One Life To Live

Wednesday, April 22, 2026

Cafe Stories in 17 Breaths

1 Cafe

2 Murmur rules

3 Smiles and beverages

4 Instrumental music, dartboard game

5 Silence was still the hero

6 You walked up, sat across me

7 Never looked for distractions, nodded a hello

8 Replied in the language You knew, surprising You

9 You breathed for the first time in a while

8 Asked me things nobody bothered to know before

7 You said the statement... out loud, sweetly

6 The evening passed, in a jiffy

5 Still remember your longing glance

4 Whispered to me something

3 Heard it, unintentionally

2 "Until Again"

1 Serendipity

/ 17

: 81

Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Charting DNA Dreams

1 Entangled and entwined,

matters spoke of souls

and souls of memories

from beyond time

2 A time called nothing,

where voices ruled utter chaos

and discipline beyond measure

3 Black and grey swerving

providence with equations

of infinite solutions or none

4 Who's to know

what the none could hold:

the end of beginnings

or the beginning of ends

5 Let them brew

as time unfolds on them

and souls map eternities

from destiny's gold

6 That gold harvests memories

to seed them in the soil of soul

where foundations would grow

7 A foundation of rooted identities

and of independence,

letting a soul glow

8 It would still hold resilience

and a string to the past

lending providence a glance

9 A game of peeking and seeking

and weaving with stars

that house homes galaxies apart

10 Stardust from them, they inherit

and a myriad of blanks

and passion that swirls on

11 Upon them they create Life,

some more too - to bind and release,

a lifetime to go on

12 A part of me and some of yours,

a golden balance,

chanced upon formula and stars

13 There's a dream too,

nascent yet burning, carved in water,

paved on fiery starry lanes

14 They smell of air in the clouds,

dance with rainbow rays,

become lightning and thunder again

15 Up they go... flying with fluke,

floating charms,

helix helicopters in a story book

16 Deep in oceans, puddles shallow,

meandering rivers,

flowing depths wearing hallow

17 Move like planets in a cosmic sinusoid,

run like marvel rockets,

light speed in void

18 Flounder upon rocky belts,

a sloth in grassy galore,

and slither as glacier melts

19 But time is lived in petty installments,

not to stars or lives,

never a hand they lend

20 Choice upon lives are cast,

a shadow, a spell, heaven or jail,

choose they must without fail

21 Thus they play, game or music,

tone of stunned silence

or divine scent of helical grace

22 Whatever they choose was to matter,

not for them,

but lives in line next will encounter

23 Matter and its nemesis both contenders,

stars never sang,

the plan of Yin and Yang

24 Heeded or unsolved,

chemical reactions unbalanced,

inheritors blessed or cursed.

25 Dream of own, some brought over,

solved unsolved with blank solutions,

to resolve or cover

26 Not one, of seven or more,

a code providence sew,

each stitch a legacy in store

27 An expanse across homes and doors,

not left alone,

sprigs of pairs from eternity flown

28 A blank slate of new ventures and dreams,

steadfast in resilience,

old way, new path streams

29 That way is where beginnings walked,

made of stardust,

remember you never walk alone

/ 34

: 21 syllables each

P.S. A DNA strand is 34 Å in length and 21 Å in width, both consecutive Fibonacci numbers, resulting in a very close approximation of the golden ratio.

Monday, April 20, 2026

Beneath The Big Dipper

Summer nights under the veil of stars

Worry an alien, its ship further from far

Melodies of heart captioning the lips

Jasmines breath honey inbetween sips

Seven stars and the accompanying one

Guide the polestar letting sagas spun

A small story or two from miles across

Absent sense, taking logic for a toss

But those were times when innocence ruled

Beneath the big dipper, naive hearts pooled

Called it a spoon and held its soup hostage

Performed like none would, the smiles their stage

Dreams were voice of reason, the sky they owned

Beneath the big dipper, small memories spawned

/ 14

: 100

Sunday, April 19, 2026

Nothing New

The gloaming fire of purple haze

Embers simmering in a hearth of daze

Laces so soft, evenings embellished

Cherishing silken roots, clouds relished

Nothing new in those seconds of time

No hour, no minute, dimensions a dime

Not a one, not a nothing, not a never ever

None knows whoever knew a new to sever

Yes it repeats, the big bang and dusts

Yare vessels sail still, waves or windy gusts

Yearning a course a heartbeat could change

Youthful ways and a desire to arrange

Who would know when there's nothing to know

A glimmer in those embers hinting still to flow

/ 14

: 102

Saturday, April 18, 2026

Long Lost Diary

Day 2

Numbers changed, tumbling things

Emotions roll, foggy shiny beings

Was it beginning of new?

What changed? Except for the date

That had never stayed same ever

Day 43

A month and barely some more

Winter was always a winged-creature

Perched on that skeleton mango tree

Licking the remnants of blossoms

Nearby tree had offered for taste courtesy

Day 74

Should I uncage the mutant mind?

Let it be freed into that uncanny dimension?

