Pain is my escape
I levitate
like a frog
pinched
in its stomach

The malarial landscape
gulped the lonely smile
the over-stretched heart
drew cubist lip curves

The wisdom ropes
tied a double knot
the stuffed crow
in Pharaoh’s tomb
had a smirk

The commitment colonels
ordered a curfew
the invalid crawled
on his chest to the station

The love was white
with a drugish hue
the cuckoo with
squeezed throat
stuttered a plain parody

Pain is my journey
the horizons
torn by the blades
of life.

–Ravi