them with an air of nothingness

And fire them straight into society

Shoo the dogs when they make love

Let’s kick them with our leather heels

Reproduction must be taught through books

While sodomy breeds in society

Yes, become the shape you choose

It’s all just misplaced biology

In the end we’ll lay you straight 

With just your name in society

-K.G.

THE ART WEEP

For each dishonoured sheet
Off her colouring book
Art weeps silently
You could hear it if you would

Curtailed by the sciences
And neurons of foreign minds
She remained an artist
Of the sub-conscious kind

Then one day, in time
The progress graph inclined
Her text books won the battle
Her poetry misplaced its rhyme

For two million year atoms travelled
To bring her poetry to life
While just in three torrid semesters
It no longer mattered a dime

-K.G.

PORNOGRAPHICS

I now remain a prisoner
Only in your imaginary confines
Timid, taut and nubile
In the pornographics of your mind

A wanderer made of cosmic star
On the outside, I am free
Same eyes, same scars
Just finally moving; non-stationary

I'm in between the sure blackness
And the definite of dear white
Here lies a colour I do not know
In shade of the undefined

The staple has been unclasped
My poetries fly across the air
You may now want to catch a few
But nothing remains anywhere

-K.G.

HOMELESS

I come from between
A million pages
From among a flood of words
I'm just four simple letters
I am what you call love

I creep into lives
Of those that miss
This healing strength of me
And sans any declarations
I happen to set you free

Ahead of the good
And lower than bad
A shapeless abstract; I remain
Twist me strong, hide me hard
But I will still prevail

I am the songs
The countless verses
Which human hearts beget
I am the only mistake
That you will never regret

I'm a homeless loner
Looking for some room
In the estates of this society
A silent agent of infinite power
A phase of sheer propriety

-K.G.

SWITCHED OFF

There is no charge, believe me
And I have lost my charger
All contacts lie secured
In this gift from my father

The memory stays intact
In every picture I saved
All the words in their place
That hand cannot erase 

I cannot call at my ease
My voice afar originates
While you dial from far away
A call you hope I will take

It is not the network, my love
This device can no longer do the job
The number that you're trying
Is currently switched off

-K.G.

UNTIL

Slipping through the eyes
Sleep paves way
And I leave you be
In a world behind my wake

A bookstore for our typicality
Or a cafe you like
A walk through the alien city
Or an ambience you decide

Arms in arms, syncing feet
What a terrific sight to see
Us against the setting sun
In a moment when time hadn't begun

I'm done with all the 'I', my love
I'm more a 'we' person now
So in dreams I let you be
Until another solemn vow

-K.G.

SHAPE

I only ask for a shape
Of the vivid feelings within
Too much to ask for, is it?
It was always about dimensions.

Consuming and discarding,
Rejecting and regarding.
A condescending lull of the eyes
Delivered just once; sustained forever

Who knows how the 'long' feels?
Does it experience differently
When an ache from the inside
Rises shortly and just won't die

How prolonged is a terror
For the apparently 'short'
Winding below like a gyre
And frozen in equal thought

How the 'flat' deals with a 'sharp'
When either mean no harm
Yet collide and corrode
In moments of worldly collision

So very shapeless and full of shame
Without a single definite name
To address the blunt honesty
That even civilisation could not tame

-K.G.

SAME PAGE

Riddle me the mystery

That invades your mind

In a moment when touch succeeds 

And contact is born

Safe in a cage of trust

Your mind dares belief

So you fearlessly dream 

Singing your jilted songs

Out of tune and mismatched

How jumbled words make rhyme

And you and I remain

A ghost in the arms of time

But I dream further than that

Where you and I could reach

At one time and one place

Two people on the same page

-K.G.

AT HOME

Don’t go outside, bare feet.

But I know you will anyway,

So that you could come home

To defile the white innocence

Of the clean marble floor,

With a filth profuse

While trudging to the safety

Of your comforting seclusion

Where you could meet regret

Orchestrating in delusion 

And seasons will slip in a haze

While fear befriends you,

Turning god’s greatest work

Into mere nuisance value

And fake plastic quirks.

The outside is an invitation

Programmed only to allure,  

With its fashionable colour schemes;

Incomplete pieces of your soul.

So when you're done unravelling

Perfection will find you,

Waiting patiently at home.

-K.G.

