Bonsai of Thoughts: Two

  
 1. Creating and creating, long ago I became quite popular,
 Now I've lost everything but that popularity, become inactive and singular!
  
 2. Writing poetry never earned me bread, I had to take up work,
 Now in my retirement years, I've laid my poet's power at poetry's feet to lurk!
  
 3. Without drinking wine, how would you know why people drink?
 Without a broken heart, how would you fathom why people fall in love's brink!
  
 4. So consumed with your own suffering, don't seek mine!
 You compose songs in rain's language, yet tears' tongue you can't divine?
  
 5. These silent lips of mine, two eyes brimming with hurt,
 A chest full of a hundred words, and you search the dictionary's dirt!
  
 6. No glass beneath my feet, beloved; I've placed my foot upon the glass.
 Today see how well I'll sleep, after so many nights of solitary tears that pass!
  
 7. I haven't even begun my journey, and already you ask me to cease!
 How much farther must I travel, dear; evening has only just found its release!
  
 8. O coward, don't speak of purifying the soul by touching the body's frame!
 Without touching the soul, I love you—don't make my body bear the shame!
  
 9. Don't come asking what pain has withered me so,
 I'll distract you with saris and jewelry, won't let our eyes meet's flow!
  
 10. In these bangles I've bound my love, in these anklets tied desire,
 In these tears I'll float away your suffering and anguish entire!
  
 11. An ocean of love fills my chest, along with your blockade,
 I fled after teaching you to love—
 See what ruthless revenge I've made!
  
 12. Vermillion marks my forehead, dust and wiping can't erase its stay!
 When I went to shatter it, I found—that was my only mirror anyway!
  
 13. I still remember everything...all of it—every night, moment by moment,
 What a marvelous performance you gave—for the character's requirement!
  
 14. All day I speak laughingly of my heart's wounds and scars!
 I beg you, don't remind me of them at midnight's hours!
 You know well, at dawn's funeral prayers, the crowd is never large!
  
 15. You've become a woman, but does that mean you'll deceive? Think it through!
 In woman's garb, you're human too—introduce that identity first, won't you!
  
 16. Belly's hunger doesn't grasp the essence of moral verse,
 Mind's hunger recognizes no caste, creed, or religious curse.
  
 17. That single drop of water clinging to your eyelash compelled me to write poetry.
 Not finding this enchantment is why all humanity dies before living, you see!
  
 18. The one I wanted to give my body to willingly sought only love's grace,
 And the one I wanted to love came close only to possess my physical space!
  
 19. You're gone, beloved, only your memories give chase,
 Down my cheeks flows not tears but blood's endless trace!
  
 20. When did you ever love me well, you only harbored hate's flame!
 I tell God, give me—all your sorrows and pain!
  
 21. In my heart's garden, where did you suddenly vanish, my dear!
 The wound in my chest hums and asks, can I touch you once more here?
  
 22. Clouds come floating to my village sky every single day,
 But my beloved is far too urban in every way!
  
 23. Everything's fine now, soft flower scents and birds' chirping orchestra plays!
 Yet someone screams from my heart, in this life we'll never meet again, always!
  
 24. When you must lie, then turn your eyes away from mine,
 Else they'll spill all truths—I'm warning you, this time!
  
 25. Heavy melancholy fills the sky, clouds gather doubt's refrain!
 Even raindrops cry out and say, this sky doesn't belong to us, it's plain!