A Haiku Collection Poem by Ram Krishna Singh

Love tickles
with erect pistil:
hibiscus




Oleander and
hibiscus blaze with passion—
making love in sun





Suspended
on the spider's web—
a hibiscus


























Narrowly escape
the midair web of spider
perched on hibiscus





The lone hibiscus
waits for the sun to bloom:
morning's first offering




Red oleander and
hibiscus calling morning
to Kali




Without washing hands
he touches hibiscus for worship:
her frowning glance




After little rain
lilies smile with hibiscus—
the sun in May




Too short
can't reach the height:
hibiscus






Chrysanthemum
on the mossy roof
deeply rooted




Too big for its web
between two roses—
a yellow spider




Around falling leaves
a lone dreaming flower—
mid-February




Stands alone in
the assembly of flowers—
Valentine's Day




Not sad to die
blooming after a day's rain-
the mushroom




Shrouded in fog
the lone pomegranate
in the courtyard





December morning—
the first roses in the lawn:
fragrance in passing




Leaves sway
to fly like birds
free in the sky




Waving down
a leaf settles between
her breasts




All night trees wave
with roaring winds:
autumn in the courtyard




Bluebells and hazels
lost in rustic kisses:
morning stars burn




0n a lean
branch of neem swinging
a bulbul






The courtyard stormed
with dried leaves and tamarind:
her frail hands sweeping




From tree to courtyard
cotton balls blown on the wind—
seed in the centre




Her scarf—
a rainbow of flowers
moving in the sky




Her visit—
a transient painting
on holiday's floor




Painting mom's smile
with broken crayons—
smiling Winny




Intruding
her voice
on the phone







Switching on
the hearing aid:
wife's warm soup




With her saree
hitched up between the legs
my wife in bed




Raising her saree
above the thighs bends to ease
and blocks my way




Rising early
to make tea for everyone
the newly wed wife




As the duo sit
lights go out—
sofa springs creaking




Dissatisfied with
each other the two of us
in an empty house





In the grey of dusk
sway between hope and despair
their dream promises




Leaning sideways
she looks at mango pickle—
caries ache




She repeats my ills
to express her anger but
I know only her love




Basking in the sun
files nails in garden chair
my wife's friend




No joy in lighting
the candles this Diwali:
both the children away




Awaits his son's
phone call from the border:
dogs and cats wail







His son's voice
not relayed by wire:
tense borders




Distance mounts
each time he visits home:
love's last rites




Not age but
years of worries
his furrowed face




Shadow of age
on the wall—
second full moon




Whiteness of the moon
and rocks howl with the wind—
December in the veins



A star shines bright
beside the crescent moon
she fakes a smile







The sun not yet set
but the full moon rises
as if in a hurry




The half moon
on her neck reminds of love
before departure




Enveloping
all of the moon at night—
white chrysanthemumns




After the party
empty chairs in the lawn—
new moon and I




The sky couldn't retain
all of the moon now enveloping
my house through windows




Setting moon
leaves behind sparkle
on the waves



Noisy birds
don't let me sleep:
midnight moon



Through the window
gaze at the moon hid behind
cloud after cloud




Fearing allergies
he misses full moon party
savours white light




Wet bodies
of bathing woment:
full moon night




Squeaking
under the blue moon—
the dry sky




They all look for
a little more moon coming
back from movie








Standing behind
the window bars observes
darkness in shapes





Unmoved by the wind
he sits on a rock wearing
peace of the lake




Night bombing
leaves the garden
white as death





Vultures waiting
for the leftovers
of the sacrifice




In the ruins
searching her photo:
evening



Alone
on her bed rings
the cellphone






A dead voice
calling up at dawn:
drowsy eyes




Waiting for the train
alone on the platform
swatting mosquitoes



All guests gone:
after the late party
night and I




Nothing changes
the night's ugliness
in the lone bed





Alone
in a shrunken bed
aged love




In the well
studying her image
a woman






Knitting silence
my wife on the bench
after lunch




A moth
struggling for life
on wire




Between virgin curves
he deep-breathes evening mist
rests in the hollow




Shell-shocked or frozen
he stands in tears on hill top
craving nirvana




The lone mushroom—
a pregnant woman
stares out of the window





Facing the sun
the lone flower
dying to bloom



A dead leaf hangs
by a spider's thread
invisible in sun




Under the tree
in meditation sunken
a lone stone




Alone
on the National Highway
Hanuman




So many headlights
and my myopic vision—
walking difficult




They walk on red coal
matching steps with drum-beats:
carnival of ecstasy





Keeps him sleepless
fireworks and high decibel
puja all night





Sleeping
on the cold floor
a mother with child




Awaits sunrise
