The Ballad of the Bulleteer

(This is for the fellow riders of Silver-Bullets, Trivandrum)

If you listen carefully,
You might hear Africa.
You would think
You are in the Congos
Or Bongos
And will go bonkers -
That’s how we thump our Bulls.

Wolfpack* roar like lions
Old Bulls honk like elephants
Electras spat like leopards

Thunderbirds soar like eagles-
In the roads of the jungle
The Bulls are the wildest of all.

The toys look better, they ride faster
They have the gizmos
They have the gloss
oozing
Like the floozies that flock the streets.

The Bull may look like hulks
‘coz Hogans rule the roads.
They may leak
They may cough
They may choke
But the Bull gets you where you want to be.

Respect, dignity, self-assurance
The Bull is the bike for men.
You have to have it
Between your legs
To know what makes you a man.
***************************
* 500 cc Royal Enfield Bullet M/cycle
Balan, Trivandrum 15-12-2008

I, the pawn

Like a sullen orb of mercury
He sprawls across the chessboard
Shapeless,
Surrendered, to be shaped
As destiny wills him to be.

Earth trembles,
The board shakes;
Sluggish, he slithers
From one square to another.

Wind blasts,
The board shivers;
He slides from PQ2 to PQ4.

Fire spreads,
The board burns;
He waits, untouched,
Watching the curling
Chessboard of life.
********** Balachandran V, Trivandrum 23-12-2008

The Endgame

Pawns become queens;
Queens run all over the board
Bishops slash
Knights kick
Rooks ram …
What do I, the king do,
Helpless, bound,
At the mercy of the rest?

Alone in the crumbling castle,
I rue…
I never wanted to be the king…
*********** Balachandran, Trivandrum,23-12-2008

Regurgitation

All this talk of love, love lost
Joys and sorrows -
Of inexplicable thoughts
Of death; worse, fear of death –
Its fine for a solitary afternoon
Or a late night when you have
The freedom to brood…
All you have to do is to regurgitate
The stale memories.
Though the utter pointlessness of the exercise
Hits one like a blast of cold air
And one shudders as the blizzard
Of loneliness shrouds the self.
********** Balachandran, Trivandrum 19-12-2008

Cannot Delete: Access Denied

Once in a while you have to clean your system.
Empty the Recycle Bin,
Clean up and defrag the disks.
Files accumulated over the past
Move crumpled into the bin
And then to oblivion.

It would be nice
To have a hard disk instead of a brain
Where fungus-ridden memories grow maggots
Eating into my soul.
****************** Balachandran, Trivandrum 18.12.2008