Ode to Mars

Stone cold russet brown glare
Melting memories and fears into future dreams
Smitten, seducing human-kind


entered for Shrey - MAVEN Project

Oh! My Limerent Heart :)

Oh my limerent heart, what can’t I do with you?
Oh my limerent heart, what can I do without you?

The boon of my energies, the bane of my worries
The verve of my drives, the cradle of my silent cries

The source of infinite inspirations, and that of myriad perspiration
The reason behind my mystic smile, and my life’s detoured miles

The object of my desires, the subject of phoenix-like satires
The window to my pining heart, the door to some experiences tart

The spark for my wishful memories, escape from daily drudgeries
The twinkle in my ever-lost eyes, my hearts’ delectable spice

Oh my limerent heart, what can’t I do with you?
Oh my limerent heart, what can I do without you?

Unstoppable Human Vanity

What’s with the world?
For long have we repeatedly believed
That change is the only constant
Yet when history lessons are studied
One sees humanity’s foresight stagnant

Wars, poverty and ravages of human vice
As predictable as life always leading to death
Yet in cotton candy-like castles of self-induced grandiosity
We live, glossing over mountains of strife
Collectively encased in ephemeral shields of profound vanity

Before death beckons.. ask yourself.. Have you lived any differently!
--Srini

Abstinence Succumbs to Desire

The smooth curvaceous body
Dotted with glistening beads
Shining like diamonds
In running fresh-water streams
Trickles slide and trick my wavering mind
Tempting views push
my heart and choke my throat
The desire to touch and the desire to hold
Flood my entire being
To succumb and touch
Or to abstain, apocalyptic-like wars ravage within
Eyes lead the charge, while the mind
Throws speed bumps of caution
Waves of desires conspire relentlessly
Deceiving my hand from reason
Tightly gripping the racy curves
And pushing my lips to the depths of desire
Giving in to temptation I sank my parched lips
Satisfied though an abstinence cause lost
My delightful tryst.. how have I missed you
Devilishly lusting for the refreshingly
Sugary liquid in the new bottle of pop!

Sin City Chronicles

Staring down from my airplane window
Soaking up hues of a desert nights’ retreat
Beauty at its best, yet feeling lifeless
As my heart down on the strip lingers!

Milky clouds stealthily mask my fading views
Unstoppable waves of emotions gush through
Welcome reminders of the cycles of terrestrial life
Joys and sorrows don’t always at one place reside!

Secrets built and buried forever unto eternity
Secrets that aren't captured by biographies
Secrets that have helped many grow wise and holy
Secrets that have often escaped tombstone eulogies!

Whimsical hearts churn delightful wild rides
Shifting sands of time doesn’t ever subside
As the receding horizon embalms brief respites
Inner vices always let the phoenix rise!

Wonder what secrets lie warped in one’s simple denials
Human weaknesses constantly hidden by sand dune burials
Boxed deep in hidden memories, failings oft left untold
Countless many tales as the deserts’ sandy folds!

Ah! my sweet sin city Vegas, You impress me once again!

STEM Concept: What if you had everything you wanted? Would you
still work on something you are interested enough to work without a
compensation just because you like what you are doing?
That, is what your parent / teacher meant when they said 'follow your
heart'! A great many in LV possibly followed their hearts, but there are
a lot more there who followed their materialistic dreams.

Immigrant travails - Part 2

Years rolled along, career stabilized
Enchanted motherland called out
Memories gushed of pristine beaches
Innocent childhood dreams returned
Of days and years bygone
Remembered my grandfathers’ words
Cows that remain unsold he had said
In the grandest of hometowns’ fairs
Have to be sneakily led, far and wide!


True Grandpa, I had told him then
There is an economy of sorts
So I go where demand exists
For skills I have gained and refined
Now uprooted from my adopted land
Sweet success, my NRI friends celebrated
Proud and envious, they said in joyous tones
A blue moon opportunity to savor and rejoice!
Our very own, motherland!


But now, why do I still feel lost?
Same words now seem to sting and prick
Same old trust seems harder to come by
Real meanings vaporize like clouds of steam
May be.. I hear their soft whispers
No car, works dawn to dusk, travels afar
And yet can’t pick him out in a crowd
May be, like us… they say in hushed voices
He doesn’t ‘need’ a job anymore!


Still feels like neither here, nor there
Something must be wrong with him
Not one of us anymore?, they loudly wonder
Trying in vain I struggle to understand
This stereotyping gone berserk
Simple hopeful words for positive change
Twisted as gargantuan ridicules
Still orphaned, I wonder if I’d ever
Feel nostalgic about ‘sweet’ homeland again


Locking effervescent memories in cold storage
Look forward, ignoring prudish arrogance
Listening back to childhood voices
Seeing beauty in relationships from the
depths of unadulterated memories
Overlooking the now lost magic of innocence
In grown up midlife masks of utopian facades’
I wonder standing on this midlife bridge
Will it be green with age as we reach the other side?


Original (part -1) one is here

Find me

The largest person in your family tree
You help make music so enticingly sweet
Your cousin is fodder to earth’s herbivores
Attract earth’s most venomous creatures
Eerily beautiful, charming forests you make
Help raucous, belligerent fools rampage break


STEM Concepts: Science Quiz