to hire an auto safely
sits at the bus stand




Two women argue
over price and weight of fish:
the hapless huckster




Carbon flakes drift
high above the flat I cough
they widen the roads



Burning tap water
and seething house in the morning
heat wave cripples




Chanting mantra
with wine in one hand and
torch in other







A mother and child
stuck between concrete rubbles:
fidayeen attack





Setting ablaze
Muslim houses and children
seekers of Ram




White-yellow trail
the Mirage on mission:
ten souls buried




Amidst roaring guns
clouds blossom snow lotus:
light hilly terrain




On the margin of
home-to-work-to-home routine—
life's achievements




Shivering in the cold
young boys sell balloons late night—
New Year revelers




Half-fleshed faces
track from behind the windows
rawness of journey




Journeying tries
to raise his silence
to prayer




Never enough
the earth's hunger for graves:
peace barricaded




The red light is on:
they all have secrets to hide
no use peeping in




In measured pace
hit for divinity
two political golfers




Disposable blades
one over the other—
dusty switchboard





Seismic lab
a network of cobweb:
no earthquake for long




No Zen thought—
scribbling haiku with
gun in hand




Staring at the huge
stone penis at Shinto shrine—
two female lovers




With her breasts bobbing
up and down she challenges
the moon as she walks




Sees the eyes
in walls as I rise
to kiss her



Drowned
in empty whiteness:
love








Wiping tears
from each other's eyes
two souls in love




Writing with strands of
watery hair on her back
a love haiku




Love of three decades
extinguished in a moment—
anger in the mouth



Shedding bitterness
of the tiff in sex act
she and I




Moist lips parting
on a tea cup promising
expectation





Bending down to pick up
apple she presses
pierching embrace






Looking lovingly
she bends his head down to hers
twines like a creeper




She preys the body
behind obsidian sheath
fatuous flap




After burns
leaving the body
the dead skin



Rain-soaked sun
sheds its sultry light:
her bare back




Her palms
the only lingerie
in Fashion Show




Crouching out of the bath
with hand on the genital
his new tenant




A pregnant woman
bending over the mushroom
bloomed under a tree




Awaits the bloom
of love in her womb:
silent action




Lovely with hope
the glow in her eyes:
no need of sun




Her body—
the night's perfection
in dim light




Seeing her
a liquid sensation
between the thighs




On a canvas
a poet in twilight
painting her skin






Sensing her presence
he stares down the street—
lingering perfume




A star in making—
but an island appears:
the palm amuses




Sipping gin with lime
he says he loves sex each night
but hates the smell




Looking for Taj in grains
through sand-storm find history
trapped between toes




Bleeding fingers draw
new domes of betrayal in
windy matrices




He walks down the aisle
looking for the nave in her
to kneel and slide out



His tongue
between the teeth—
sudden sneeze





Fed up with my sex
she threatens to move
to our daughter's room




Leaves him alone
to escape daily rape
in bed his wife




The bedroom altar
no substitute for temple—
sacrifice of sex




Winter's chill—
sweating under the gown
her thighs and breasts




Scanning
her stooping breasts—
the first night






Measuring life with
ejaculatory rhythm—
envies sparrow sports




Her thighs—
resting place for my head
on bed




Trying to decipher
the complex curves on my palms
in the morning rays



Fondling her breasts
I incite a poem
on her body



A film of mist
between my eyes
and her image



Locked in her eyes
the bright glow
of the goddess








Melting in
the colour of the heart
the sun in the west




A lizard shrieks
before the climax:
love making



The blood passes through
green veins I hear the heart play
melody of dews



Every breath
love in action—
fire in the hole




No bottom reader
but the shape and the lines do tell
she can stir the soul



The aching limbs and
blood dripping between the legs:
love-making postponed







With his head between
the knees he squats and smells
the body's sweat



Bones rattle to make
a song of flesh in the night-
togetherness





Insomnia
blaming her
not old age




Lies with her
in freezing cold:
an empty tube



Invisible
jangles odours presences-
twinges in bed



Drying on the line
pork venison and beef-
the room smells their vests







Don't know their tongue—
the stars beyond the mountains
whisper among themselves



While I lie alone
shapeless fears rest on my eyes
heavier than time



Searching salvation
a moth flies into the lamp:
oily burial



Colours sparkle in
the morning's dew on the blooms—
my breathing changes



Nobody cares
burial of my dreams
in coal dust



Besides allergies
so many other complaints:
sudden weather change



Bronchial breathing—
the only sound audible
in the soulless space




Noisy birds
don't let me sleep:
midnight moon



He sweeps yellow leaves