Spring stared, hand in pocket,

Vicious smirks, the cuckoo coma bound

Day 105

This is what New Years should learn

Yellow-lined parade march

Cab, a compressed chariot

Shiny gray red carpet, I am of my own

Mango, you can co-rule.

Day 164

Sky landed on a steely blue UFO

That painting smiled at me, did they notice?

Intuition, my fickle friend, whispered again

Perhaps it was right,

The stars from that tower too pretty

To notice anything. Postponed for vibes.

Day 311

Golden feelings in a field of purple cosmos

You said...

******

Day 3451

Found a diary, it claims to be mine

Long lost, complains I had it forgotten

Memory, you trickster, again at your game

Not a word has my voice,

Not a thought... an owner of a valid address

Last entry half said, ever said, or never said?

/ 33, 41

: 201, 215

Friday, April 17, 2026

Airport Happenings

For the fourth time that night

I crossed the coffee counter

Never to lend a single glance

The air had too much caffeine

For a night that long

To be spent on yet another

Sleepless airport lounge encounter

The better seats, all six of them

All housed with dwellers

Who seemed nothing like each other

Nor a cent like me

Yet stuck in the same boat

For the entire dusky night

Or for moments unknown

Sandy smelling breadsticks

Searching for a soup too withered

Food too unwelcomed

Not a single palate to revere it

Couches staring at

Empty plates, buzzing hum,

Absence of noisy silence

Let go of the need to hold upright

I finally chose one

That was to be

My abode for the night

Gates flooded with shadows

Not with a day-like urgency

Whispers whisper silence

Like the mourning of noise

Dimmed lights yet bright

Fluorescence river in a plight

Everything moved

Without strides and runs

Airport on a snail diet

Two starless sweeps

Of hour hands later

The fuel began to jostle

Where play acted like pause once

Footsteps started to rustle

The caffeine was still in the air

The happenings hurried again

This time with a ghastly flair

And I... was still there.

/ 43

: 207

Eight Minutes

Eight minutes was all I needed

Too scared to ask

For even eight milliseconds

Asking for anything, anything at all

Even the thought of asking

Would break the facade that held tight

For who would know... And worse,

For she would know

What eight minutes meant

It was glass

Through which light would not pass

The light that shone bright

Was a mirage the sun built

That was necessary to brighten it up

To avoid any cracks

For the glass would break

Not with the thousand cracks

Nor shatter with the last

But with the one that was laid first

And that hollow cackle

Would be music still, chiming a lullaby

To hearts that never bothered

Eight minutes was all I needed

Eight universes built and destroyed

And rebuilt upon ashes

That smelled of hope

And tasted of resilience

Eight minutes of lights to blindside

Light too bright, no eye could see

Light too bright, for shadows to be blind

Supernova too exudes light

Lurking in the light

A unicorn danced to a musical mirage

Rainbows sparkled too bright

And the soul died

The suncatcher sang another song

Elated, in pomp and glow,

Belated, the news of death

None would ever know

Eight minutes was all I needed.

/ 40

: 208

Thursday, April 16, 2026

When The Seasons Talk

Autumn whites calming lines

Kash flowers swaying in their glory

The heart for the clear sky pines

But the air dries sooner, whites melting

The dew drops shine against the leaves felting

Sun-glow in the silver pre-winters in them shelting

The silvers speak to the winter grey

Asks it of the shy blooms lazing around

And the chilling layers letting grass fray

But the grey lets the way as the koels soon sing

The pretty spring in pink weaves lores in string

Trees smile letting flowery plumes in lawns swing

They smile at the summer's yellow

Telling the dreams of the sweetest fruits

Of lychees and mangoes, that never let a day be mellow

Slowly but surely, they lead to the days of rain

The green monsoons with the petrichor and sizzling corns reign

Clouds and sun play hide and seek,until it all repeats again

/ 18

: 146

Wednesday, April 15, 2026

My Reflection Sang

My reflection sang

An airy pop song I once used to sing

The lyrics to which my heart had once known

I left it somewhere, now the distance has grown

I tried to recall the scent of it

It had smelled of camphor and stained notes

And of one wax-sealed envelope

Lost of its sender, the hazed address gloats

I tried to remember the words again

Had felt of breezy linen, deep velvet then

A few hums, lines far-fetched for the sky

Perhaps of a bird too, that flew far and high

I tried to bring back the melody and tunes

That once tasted of cinnamon and a buttered June

A stamped secret ancient runes would never utter

It had my lips serenade and my heart stutter

My reflection smirked,

An expression I had long forgotten

There were traces of a stranger now

Built on the ruins of a jovial vow

A face surfaced, reflecting on my eyes

A voice murmuring there, an ode in disguise

A broken smile wearing a chiming mask

Like a cup of ginger tea pouring from a flask

An etching of the stranger, I kept in my heart

Pulsed a rhythm, a beat for the board of dart

A nightingale melody, from my own beloved track

To my reflection, I nodded and sang back

(My reflection smiled back

Though my breath stumbled,

And my voice cracked.)

/ 31

: 231

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