MORNING RISE

My heart longs you
In paucities of light
When night employs delay
I seek your voice at night

Amidst creeking of doors
And chorused cricket's call
I seek your silent glow
Around my darkened stall

Many a nights still remain
Between this you and I
But fear not, my dainty love
Endure the hues and cries

The clock is at constant work
In motion is our wagon ride
Stars will stay for a little more
Morning rises on the other side

-K.G.

HOUND IN SOCIETY

He springs across thickets

Wounded, in one of his slender feet 

This hound that has society 

Shooing him on repeat

The human scent is his alarm

He darts off our treads

Bewitched by hunger and desire

His gaze fixed upon our breads

No more nimble, his feet ache

And yet this scavenger excavates 

An architect of the three-feet balance

How goes his day, I contemplate 

God found a new room to stay

In this quadrupedal body that lay

And every hunt; an offering

Made righteously day by day

-K.G. 

STEERING

The light at the tunnel's end,
Fading into a close.
14 rupees have been consumed;
A fog in the chest.
The faintness of memory,
A blurry of the smoke
While the world lay still,
For a brief moment,
And then resumed
All in fast forward.

A white darkness in the face
And steering responsibility at hand;
Father bends, unknown
To a road not taken.
We shudder inside
And shriek on the outside
And live another day
To make all the difference.
The temples and books
Remained on their pedestals
While father shifted in third gear
Driving us further into life.

-K.G.
(To my Father)

GO HOME, PHILOSOPHER

Sit there in a corner

Or get the seat you please

There’s time before it begins

Delay is the next big thing

Sing in the lonely silence 

Strum all chords that you like

The party starts in an hour

Sixty minutes of lone delight

Excitement drove you here, son

At 50 miles an hours

Clean shaven and fragrant

Of the wild blue flowers

That’d grow just anywhere

And absolutely out of place

Only for the thrill of growing

Only for earthly interface

Wouldn’t you rather be alone

In your castle of privacy

Than amidst foreign aliens

Under pretences of fallacy 

While the rush races your mind

We’ll be all circles and lines

Go home, philosopher

We are two different kinds

-K.G.

NEW SOIL

I was told Money is a language

I believed- English is

I was told, when Money talks

Grammar is oblivious

So I planted shrubs and trees

With dandy poetic fantasy

Blooms growing in black light,

Blooms beguiling bumble bees

Tolling upon the watcher’s eyes

Verses grew like projections

And financed a timid dream

Through sundry dashes of sanity

A little honey everywhere

A lot when put together

A poem for every daze

A verse for every weather 

And so the mind faces the endless

In a search of new soil

For there are seeds that yet await

The tilling and ploughing toil

-K.G.

THE LUST CONCERT

She rose upon my surface
like a lingering fragrance,
That lingers still- unaware;
Returning from the caves
of a jumbled conscience.
Blaring like a siren
Through darknesses of the night,
Through unsung nuances of light.

Our infinity chased the world away,
Leaving us awake in blue light
With a plastic that was reality;
And a reality that was not,
But only seemed to be
At our disposal.
Like an outlet for convenience,
Like a temporary reverence.

-K.G.

STANDBY

Lay your dreams beneath the pillow
Wake up, dreamer. Rise and shine
For the sleep of this candid city
Reeks of plastic infidelity
Your dreams will wither here
Oh, what bitter-fancy it is
So wrap your bedding daintily 
And go wherever the journey leads

Dive in to the yellow welcome
Of a love borne in silence
And even let hate prevail
So that solitude could cleanse
The ruins of a public alienation
Found in a single moment of truth
That echoes until the close
Of this musing rigmarole

Then, clarity will find you
Then, freedom will be true
Until then, let's just be friends
Let us standby, until we meet again

-K.G.

OVERCOAT

I've waited like an overcoat
Since Summer walked in
To fill our cold lives
With more warmth than required

Reeling through dreamy mornings
I have remained stacked
In the far back corners
Of an untouched closet

While Spring fondled your hair
With its airy fingers
My arms grew patiently
Inwards, to insulate the cold

This weather will always change
Along the sunshine and rain
So when winter comes home again
I'll be just a wear away

-K.G.

CIGARETTE

Just this morning

When the sun was still rising;

Underneath the sheets
Of the pillow cover,

I found a broken, beautiful strand

Of your hair.

The mind sank
And the heart rose

And briefly from the corners

Of your and my sanity

Memory spread as a fragrance

And wildfire.

