5 poems by Shrijan Pandey (Word Warriors)

A traveler walks alone

A smile that sneaks in forgery Another grin that breaks it Cries of crocodiles Another tear that makes it These stretches could have a new meaning now

I am on a boat again, Traveling through space Battling time Marching steps I have a new beginning now

A day different than yesterday Call it bliss Call it change Call it life's epiphanies of chaos and uncertainty

A traveler walks alone, the stones unhinged, the path inseparable

Waves

A blissful meadow I can smell the dandelions once again The azure allures me Singing with the child once lost in them Blue and white infinities Diamonds in the sky Rainbows in my eye The sunlight kisses my skin Purifies my being Dances with my shadow Cries against the morrows I can genuinely smile once again

A wave and a heavier splash The flowers are dead And the dandelions have rotten for ages Dark clouds and storms and thunder Raindrops or blood showers? Joy or blunder? my silhouette has stopped dancing Perhaps distorted, disfigured, and disturbed Perhaps running on the wrong direction Away from me, seemingly on the right path

These waves frighten me They try to snatch my life away A life that I wished to last till my dying breath at 80 seem to get washed away from its shore Seconds of oblivion defying everything that's within

A voice loosens the knot A blurry sight, deep in the void, hold back my jump A meadow's upcalling Far away from a distance

A weakened dandelion battles to fly The tides shackles its reach A struggling pollen It loosens the knot

I sigh, For sorrow or morrow? A sigh needs a breath anyway

Converse

We wore the same shoes The day we shared our first kiss And our last cigarette

We wore the same shoes Walked our steps together To reach to our utopia To a world where there was just us Just your hands on mine And your head never making its way out of my chest Just oblivion and peace The world never changed

We wore the same shoes When we slow danced In a room that was doomed to burn into ashes But our shoes, they kept us alive Alive and warm and onto each others arms In a world that was fading away

We wore the same shoes When our worlds were different When you had your shit And I had mine Yet we walked into each other Wearing the same shoes And tying our shoelaces together For the storm of a journey we embarked

Well I haven't been wearing the same shoes lately Maybe because I bought new ones that don't remind me of you Maybe because when I did wore them again I found my feet missing a pair of yours

Maybe we'll never wear the same same shoes

Or maybe we will

With us, or someone else

Or maybe

Maybe that's where our shoes stop forever

Maybe converses aren't made for long journeys

Maybe because we have tougher roads to walk

A Sudden Transition

Tingly feet Warm breeze All the things that tomorrow can be The infinite lives I can live New worlds New places New faces and smiles A never-ending book of ambiguous chapters Unfolding itself in front of me I felt weirdly alive yesterday

A sudden heaviness Icy breeze But painful to these senses I could be stuck In a world of cubicles With myself And thoughts I have been ignoring For the past 19 years and more Thoughts deep yet dark Where desolation crawls And empties me out A world without imagination Without thoughts Without life I feel weirdly dead today

A sudden transition The duality of how life could unfold And who I could be I am unsure At best, dazed, dazzled, and confused Whether I could be dead or alive Or both or none I don’t know And will not Until I unfold these chapters

Memory

Endless horizons amorphous whites auric auras of infinite sunsets mellow lights fading to black into city charms with infinite homes infinite lives infinite worlds do you see what i see? the summer breeze whispering greens rhythms of time dancing in silhouettes wrapped inside the songs of blackbirds singing of the transcendence do you hear what i hear? droplets on leaves like emeralds and ecstasy the middle of nowhere enriched with everything this world can offer a smile, a tear, a sigh a breath, a warmth, a chill hands holding souls lips merging worlds of imagination and gloom do you feel what i feel?

pomegranates and dirt childhood bliss and spring calls i belong to no nowhere nowhere beyond sunflowers and cherry beyond spring fields and buwa's arms beyond busy streets and aama's palms the fragrance of pomegranates and dirt do you smell what i smell?

i hope you could i hope i could capture and embrace moments into pictures, art, and poetry alas, the world isn't very kind to memories doomed to fade away so let me mark a tear for you the closest i can be to oblivion