General

my
love
for her
is unique
she was never mine
but even after losing her
I continue to
be hers to
the end
of
time

In response toReena’s Exploration Challenge #Week 23

A MATTER OF TIME

By Neel Anil Panicker

“Let me start by telling you a story, if you please. But before that let me begin with a Biblical aphorism: You reap what you sow.”

He heard some rumblings from the back and looked towards the last bench.

Pin drop silence followed. Years of teaching MBA aspirants had enabled Keshav Chandran, the senior most Verbal Faculty at ‘Coaching Time’ to appropriate this moment for himself. His every single movement and action following this was choreographed right down to down to a T. Like a master conductor in charge of the largest symphony in the world, he played to hilt all the instruments at his command. And so began the slow languorous moon walk around his enclosure, the small space around  the student seating area that was his own personal fiefdom, his own private space from where he lorded over his…

Photo by Mike Wilson on Unsplash

rippling pond

a long search in vain for

the ties that bind

How much longer will you stare

for the answer that won’t come?

More gray than I’d like to admit. Growing crow’s feet. Lines under my blue eyes I don’t see in myself. A sorrow in those eyes, along side a determination to see things through. So, I take the next breath, the next look, and turn toward life.

Always, another step. Another breath.

Until there isn’t.

The mirror doesn’t lie either way.

Harvest moon

surprised by joy yet again

when I see your face

For you I treasure, therefore

you are where my heart must lie

For dverse–Tuesday Poetics, hosted by Bjorn, and

Colleen’s Weekly #Tanka Tuesday #Poetry Challenge no. 69, and

Kiwinana’s #Weekly Tanka Prompt #Poetry Challenge–82, and

Real Toads’ Tuesday Platform

Poems
are grenades:
we remove the pen,
throw them into the world,
wait for them to detonate,
ducking  critical shards,
burning with awe
at the impact
and  heat
of the words.

Kim M. Russell, 2018

My response to Poets United Midweek Motif: Weapon and linked to dVerse Poets Pub Open Link Night.

For our motif today, Sumana has chosen ‘weapon’.  She says that weapons are varied; in fact, anything can be turned into a weapon if the user wills – one can find a weapon or be a weapon. She has given us some interesting examples of poems about weapons: ‘The Furious Gun’ by Thomas Wyatt; ‘Dream Deferred ‘ by Langston Hughes; and  ‘Incident’ by Countee Cullen. All we have to do is write a new poem.

Reena’s Exploration Challenge #Week 21

DIFFERENT EYES, DIFFERENT LEARNINGS

By Neel Anil Panicker

It’s not done; its plain bad, it’s downright cruel, it’s as if you, a lamb, has been by deceit, led into a dark desolate forest and then left to the mercy of the beasts, the biggest beast of them all, the lion itself, the king of the jungle, making mince meat of you, ripping asunder your delicate heart, its ferocious teeth gnawing at your vitals, wrenching out every shuddering gasp…

a freedom unlearned
approached with a new respect
– conformity kills

…….

Linked to Frank J Tassone’s Haikai Challenge

Hosted by Reena at https://reinventionsreena.wordpress.com/2018/01/12/reenas-exploration-challenge-week-20/

COPING UP (SHORT STORY/FICTION)

By Neel Anil Panicker

Salsa, said one. Solo world travel, offered another. Yet another, this one, a well meaning distant Uncle from my long gone mother’s side mooted painting. And this knowing that I had earlier, and that was a good two decades ago, dabbled in Fine Arts. The stark truth was that the closest I had ever come to anything that could even remotely be classified as Fine Arts was to ferociously snatch and tear to pieces the pencil sketches that my twin brother Chirag drew as a seven year old.

Ultimately, I chose teaching. Or, to say it otherwise, teaching chose me. I chose to respond to the newspaper advertisement that called for ‘Fresh Talented Educators’ with aptitude to teach college graduates.

The powers that be called me over, subjected me to a quick fire ten minute interview and a…