Menagerie of Contrasts

I can't see birds flying
but cats with light captured in their eyes stare at me from dustbin piles at night.
Constructed green trees 'implanted' across
the 'coast' that seems like a crystal ball, with sparkling souqs and dazzling malls;
pot-holed streets and bylanes failing to deter
noisy racing bikes from moving only on rear wheels.
The deprived, hot exteriors pitted against
the luxurious, cold insides
Posh, marbled mansions alongside
dusty matchbox cement-rises;
A thousand flashy cars whizzing past
goggle-eyed pedestrians( teeming crowds of foreigners
beaming with the feel of glittering notes with prying eagles);
flowing fuel and trickling water...
Doha hurls delightful contrasts at me.

Discernible discreet Doha

For years,
I was brought up on a staple diet of boredom and routine.
I fled the deserts of time and am at the spiritual oasis-Doha.
I see things in perspective. I eat a wholesome mindful of rich experience
and stretch my cranial muscles, now.
I oil the rusted cogs of my cerebral machine; I put them to good use, now.
My mind, obese with years of subcutaneous nothings, goes for a jog, now.
The desert sands of Doha have done me great good-
Washed away dunes of baneful monotony deposited on me.
I feel fulfilled, I talk to myself,My loneliness educates me, keeps me going

THE NEW TERRORIST

The tectonic rage struck on prostitute resorts
and rose and outstretched greedily
to engulf a hundred thousand lilliputs
and steal news space from bearded tourists
who made smuggled taped-threats
for broadcast-hungry T.V. viewers to gobble.

NASA and INSATs sat and gaped
at the sudden devour that exposed their infertility.
Faithful fishermen were fished instead
and air-conditioned officials surveyed aerially
and dropped ‘relief’ on the shaken millions.

Photos were clicked and ‘stories’ prepared
of fat-pocketed scoundrels announcing tax-exempted donations,
money that slipped into unknown pockets, missing the deserving.
Mercedes Benzes came and went and with them
the flashbulbers, cops and sanity;
left behind was only chaotic numbness.

The Tsunami is only the new TV drama we eat
for breakfast and dinner,
but it has brought out the best and worst in us.

Deepesh