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

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

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
...

My father in law
Barely missed the last just war
But saw the severed heads of prisoners of war
The Japanese displayed them
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I'll make up these deaths to you
Periods of death where we lay face down
And showed our corpse skin to the world
Like an armadillo rolling up in a ball for defense
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I didn't so much leave you as escape you
And I don't want to make too strong a point out of this
Since experience is only slightly more useful than lack of experience
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I came directly from somewhere burned
Somewhere used up, somewhere worn and empty
All that we have is the mind
We write and perform our own television shows
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Everything hurts the way black and white hurts
The way an envelope hurts when you open it
And Paris not seen is still Paris on TV and in books
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Females talked, females stalked
Were you the latest one they tricked into going for help?

That's the oldest trick in the book
...

I am going to make you mine, sweet chain of command
Every moment of saturated togetherness
Heroic acts rehearsed to impress, in practice and impromptu
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If it was up to me, I'd warn you ahead of time
About unusually long lines in supermarkets or closed road detours leading you down unfamiliar streets
The way people keep crowding around you on all sides no matter where you go
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I've got nothing but hatred for you
Goddamn this planet that spawned you
Goddamn the womb that developed you
Goddamn the existence that holds you upright
...

Once there was a god
That we made up
To explain fire and babies and lightning and death
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I felt uncomfortable in the artificial wood panels of the family homestead
When a daughter speaks to her parents in the voice of a phony good girl
Yelling from outside the bedroom to the kitchen
She knows how to use bad acting not to arouse suspicion
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Unsavory characters
Loudmouth followers of the great solitude
Room clearing arrivals
Stern talking to's from lesser friends
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The lover as an ideal
Not as someone, something real

The lover as an ideal
...