The burnt lay ashen
On the surface of reality,

While smoke became thin air

And as reminiscent left behind
Just the smell of a cigarette  

That we shared.

-K.G.

PAPERBACK

Find not a lot of comfort

In errands requiring a fill

Of labour and patience

Hold on, dreamer; hold on still

Sleep eludes the curios mind

On stoic, serene mornings

For peace is a cliche 

Do not let peace prevail

Songs of passion are fewer

Than the lullabies of love

That pour an eternal sleep

Into the eyes of the disturbed

Madness is the only sense

That could ever be drawn

Madness grants an equality

To the right and the wrong

Every book on the shelf

Will and can not be read

Owing to bulky existence

Or simple lack of interest

But nothing kills life like lie

One that goes unrealised

In hardbound or paperback

Like general, mediocre reprise 

-K.G.

ONLINE

How about a laugh
For the smart mistakes

Made first and realized later

While reality became a veil
And the virtual reigned

We really split, in two

One, behind the screen

Fingers on the keyboard
Along the cut, copy, paste

The other, out there
Fortified in typical fashion
And full of insecurities

We could never truly meet
Or share a real dream
But we shared a Wi-Fi 

There's more to you indeed

As there is to me
So we could log in someday

At the same time

And really see you react

When we're one on one, online

-K.G.

THE ADULT ROMANTIC

We come to an end, my friend
A brief, temporary amend,
So bid farewell with grace
And meet me again
Where the sun descends 
Into the bracing horizon;
Paving way for stars
And darkness
To mingle and corrode-
Passionately, until dawn breaks.

Since we are unaware
Of what future holds,
I will hold on to you
When we meet again,
To not let go
And go with you
Wherever you roam;
Or stay, or settle, or survive.
We'll end many more times
Before the end 
Of our undulating lives.

But endings don't scare me,
Beginnings do.
We begin like science
And end like art.
And you know how
I have failed at science
Many, many times.
I'm a common artisan
Who knows just but his muse,
A muse that is you.

-K.G.

THE WOMB OF ABILITY

Find me the wealth 

That exceeds excess

And fulfils the heart 

Of a stomach unfed.

On the night of the sun

When light blackens 

The vision of sanity

And conceives crime;

Desperate and definite,

Through the womb of ability

With grains of desire

Yielding a meal, or liquor

Or perhaps some fee

Some debt, some fantasy.

For the price of engraved morals-

Compromised

In pursuit of survival,

And labelled

In the eyes

Of the lawfully blind.

-K.G.

IMPERFECT

Crooked and imperfect
Out of place in civilization 
Who wants to know your art
You are bound to desolation

The creative in you, eloped
From the hunger of daint 
Of those that desire symmetry 
And worship righteous saints

But hold on, dear wonder!
Hang in there alone
Against the smooth wall paint
Against aesthetic monotones

Prepare thyself, you immortal
For a million onlooking disdains
And keep on boldly until
It goes not all in vain

-K.G.

BUT EMOTIONS

Will you love me On days when I'll have no work Or the general cash for fuel Or the strength to talk Because of a previous night Or due to a mood swing That you deserve not to see And cope up with my mistakes Because I will Not for you, not for us But for myself Because I am old-school And father taught me
To rebuild machinery When things collapse. To spend effort in fixing Than to replace The broken with the new Because we're rich at nothing But emotions

-K.G.

OVERFLOWING

Meet me someday
With a broken heart
And a sealed bottle
Of preserved wine
And I will unscrew for you
A wine like none other
A most uncanny flavour
This is a secret ingredient affair 
That brews in the conscience
Long after being
No more there

Flimsy inhibitions will fade
Leaving behind just
Your marooned body
Blue and pale, with a joy
That was not yours
But of that holy alcohol
Which you gulped
To suppress a destruction
To wash out a flood
In an unnamed fear
Of the brim overflowing

-K.G.

May 29, 2015

STALE MASCARA

I drove forward, homewards bound
And the only warmth in that night
Simmered on the forehead
Of her moony eyes

A breeze howled in her ear
She brushed it with a whisper
And pulled it with the dampness
To the rivers of her hair

A song rung in her brain
She hummed to me it's voice
We sung the chorus in unison
A fleeting, timid rejoice

Her melody faded off the rear view
Soon after home came about
Smudged in her stale mascara
The show was over and out

-K.G.

