Unsaid

 Wary footsteps on grit; flinching

Jagged edges meeting unsheathed flesh

Forging ahead; to leave behind

Pushing away the clingy clamber

Of words formed...never uttered

Stringy, flyaway hair

Knifing through sluggish eyelids

Gathered laboriously; but 

Never missing the escape 

Sentences strung...squandered away 

Chilling shower on parched feelings

Wafting up memories 

Cold fingers escaping my grasp

Last breath clouding up my cheeks

Long conversations...left untold

Silent reminders under the graves

Dull mounds; cutting memories

Lives aborted, craggy skeletons

Words unstrung, sentences unsung

Conversations undone.

Run, flee, fly, die

Never far enough; never

The ghosts; wispy and real, 

Forever near; 

Of things unsaid, 

unsaid, 

unsaid...

Anuradha Venkatnarayan

Three Part Life

Molten in the breaking sun

Chubby limbs clambering for little more

Pulling up to stand on faltering feet

Winning; mastering the rhythm

racing toward the faraway finish

Staring, squinting at the blazing sun

Sweating away at clamouring chores

Clutching on slippery lives

Inching onward; the clock's command

In the distance; the red ribbon

Gazing, awash in the blurry orange

Sepia memories playing 

Aching knees at the armchair

Grasping at wisps; sighing at souls

The end at lurching distance

Three part life...

Anuradha Venkatnarayan 

New Blades of Grass

Little hands tugging at clothes

Outstretched hands asking for the next meal

Unchained smiles; calyxed bud. 

Scene of grassroot rebellion 

Blades of grass pushing through 

Cracks of dry mud. 

Grey silhouettes dot the horizon

Damp walls hold frenzied graffiti

Defiant colours of young blood. 

Yellow orbs professing love

Through a sea of virtual text

Thumbed in haste, blush rud. 

Hope shows in gnarled trees,

Dark clouds, scraped knees,

Not every moment is congealed 

in clotted blood. 

-Anuradha Venkatnarayan. 

Breaking news...

Sharp edges of fonts cut through the morning tea 

Blips and beeps on news sites like cawing crows

disturb the sun blooming in powerful tranquility

Clouds swirling gather on my brows

Genocide straddles murder and student suicide,

Mob parades woman naked

Look up, turn away to what side?

Superior beings...

or are we all just hiding under the greasepaint cracked and caked

Darwin has been long gone

'Survival rights to the fittest'

Yet we gnaw his words to the bone

Kill the neighbour and beat our chest

Tsunami, drought, earthquake and hurricane

Nature teaches well; the almighty muse

We have some time before the final edition

Or prepare to be the breaking news

-Anuradha Venkatnarayan