Three Poems|Parthasarathy Muralidharan
Unknowing her
I devoted a whole Sunday ahead of her birthday for her
I first thought of a broche but couldn’t recall her hair style
whether she used a broche or not
Fancy bangles were good but I didn’t know her hand size
I couldn’t recall the authors she mentioned rarely
so books were also ruled out
I found a beautiful face of goddess sakthi
made of fine clay with wonderful colours
but I was confused because she didn’t display
anything in her living room
I couldn’t think of any costly jewellery
because she was happy with bare neck
In the textile shop again her size was the issue
Finally I settled for a birthday card
She didn’t open it in my presence
nor gave any feedback later
Next year the exercise was not needed
we had broken up
Mock exercise
The small boy’s eyes widened as he explained to his mom
how exciting it was in the morning to watch from the window of preschool
fire service personnel go up a building hanging from a rope
break open its windows on the twentieth floor
and come down with an unconscious woman
and put her into an ambulance
His mom promptly checked the events in the city on the web
and explained to him that was a mock exercise
Later when she was listening to a live discussion on social media
the boy curiously looked at the laptop and asked
what this mock exercise was all about
My roadmap
I certainly know the direction and the roads
and I took pains to draw a map
for my destination
but whenever someone elongates a road in his map
the line intersects the lines in my roadmap
and in many mornings I find
my map has lost its destination
Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Bio
P.Muralidharan’s collection of short stories ‘Draupadi’s only partner’ was published in 2021 and his novel ‘Boomerang’ is ready for publication. His poems have been published in various magazines and anthologies like globalpoemic, otherwiseengagedjournal, opa.anthology and formerpeople. He is currently in the panel of judges for an ongoing interactive novel contest. Several of his short stories have been included in Anthologies. His nonfiction ‘BUBBLES BURST’ was well received. An active member of many global literary societies, and a poetry/book reviewer, he has translated two books, including Shashi Tharoor’s ‘Why I am Hindu’ into Tamil. His blogs on poetry reviews stand out. Poems so far selected/ published by globalpoemic.wordpress.com, otherwiseengagedjournal.com, formerpeople.wordpress.com, ekcentrica.com & subterraneanbluepoetry.com
Mail: sathyanandhan.mail@gmail.com