TODAY

Yes, I am
From the 90's
And thereby I
Am an anarchist.
Not by nature 
But by choice.
Because I've seen
Planes crashing into buildings,
And shoes being flung in parliaments,
And @Leo DiCaprio winning an Oscar,
And heard @Opeth play live,
And @Usain Bolt run like light.
Yes, I've seen madness
And I've done all this
Being sober,
In reality.
I live in 2016.

-K.G.

SWEET NOTHING

A shadow passes
From former times
Quietly through transparent walls
Of my glass castle
And the brain quivers
Even when reason stands tall

What were we, my love?
Or are we still
Growing like the backyard vines
That need not water
That need not light
But just ignorance, your and mine

We seized our times
With loosened inhibitions
This time, let us lose the day
Our attempts were brave
Our gesture compassionate
Yet here we are in comfortable dismay 

This day will pass too
Like a newfound joy
That scent of a sweet nothing
And we will lie
In our vacant beds
Each night, tossing and turning 

-K.G.

LESS GREAT

I'm just another scam, like you
Working on a plan everyday 
With so much glam and fear
Life is weird, my dear

If you think there is love, 
There's just fire 
In this gasoline ocean
We're only floating
Like gloated wobbles
Some in pride, 
Some in pride-shaped insecurity 

We're smoke before we could be fire
Burning with an ache of despair
In dazzling green flame of envy
And still burning anyway

If God is too far and too big
Find me a faith, a little less great
And believe– God is
In every heart we break
In all of the sounds derived
But we're just already so quiet
Well-mannered, god-fearing marionettes

-K.G.

NEXT BIG THING

I thought of life
As anything but ordinary
And mediocrity followed
As a compliment 

I thought of fire
As a force to reckon with
And humidity followed
As a precipitant 

I thought of the wild
As a field of anarchy
And civilisation followed
As a trending weed

I thought of creation
As the next big thing
And the creator followed
As a sensation underneath

-K.G.

POST-MODERN IRONY

In reality, a mirage
Is delusion for real
Why then must we
Confess the truth
And feel false beneath

Below, on the surface
Where the fluid boils 
Renditions evaporate unheard
Corroding within the skin
Such uncouth suffering 

Let us strip the skin, dear people 
This blood needs to breathe
Our shells have cut the perspiration
Homosapiens sweating like pigs
Such post-modern irony

-K.G.

GREATNESS

Save me the greatness
In the name of advise
Give me nothing
If it's greatness you derive
From the lives and times
Of gallant men
Like salt to the sore
That seeps rapidly within
'What is right' is general truth
We all know what not to do
And yet we flounder
Time and again
Each time a different disdain

Similarly, I am a bit
Of every man I meet
To greet or scorn
And carry on
My faults are all identified
Discovered and certified
We're all just a family
I scratch your back
You scratch mine
Narrating greatness of former times

What you do great
Becomes greatness tomorrow
But they that just narrate
Are comfortably hollow
Greatness is an abstract
That can't be seen or heard
But only be felt
Fleeting south like birds
To make you know
Where you are and where to go

-K.G.

I WILL FORGET YOU AS CHEMISTRY

I'll forget you as though

I have forgotten Chemistry

I'll forget complicated names

Of your many elements

And the logic in your laws

Like outlaws do, naturally

The colours of your solutions

Will fade after they react

And become yet another problem

Therefore, dear friend

I'll forget you as though

I have forgotten Chemistry

Why not some other science,

Is that what's on your mind?

Because I will always remember

That delightful November

When Biology became reality

Within the confines of my body

The Physics between you and I

Has its own gravity

So much Force, so little Time

So many angles undermined

Hence as Chemistry, I say

I will forget you, someday

-K.G.

FINAL FALL

From stones to sickles
To shadows that tickle,
Man had a crazy life.
And what astonishing device!

His ever winding gyre;
A lurid cycle of fire–
An active funeral pyre
For prolonged requiems of desire.

Each paddle a unit,
Each distance a day.
'Every man for himself';
The rear view is only sweet dismay. 

Balance is struck through motion,
Motionless- the cycle falls.
And gravity calls them sooner
Than the curtain's final fall.

-K.G.

