Salad # 1 : Medley

Here are some random thoughts set down in a sheaf of writings in 1984-85.

Message in a Bottle

Have you ever thought of a wine shop as an anthology, where each bottle is a poem ?



Candid Camera
To those who ask me whether I write poetry, I always say yes.
And then the next question is generally about whether I do free verse or blank verse.
A combination, I say: and they look confused. I wonder why !
I call it "frank" verse.
Isn't poetry - at least, these days - mostly about the truth ?
Isn't it invariably about the way the poet sees the truth ?


Subsoil
Ashes to ashes, dust to dust
It will happen someday to the best of us
Is this why some people shake with mirth
As they trample their contemporaries into the earth ?


Plastic Surgery
You can smell contempt
It seeps out through one's pores and spreads
A steaming film that covers the veneer
Like mascara, it is black
Like lager, it is cold
Like granite, it is hard
And it doesn't come off


The Primeval
In every woman, there's a little bit of man;
In every man, there's a little bit of wolf;
In every wolf, there's a little bit of hate.