Ila Manish

Speeding down the road
As trees, each more gnarled than
the next rise in quick succession -
Reaching out to their twins across
...

Crouched down over an album -
A story in smiles.
Meandering from the river mouth,
Rainbow reflections shine up
...

Paradise -
The smell of the rain as it
Gently bedews the dry Earth.
A photograph of a thousand memories at once.
...

A smooth path, pink with the morning light,
Coiling endlessly around the sun...
Light spiraling into a whorl of deep hues,
Unruffled in the still air.
...

She lives in a two-faced world,
In a mirror, an illusion, out of which She never shall rise,
Bound by the shackles of a vulturous Society,
Confined by archaic, ritualistic piety.
...

The pain ripping through her very soul,
A blur of red and down she goes.
Only to rise again.
...

Suffocated, drowning -
The sand inside the sea;
Drifting
                      helplessly -
...

The dark fairy cloak of the night slips off...
The stars bid adieu,
Signing off in ribbons of ink.
...

trellis of branches
over the moon...
autumn eve
...

Apollo, pensive, in a reverie, stood,
Lustrous, in his silken hood.
When suddenly, birds' cries rent the air;
His thoughts - snuffed out by their shrill prayer.
...

Night falls, the stars have flown down
Into a tree of bright green.
Baubles, amidst the bubbles of light,
Shining into the night.
...

Feathered in blood,
Endowed with the gift of love,
Bringing of joy, a flood,
The bird of freedom flies above.
...

Morning flutters by my window,
A melody - airy and light;
Waking me up to
A gossamer delight.
...

The skies lie overcast,
As the sand blows up into
Churning clusters of clouds.
Billowing a dangerous blue,
...

The blue of water mars
The brown of mud,
Sequinned with flakes of sewage froth.
The banks rise golden
...

Smoothing down a map,
Wrinkled with age.
Creases upon creases
Now mar its face.
...

Smuggling chocolates from
The fridge,
'One for me, and
One for you, grandma.
...

'Just one more time.'
And so the fever starts,
The fever that gnaws at your insides,
The fever that burns out the balance,
...

Shimmering bubbles poised
Upon the ocean of reality,
In our conjured up fantasies
We remain, ever - faithful to our infidelity
...

Meandering along a
Moonlight carpet,
My eyes cleave through the
Steamy air of Indian summers,
...