or gathers years in a heap
burns to merge with dust



Cleaning dusts from
the old sandals for a walk:
again the same pain




Peeling paint
from the drawing room—
shadows flicker



Seeing no image
in the mirror of time—
foggy blankness



Hot bath or no bath—
the cough persists unmindful
of the New Year's eve



Sees in a flash—
opening the eyes
takes a long time




Linked with anxiety
my comfort at his home:
Ph.D. viva



Fear of forgetting—
car insurance premium
paid a month ahead



Fears the approach
of night with him—
twisting tassels




In the lone room
prefers haiku to yoga
drinking scotch




My bedroom
a maze of cobweb
spiders breed




Sunday afternoon—
waving into gin
two drops of lime






Difficult to change
I am what I have disowned—
dressing down salads




The bed is short
and the covering shorter—
crouching alone



Unruffled
by passions and clamours—
Buddha's calm





Seeks Buddha's stone bowl
to win the bamboo princess:
she dwells on moon beams




Her heart
a thousand doors of
oneness



Standing behind
the window bars observes
darkness in shapes







Disappears
into dust her last
photograph



Trying to read good news
I look at the lines taking
new turns on my palms



Looking for riches
in her left hand shortening
days on the pavement



They sculpture psyche
in the city of dumb dreams:
idols sweat in sun




Pulling out white hairs
she reminds increasing age:
time's fragrance unchanged




Still a child—
embracing a breast
sleeps her man









Exchanging
anger with roses:
petals fall




They all walk
like shadows in night
for themselves




Lying on his table
a few unanswered letters
and unrealized dreams




A little child
chases the painted dreams
on butterfly wings





Two butterflies
racing with each other
perch on the wire



A child's fingers feel
the butterfly lying
one with yellow leaves




Sudden rain drops wet
the wings of a butterfly
lying at the basil




Lost my way again
asking for direction:
a pleasant change




Locked between the cracks
cockroaches in the alcove
dropping their eggs



Awaiting their turn
to feast on a dead dog
crows in a circle





A crow hits
the scare crow and cracks
its earthen head




A crow picking
at the ripe papaya and
another waiting





A yellow spider
on the blooming marigold
weaves tiny webs



Two lizards fight
to mate on the wall—
balancing act



After the quake
a dog sniffing his master's
presence in the rubble




Searching Christ's sandals
in the pile of shoes at
the church's entrance






Traffic snails through
the water-logged road I feel
a manhole cover



Dust mites devouring
the secrets preserved
in my diary






Seeing my shadow
three fish in the pond look
for a safe corner




In the well
studying her image
a woman



A hooker hides
behind the green letter box:
looking for a client



Cut wrongly
each body a slave—
grey faces




Too heavy
these man-made machines
choking weight




Students murmuring
over the class test result:
the teacher's curved lips








In the moving train
sleeping on his feet
the newspaperman



Flowers inviting
seeds of love scattered in
the perumed garden




Looking for a prey
a snake slides through the fence:
warmth of the sun




Safe from sun
under nascent leaf
a gold fish





After sleepless night
a drowsy sun tears
the morning sky




With sunrise
gone to sleep
the morning moon




Two dreamy eyes
await the rising sun
through the fogged window




A sweating sun
after the midnight chill—
changing hues of spring




The sun conceals
aeons of darkness planets
mirror in the sky





Closing its eyes
in the setting sun—
the Ganges in autumn




A cloud-eagle
curves to the haze
in the west




A butterfly rests
on the butterfly tattooed
on her sunning back





The sun not yet set
but the full moon rises
as if in a hurry




Setting sun
leaves behind sparkle
on the waves






Suddenly rise
the sleeping waves from far off—
‘quake in the sea




Swollen sea
boiling over the head—
roars increase




The sun rolls
on the waving Ganges—
whitens love-hope




On the wave's crest
travels a fallen leaf—
rot on the bank



Couldn't erase the wind's
soliloquy from the waves
breaking on the shore




Traveling back
from the waves of bliss
a foam-leap




On the waves rise shells
in accents lie with love—
beauty on the shore



A lamp floating on
river breast in bridal grace-
waves in the gloaming




Bathing in thousands
they float lamps on her breast
the river sparkles




Knee-deep in the pond
standing obeisantly
nude worshippers





Ends with ritual
one more morning—
sun-worshippers in the pond




Awaits the sunrise
in the chilly Ganges
a nude worshipper





Sees visions
eating food of gods—
mushroom




Fills the void
with illusions and self—
names them god




December almost
over what new wish to add
to Christmas wish list




On Christmas eve
santa claus takes leave—
mist on chairs in pairs



Standing
between flowers
Jesus on the cross





Making holes
in the wooden cross
