Raj Dronamraju

I shook your hand
I took the loss
Escape was impossible
I took the loss
...

The hand of friendship was offered
The hand of friendship was slapped away
The trajectory of the spurned
...

We are the goldfish in the bowl
We are known as Mr. and Mrs. Goldfish
I don't mind this transparency, a benign surveillance
...

If obnoxiousness is art consider this your exhibition gallery
Different stages of difficult behavior hang on the walls
"Don't touch" but some illiterate fool usually ends up doing just that
...

Love sighted through an opening in deep forest
A blur that moves quickly and vanishes
But leaves a lasting impression
...

She is the queen of the replacements
Her people await further orders in a large open-air building
A former factory - old and gray and damp, it looks like the 1950's
...

Have you ever heard Saturday morning radio?
Is the radio programming different on Saturday morning compared to weekdays?

She dreads small talk and making his lunch
...

Physical fitness goals
How many pulls-ups can you do?
Based on your age, there is a number set for how many pull-ups you can do
...

I liked how he wrote of clouds and being outdoors
Even though I didn't care for clouds or being outdoors
I like to be indoors with the windows closed and the curtains drawn tightly
...

The first instinct when they see a boy with a smile
Is to try and knock the smile off the face of the boy
So he can be dragged down into dull servitude
Like them and their runt-eyed litters
...

I was way too into you
You robbed me of humor, you robbed me of depth
You bundled me up into your coat of lies
And carried me away on a bullying pretext
...

Lynn knowingly enrolled in family disappointment
Passed on the genes of rootless migration
Conceived a child thinking it was only a temporary situation
...

I don't need you to play policeman in my life
Go haunt another human and leave me alone
If you can accept these terms then you can come along with me on a house to house search
...

I wrote your name down on a slip of paper
And put it in a small envelope, the type we pay our bills with
I tucked it into the right breast pocket of my shirt
And lay down with my arms placed to my chest
...

Over the wall of memory
A long drop to remembrance
When I don't see your face for three days or more, it becomes a smoke demon on a misty night
Drive a car through its center
...

Single moments have no value
If held too tightly by a person, they will weigh that person down
Pulling them through the depths of drowsy self-love and self-defeating fathoms where every future holds pessimism
...

Where Gwendoline stays is far from here
She takes two buses and a train
But the distance of desire is much further
...

I don't care if anyone believes me
What I saw in her was not what man expects
They took a sample of my blood
And left me with no memory by the side of the road
...

A closed society woman is my ideal female
The kind of woman who does not use four letter words
Who doesn't believe "empowerment" is sexual exploitation
...

Not above praying in the dark for just a glimpse of her adventure in a dress
And not knowing how to get there is an ode to somewhere I've never been

I was less intimidated when I saw her in the laundromat
...