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
...

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
...

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

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
...

Globe can't bend nor end
Nor get beyond sun drenched doldrums
Wherein fathers sing made up surreal songs to their children as lullabies
...

Lay down in victory among the unpriced cans
The remaining load of living purchase, tagging gun unholstered
What was bought despite the will of the consumer
Working in the supermarket to keep the shelves full and updated
...

What caught my attention
While waiting for a traffic light to change
Was the feet of an old man
On a motorcycle next to me
...

Raisin-like sky, swallowed distress
The heavens are wrinkled like an unironed dress
Fragile canopy, projectile rain
You make me feel heavy like too much cargo on a plane
...

Could your thoughts fit in a mayonnaise jar caught in the underhang of a river?
With branches and plastic bags and other debris

Or would your thoughts feel more comfortable flowing along in and out of an empty mayonnaise jar with no lid and label almost completely peeled off?
...

My adverbs are in lower case
My bank account is nonplussed
My aches and pains are softly heard
My sunshine is only partially obscured
...

From the open window above the kitchen sink
I can hear the nagging demands of baby birds
The urgent chirps of instinct and hunger
...

I want to be your significant misunderstanding
That which breaks all lines of communication
Too sensitive were the people he met
Not mockery, just trying to share in enjoyment of the moment
...

My suggestion was to take the trap
And release the rat in a field a couple of miles away
But my mother's mother told me that if you did that, the rat would find its way back
This did not seem based on actual science
...

People are channels
People are doorways
People are warm introductions and barking German Shepherd watchdogs
...

Story before specifics
Biography before basics
This entertainment has become substance of talk
The fog of self-aggrandizement
...

Around the beginning of spring (April/May) , the pond would dry up
The space it occupied became a big muddy hole
And then when summer hit, it became a dry indentation adorned with outbreaks of daisies, violets, and other smartly colored flowers
...

The racks are not filled immediately and some now remain permanently empty in the last Sears and Roebuck
The terminally ill patient is given less and less medication

The remaining three or four employees do the work of the original nine or ten
...