Two poems by Sunil R Nair (Words and more readings)

Day’s end

As the sun settled into a harmless glow,
the warmth of the day breathed out in a sigh,

shades took over from the shadows,
cloaking everything in its colour.

There were ages of dust still suspended,
musty and old like my years,
groaning they mingled into the stillness of the air
Almost willing to live again.

Slumber came easy, crept under the eye like grit,
and the warmth of bodies melted sheets into softness.
While all this time the stars landscaped the horizon.
Landmarks in the sky.

History of today slipped into yesterday,
A premise for another birth,
Born from the pregnant death of this day.
Life imitates days almost certainly.

As I walk into a crevice in my memory,

I remember. I am alive.

13/3/2002

Characterless Sky

I lay awake,
watched the pale grey sky,
go characterless,
not a single cloud.

she has lost her depth.

And then the wind rose
a million bits of old dust
to colour the sky.
to give her,
the lost ways,
of the rains of yesterdays.
when her character was dark,
adorned with a child of love,
a rainbow born,
to the eternal love of water.
carrying her lust,
to the earth below.
to let him sigh.
let out a billion breaths,
green.

The sky is characterless today,
and the winds sweep her face.
wiping clean her laugh lines.
Abandoning her, in search of verses
to adorn her face.

Maybe,
they will return
to give her,
her love again,
the character blemished by the kohl
of dark clouds,
making love.

Today, the sky has lost her character!

31/3/2002

From the collection - Silhouettes (to be published by Frog Publishing in 2004)
(c) Sunil R Nair, 2004