Patchwork Heart

I've done it again 
Put my heart on the slab
Butcher knife in hand 
I didn't think that I could 
Though now I know that I can 
I clean my dirty lenses
A futile effort 
Because perhaps they're broken
And that's why I have no foresight
It doesn't matter though at the end
I'm just a silly man 
My heart I've failed to defend
Now it begins 
Stitching back together my patchwork heart
Soon it will be time again 
To put my heart on the slab
Butcher knife in someone else's hand

(c) Rahul Chidambaran 2015

Heart In The Well

Found my heart at the bottom of a well
So I sent down a pail to fetch it
All in vain, for the pail was broken
Hole punched through
And my heart fell back in
Sinking into the depths

Many times I have tried
To climb down inside
But it got deeper as I cried
My tears filled the well
I'd climb back out a shell
So at the bottom my heart did dwell

I need a little help
Someone to hold the rope
Help me descend into the deep dark well
So I may bring my heart to the surface
That I may be loved once again

(c) Rahul Chidambaran 2015

Master Of None

Done it all
But never enough
Life's at a crawl
Around the edges I'm rough

From selling phones
To cooking food
I've swept floors
And reported the news

Worked at Amazon
Did a stint at Tesco
My education's gone
Many times I've let go

From microbiology to sound
I might have had some fun
But in the end I only found
That I am Master Of None

(C) Rahul Chidambaran 2015

Autumn Romance

Leaves that drift to the ground
Over fall, turning red, yellow and brown
Veils that part to show your face
Each day basking in your embrace

© Rahul Chidambaran 2015

House of Cards

A relationship is like a house of cards
It is hard to tell who supports whom
Like her head resting on his shoulder
And his head resting on her head
If she is his strength, how is he her pillar?
Scientists would solve the energy crisis if they could work out those figures
But then there comes a time or a few, if you're lucky
And from the delicate balance of card supporting card
One of you becomes a wall
A rock strong enough to take it all
An immovable mountain standing resolute to the earthquakes
Biding time until you both can say "piece of cake"
Until finally when the dust settles
And with the air clear, you sift through the rubble
Find each other at the end of the day
Build your house of cards once again

© Rahul Chidambaran 2015

Missing Happiness

It is a strange thing to feel happy

Something beyond the high of a drug

A different planet than the mirth of a drunk

Immeasurable like the idea of a god 

Leaving you to sit there and nod

While the waves barely tickle your toes

You miss happiness

Not entirely but almost unlike missing a person

Like falling in love with the shadow of someone 

You never really miss being happy, just the idea of it

Like a joke heard more than once becomes less funny on each retelling

You're not sure if happiness is just not as happy as it used to be 

Or is it just me, you ask 

Part of you wants to turn around and run back

Back to where it was always happy 

Back to when sadness was just an empty pack of cigarettes

And happiness was finding that one last smoke

Back when sadness was not knowing what to eat 

And happiness was good old biryani 

And so you miss happiness 

An idea of feeling that poets like me fail to describe 

Even if you bottle it, you wouldn't like it

© Rahul Chidambaran 2015

Teacher

They say those who can't do, teach

But those who can teach should

For it is not enough to just read out loud 

Use this stage to do some good 

Yet we are mostly treated to glorified human textbooks 

Making school the same place they hated

The love and the passion mostly lost 

The magic of the lessons surely ill fated

As the world spins out of control 

Weather turning pages on human history

The need for bright young minds rises

Invent ways to fix our ecology 

Education is for the privileged 

And school is for their growing minds

But what is the point of a ship without a compass 

Just victims of the education decline

© Rahul Chidambaran 2015