R. K. Singh

Dhanbad, Jharkhand, India

Let It Go

Silent gaze of paper deities

from the little temple

in a corner in bedroom

fills me with hope:

anything may happen anytime

despite uncertainty

unending jealousy

or tragedy in life

I look for grace within

contemplating the unsaid

in the rhymes of rogues and heroes

I’m not afraid of

the body in crumbled soil

there’s always another chance

to re-form my own present

re-write another half-page

in drunken oblivion

God is going to let it go

Noises

I can't hear my self

their noises erase my world

choices are denied-

questions of being wound me

courage and strength fade away

they mute my voice

distract us from the truth

crowns change with the wind

and they play chess with our lives

they feed us dust and potions

in their new temples

arouse their magic deities

make us yell loud

and hang us upside down

Ten Haiku

ageing youth

without smoke flame of fire

blended scotch

roars loudly

night and light fracture in glass:

end of a haiku

sunflowers ring

teenagers ChatGPT

Sapphic know-how

her décolleté blouse

and see-through saree—

curve’s vanity

clad in white

peaks behind peaks—

Everest within

sweet perfume

untainted flower

evening lust

a curled snake

with fangs ready to poison

love’s narrow passage

sky’s canvas-

disfigures in no time

my funny face

season’s last rain-

still await yellowing of

mangoes on tree

he sleep-babbles

let’s become earth and sky:

five-decade love