PAST REALITY

Looking back and forth
Into my ordinary life
I struggle to find divide
That pushed me aside
Within the undulating rigmarole 

Removed from most parts
Through childhood phase
I remained a fluid
Seemingly languid
Separated in two halves 

Both developing steadily
One on the outside
The other- underneath
Pleased among the trees
Denouncing authority distastefully 

In memory, most forgettable
This wayward life does seem
So much more living
So terribly unforgiving
An unbelievable past reality

-K.G.

FIRE EXTINGUISHER

A few days ago
In a nearby building
On a high-risen floor
A fire extinguisher croaked
Prey to sophisticated curiosity
Of a suave gentleman

Oh, what a hoax
The poor nonliving coaxed
And cajoled as satanic
Barbaric thing of dismay
As it fell to the surface
Letting out a destiny

Waiting there endlessly
Through days, months, years
Waiting for a fire
In an unsure, diminished life
Like a soldier in peace time
A hopeless rest for fate

And then the final act
Set in the way inscribed
They forgot how the bizarre
Of the lashing nozzle
Would make the only sense
Once fire begins to ascend

-K.G.

I AM EVERYTHING

I am a he,
I am a she.
I'm nearly everything
That can possible be.

I am puzzled,
I am all cool.
I am burning ember,
I am fuel.

I am they,
I am them.
I burn tobacco,
I love hemp.

I am failure,
I am a degree.
I suck at math,
I love history.

I am uncultured,
I am talent.
I live progressive
But I love 'gallant'.

I gaze out of windows,
I turn on the A.C.
I am nearly everything
That can possibly be.

-K.G.

THOUGHT BUBBLE

Be gone, despair
We can no longer be friends
Sadness saddens me no more
I have found thought
And thought, I have
On seeing things
Upon being things
Before knowing not
And even after having known:
"From hour to hour we rot"
Yet I have just thought 

When sleep eluded me
I have thought
When logic secluded me
I have thought
Even when I couldn't think
I have thought
Set to find truth and meaning
All across the covers of tense
Perpetually through the time fence
Time traveling battles fought
And all of this, just in thought

Because this friendship has sunk,
Let us rather be allies, despair
A rather effective remedy
For that live tickle
That I will not solve
Bound by fear of a resolve
And which to resist
Is not a poet's choice
So I accommodate discomfort
And host every how and what
Like just another floating thought

-K.G.

THE BOOK STORY

Upon eyeing syllables
From an open book
We derive a personal meaning
Beside general outlook
Each sentence analysed 
By differing views, each time

Where you see clown
I could see door
And what's my bestseller
May be your nevermore
To read or not to read
I see, is just about the seed

Once planted unconsciously
The pages begin to flip
And thence very responsibly
The story slips below fingertips
Time gradually fleets thereby
With questions like 'then' & 'why'

You however could be at ease
You're safe, you do not read
You are a different breed
But there's no GPS to graves
Tombstone notes are engraved
So while we lead, you could follow

-K.G.

MENTALITY

I'm not an affluent head
And in what I earn
I'm not content
But I'm human
I've mastered compromise
I'm the fringe class
Seldom at peace of mind
A middle-class manor
With middle-class means
Against the many thoughts
That cannot seep within
And therefore do not reap
Any fruits from wisdom trees

No room for reservations
No attics for ego and pride
Such bereaving divide
It's not a matter of money
We are beaten off mentality
For the problem is queer;
We don't belong being poor
And can't afford being rich
So I remember what father said
'Money saved is money earned'
And keeping temper in check
Muffle my virulent roars
Anger is a costly affair

-K.G.

ACOUSTIC

My guitar is an earthy jig
No wires, just acoustic
The shimmer of new strings
Only adds to the sound within

It's really all about the fret
And massages by drunken fingers
Amid floods of sounds- inebriate
Beating down rains that hinder

Notes ringing in the sound box
Reverb in the hollow wood
Sustained longer in the blocks
And only half understood

Its insides are the quarry
Where I have often dug for gold
And digging often in hurry
I dug my grave- untold

-K.G.

CLOSET PLANT - II

I'm talking of the various textiles
That construct the stardom
Of your premium wardrobe
A fine dress for each occasion
Each one- cut and stitched;
Patched to perfection
For that complete look
That helps you get by
Day, by day, by day.

Some of the starry scrapes
Have slipped through as seed
Down in the last shelf
Far behind, in spare spaces
And has rooted itself therein
Growing in tenderness
In shades of seclusion
With green leaves of envy
And blue flowers of desire.

-K.G.