From The Quill

 In a hundred years, the city has changed  People, climate, concrete jungles  I witnessed it all in silence;  The flowers died in people's laughter,  The animals were lost in the crowd's clusters. Until today, I stood proud  But the gust has now uprooted me. The birds and bees escaped on time,  As all of me came crashing down. People gasped, the rain lashed;  All my fruits went scattering about. A single root stays grounded still,  I smile at nature's wrath in disbelief. Kind she is, giver of life  And yet she destroys,  Takes away a thousand lives. Light dawned on me as I saw,  Many more are struggling with the storm. "Alive I am! And breathing still,  The storm can do no more harm to me. © Suranya

 Drowning in the ocean of validations,  Skin, beauty, and smiles,  Selfies and mandatory posts,  That gets you more likes.  Somewhere in the struggle,  To keep afloat  In the strong waves of appreciation,  Undercurrent of competition,  Talent, skill and truth  Are lost in judgment,  As you drown more and more  To make-believe admiration. ~ Suranya

 Fallen leaves, in shades of brown  Yellow ones are drizzling down  Painting the road in colours I spread my arms; smile on my own,  Golden petals from heavens above  Raining blessings on my heart. Twirling around in a merry dance,  Crunching and munching against my shoes,  Heaps of dried leaves,  Makes music that soothes. ~ Suranya

 I sit in a corner of the street,  My beard messy, and nails unclean,  Clothes torn, like a costume from Halloween. Their eyes scared, follow me all day,  "Careful, a madman." They'd say.  The innocent faces stare at me, being led away  Some are kind enough to offer a treat,  Others pretend I don't exist;  It's been months and years since that day,  I know not how many have passed in wait,  Since they left me here, saying,  "We will come back soon, just stay." © Suranya

Only the moon knows and stars witness the secrets of your heart that often bleed as teardrops hidden from the world, in the darkness of solitude. ~ Suranya

 The breeze in the summer noon  Memories, almost like a boon  Smiling at them on the lawn,  Her little man in a crispy shirt,  Her princess in a dancing frock. Days like that were long gone. They had moved on chasing dreams,  As she stood there in anticipation,  Home was now just for vacations.  "Once in a while, come back to me." Her voicemails remained unanswered. Irony how unlike everyday  A message was sent on WhatsApp. "Happy Mother's Day" A picture uploaded for likes and hearts,  But where was the love she once felt in their hugs? ~ Suranya

Look back at the road we travelled. Started small and full of doubts, your love makes it all worth the journey and from the seed we are a sprout. ~ Suranya

 Fingertips traced slowly  On your face in afterglow;  Your curves and smile,  Freckles and neckline,  I stare at your eyes in awe,  Yours is full of passion, raw. You complain I don't compliment, I smile, lighting the cigarette As the wrinkles on our bedsheet Form a Masterpiece in itself. Adding colours to my canvas, I make Art out of us. © Suranya

 Sunsets bring the universe closer to us,  Removing the blue illusion of the day.  Sunsets give the moon some spotlight,  With a million stars twinkling away. Darkness descending after light,  Just like evil balances the good,  The rule of the Universe is upheld. I have a thing for sunsets, you know? When the red hue reflects upon the sky,  Like a canvas carelessly caressed with a brush,  It scatters in all directions like red watercolour,  Accidentally spilt on nature's picture,  On the water and the mountain peaks. I sat through many of them.  Alone, in a crowd, silent and in conversation. On the ruins of a fort, atop a mountain road, On a boat afloat a lake, and the river sides. Each time, each sunset, gives me stories,  Of embracing new beginnings or  Of everything coming to an end someday,  An apocalypse called Life. © Suranya

 Are your emotions in drought  Or your sadness a doubt?  For you want to cry aloud  At something you are unsettled about.  And not a teardrop falls on your cheeks,  Making you question your feelings,  Perhaps deny their unveiling  Scared to once again fall apart,  You keep the secrets in your heart. ~ Suranya

She sat down on the floor. She didn't need to pretend and wear that mask of an independent and strong person within the walls of her own room. The barriers of grace, dignity and judgement could be broken. Here, alone, she was just his, praying every moment of her life to hear him arrive and his voice call her name. Here she was his, waiting to be taken home. ~ Suranya

 It rained the day you came  Into my life like a storm,  It rained the day you left  Without a goodbye.  In between them was  Days of sunshine and warmth. I was fine before you came,  I will be fine now that you've left.  In between them, like the clouds,  I lost a bit of me  Trying to hold on to a part of you. © Suranya

 Sheets of paper, scattered thoughts,  Crumbled pages and ink blots,  Blankly, I stare at the walls that surround me,  Looking for some inspiration around  The whirling fan, the swaying bulb,  The water bottle or the mango pulp,  Anything that gives my mind a ripple,  Allows me to muse or scribble. But the blank pages look back at me in shock  Here I am again, in a writer's block. ~ Suranya

 "Why wasn't I enough?" "Oh, you are. Can't you see? You just didn't fit their missing piece the way they wanted you to. But look at it this way, they couldn't complete your picture either. Maybe because you are an entire universe in yourself. You are complete. You are whole. The day you realise it, they will know you are more than enough." ~ Suranya

 The summer soil waited for the rain.  She kept a vigil on the chariot of clouds,  Ready to welcome him again. Her body untouched since he left,  Longing for his wet kisses  Drenching her drop by drop  In ecstasy of union. At last he came,  Like a sudden gale across the sky. The Sun closed his eyes,  As did the stars and moon;  As the parched Earth found love again. © Suranya

Have you ever felt the need to stand somewhere, like a seaside or a cliff and look around as your soul searches for meaning? Perhaps with friends or family, but still, there is this thirst in the soul to know itself. The solitary pleasure of nature. Then again, the words in the heart and mind conflict in a way that confuses the soul. Maybe someday, when our hearts and minds can be in sync, we will know our purposes. And stop looking for love around us. Look for it in as. We all have so much to give, but still, we need more. Maybe because of the conflict of a profit-seeking mind with our selfless hearts. Maybe someday we will reach a zenith where the soul will find the right questions and eventually get all the answers from the universe. Do you feel so too? © Suranya

 O Night, your wand in a magic spell,  Remove all pain from my trail,  In the moonlight, this Fakira walks,  Towards the heavens and skywards.  O Divine Light, constellations far, Show this mortal an illuminated path,  Let my soul face Judgement Day,  And finally O finally, free away. ~ Suranya

 You are perhaps a shooting star  Flying across the night sky,  One treats you as an ill omen,  While others wish on hope. You have long gone,  Just visible as an illusion to the eyes,  You were always a falling star,  I mistook you for my pole star instead. ~ Suranya

"The walls have grown thicker. Higher and higher the fortress rose. Built carefully, brick by brick. With tears, agony, fear and shattered pieces of the broken heart." ~ Suranya

 YOU ARE LIKE AN OBJECT IN MY REAR VIEW MIRROR. ALWAYS CLOSER THAN YOU APPEAR. MY HEART IS YOUR EMPTY HOME,  AND YOU ARE THE WANDERER  WHOSE RETURN IT AWAITS. ~ SURANYA