white ants




Colours of envy
stick on their colleagues' faces:
Holi revelry




Krishna offering
parijata to Radha:
Narada looks on




The temple's dome
in the flooded Ganga-
empty kalash



Fermenting spring
in the arms of lovers:
a secret sin






The cherry pink
in the spring—
a framed nude




Embrace
suffocates in bed—
chill seeps through slit



Wintry chill—
enters the cold bed:
skips morning walk




Winter allergies—
I stay inside to escape
the wind in full moon




The long night passes
sleeplessly I deep-breathe
the December chill



Alone and sleepless
count hours by asthmatic bouts—
the long winter nights






A part of the night
hidden in the morning moon:
the sun waves bye bye



Nothing changes
the night's ugliness
in the lone bed



The first night
spots on the sheet:
clothes wake up



Long wintry night—
opening the mail box
for a date




Vulnerable
darkness of the opening:
standing erect



Whiteness of the moon
and rocks howl with the wind—
December in the veins



Seek my haven
where the sky arches the sea—
a white gull leads





Stars mock his drinking
alone on the cement bench:
moon in the glass



Spend our short time
together after a long
watching the moon



Enveloping
all of the moon at night—
white chrysanthemums



Seeking smell
in cactus flowers:
late monsoon



Clouds don't rain
coldly come and go—
icy bed



All night rain
the gaping roof
her shelter


Sudden rain
on the way home—
a peacock


After the night's rain
the sky's still overcast:
wet Christmas today



Through thick clouds
sees an arc of moon—
her belly



Shadow of age
on the wall—
second full moon



Lonely nights and
days of non-stop rains—
depression mounts






Traveling
on the wings of winter
ill news



Celebrating
return of the light and warmth:
winter solstice








Feels the shadow
with wet fingers
in the fog



Mist surrounds:
the steel statue watches
few visitors



Morning fog:
her face invisible
even the sun



The evening fog:
invisible her hand
on my shoulder





Slowly clears
the morning fog—
end of the year



Swollen fogs
ready to make way
for the sun









Her make-up spoilt
in the evening mist:
looking for light





After dust storm rain
alloy with cool colours:
rainbow in the west




Splendid with the moon
night in silver peace dreams
through folds of light




Sees beard
shining in the mirror:
morning on the face




In a flash
trapping eternity—
the camera




Post-lunch solitude
filled with thoughts that couldn't become
even a haiku



The first night:
spots on the sheet:
clothes wake up




A sly lover
ejaculates poison—
sting operation



With glittering diamond
on the navel swinging
an item bomb




The phone rings:
in the middle he rises—
prayers unsaid



With a telescope
view the lunar eclipse—
midnight shadows





Out of wood and stone
he carves his vision of peace:
night's secret visage






In the ruins
searching her photo:
evening




Suffer animals
with a peculiar smeel:
men in white khadi



Crossing the shadows
in the Indo-Pak match—
the last ball



Drunken with force
spreading the century's sore:
nine eleven



Freedom to kill
with faith in divine regime:
terrorist's peace





Watches the snow rain
with finger on the trigger:
insurgence in Drass








Reaching nowhere—
ideas flying from the minds
of top echelons




Himself doesn't
listen but teaches
communication



Her anger shifts
from manure to cellphone:
10 o' clock soap



Winking at her
in the dark—
power cut




Two peacocks
on a dancing spree:
see water




Dancing
a few muddied crocs:
the river returns







Nibbling a leaf
between her fingers
a dragon-fly



A small frog
leping on my hand
from the pothole



Birds crouch in nests
along the snowclad path—
wheezing silence



Away from home—
smell of frying fish
in the air



Swimming afresh
in the glass box
two gold fish



Peace in silence
of the heart and body's cells:
Buddha's calm




Weaving its nest
Grass blade by grass blade
R.K.Singh




Sad and dull
his backyard poultry—
fears of bird flu



Mooching about
a rose petal in the sun—
a butterfly



An orgasmic view
from behind the car's window
the Taj Mahal




Perches nervously
on the fence a squirrel
nibbling its luck



Puppies groping
for the tits of our doggy
relaxing in sun



Sudden screech of tyres:
a frog from the pothole
perches on the car



Selling tea
a mustachioed Mizo
in shanty


Awaits the train
in November night—
insects all around



Truce between
two lizards inside
the light fixture



Ten fish in the tank
rising in twos threes or fours
to the bait atop




Hiding in the shade
of toilet brush in the bath
a frightened mouse



Awaits a rickshaw
under the gulmohar tree
a girl with lilac



Jumped over the head
a sticky frog on the ground-
stoning to death



Alone
the cellphone on her bed
rings





In the changing hues
of rainbow in the east:
sun and lightning



Flashing a rainbow
at the dining table
her diamond nose-pin



Reflects the rainbow
in the mirror of water—
Yamuna Bridge