my predicament

with my right hand

i held tight the head

of the creepy creature

curled around my body

lest she stung

while like a monkey

i clung

with my left

on to the ladder

that led to my safety

floorboard

at the end, in middle

i did hang

unable to let go

from my hand

her flexible

but venomous head

attached stiffly

to the body

coiled to mine

that i could not

pull up

or let it down

to my deathbed

henry victor      03.01.2007

 

dreaming the destiny

from wilderness i returned home

journeying by shallow but longer channels

creeping also through constricting tunnels!

i did move fast on a flat road

by a motorized vehicle

continuously getting wet

and traveling with the threat

of being run over by trains

coming from the opposite direction

with no space to step out

of the narrow burrows

making longer waiting a necessity!

and more were temptations to pick

unwanted luggage strewn and scattered

by an earlier trekker like me

helplessly lost control of his walk

henry victor     03.01.2007

stopping by an unkempt lawn

the train journey was long!

the whole night it did prolong

but i was down, from train, by dawn 

beside an unkempt lawn

neither my family nor me

knew why we got off at such a wee

hour of the day when destination

had not arrived; nor was this a station

for a train to stop! but white bunnies

two that drew my immediate notice

and at the end, i happened to learn

that these two, the only i did yearn

not to own did i, with folks, stop here

but with spouse and spawn to care!

my destiny did pass through this land

this lonely prairie property so grand

someone content with their lot of no gain

earlier, too had stopped to touch the pain

the wounds of these helpless creatures

and it is my turn now to love the bunnies

henry victor      21.04.2007

town is empty!

death is in the home, inside

or is it out on the road

i am, right now, confused

Wednesday cannot be so quiet

that too at 8.00 A.M!

i have this ghostly feeling

being unkind to my little girl

making her walk the ghost town

she detested so much

before picking enough courage

to finally fly away from my cage!

i myself would not linger

around a cemetery for so long

if i am not an undertaker

busying with burying pain

and counseling the grieving town

henry victor     26.09.2007

quest for life

is it my determination

to kick death

or is it the resolve of the providence

to provide me life

determining my direction?

or is it the combination

when clicks well together

brings about a revolution

in my laughter that is louder

than a thunder in my heart

right now, preventing in me

either a peaceful death

or a delightful dancing in life?

but now i sit here in this mall

with neither hot nor cold spirit

to read lines on faces small

that i may scribble a sonnet

henry victor     30.01.2009

care-taker

a mere care-taker

of your dancing stage

my heart

am i not?

dusting

and re-arranging

after each concert

for your next

fresh one

at dawn

with, for sure, pain

and pleasure to taste

before another rest

in the dusk

to dust my heart

and clean the blood

until you shut

the screen

to announce

the close of dance

© henry victor          28.01.2018

meaning

those events, joys and pains

that you send on my way

are designs that you, the unseen artist

scratch, sketch and etch

that i may ponder in my heart

the secret

intentions of that invisible artist

but never am i permitted

to publicly interpret

to proclaim

the meaning of artistic events

making me a mute

in the very presence of your absence

© henry victor     17.12.2008

jealously guarded cell

 

jammed, jailed inside

a silly small self, eager to serve

secretly my little cause

and building my own

a fragile castle laboriously

brick by brick i raised

ousting others

from their rightful seats

using opportunities in my favour

stopping not to weigh cost

of seclusion, yearning more

until i collapsed in cell

 

© henry victor     18.03.2004

Canadian citizen

rootless was my childhood beginning

with no granddad nor grandma to call

on, and having no cousins to play, or fight

with, i was then a son of an immigrant!

adopting men and women of dad’s new town

as my immediate relatives and watching them

enjoy my mom’s food and house keeping

i did overlook that i was born an itinerant!

considering a floating lotus, a perfect floret

my only girl’s welfare, a being accidentally

acquired to increase, at least, my branches

i am, now, a new, rootless, Canadian citizen!

© henry victor     06.05.2003

walking Joseph’s path

as i struggle inside the well, like Joseph

who was thrown into for his bloated ego

and boundless ambition, will you cease

listening to my groans and inaudible prayers

as i struggle inside the prison, like Joseph

who was thrown in for his imprudence

and lack of tactical strategies, will you ignore

my loneliness with my feeble will to escape

as i struggle inside a strange land, like Joseph

who by the inescapable fate and destiny

strong as death walked into, will you cease

to take account of my presence in your world

© henry victor     04.08.2003

dung-beetle

i lack no inspiration

but that comes not with fuel
to adequately excite my will
to spark a fire that starts my soul

to push my destiny in that direction

that i desire to move
actually to fly high, like that eagle
with no spark plugs of aircrafts
or, that of a smaller motor cycle

hence like a dung-beetle i crawl

always backward
far, far from a highway with fear of speed
pushing that piece of dung
into my little cozy tunnel

constantly cherishing

the droppings and depending
on my single skill to smell

 

 

 

 

 

destiny

my journey is long and the destination

deludes my heart filled with overflowing
craving desires as my mind, consciously
consider, calculate the remaining energy

left within my soul, the engine

of my being, frequently, designing a devious
corridor to enter the destined destiny
to destruction, a creative construction

henry victor     06.06.2002

 

making of a destiny

you make me by moulding my frequent fall

my crashing from top of the tall coconut palm
my vandalizing those around that, now, come
back to me with the force of a trampling bull

charging on my being with already broken bones

as if you are making solid bricks mixing dry terra cotta
my desires, my dreams, including my pick-pocketing
other’s flaws, mixing with flow of water, my misfortune

like that bath tub faucet breaking, making my wallet

leak while i searched the market for the rare cartridge
to avert the waste of water, much draining into drainage
but me only pocketing pain, a bigger speeding ticket

henry victor     30.09.2013

   

moulding the clay

in an unexpected moment you, the source

and content of my being, the providence
dumped into my hand a lump, a handful
of clay to mould, to squeeze into my soul,

with your intent to realign my finger

and my voice to your purpose littered
in a bird with wings free to fly away
breathing a breath of rebellion to rebel,
 
with my pain and pleasures now i clean
a baby’s bum, carry a child, run behind a teen
and beyond, my sculpting a living being
in which is hidden the trends of my doing

henry victor     29.04.2013

 

the struggle

to remain a little longer under that blanket
in the space heated with my own body heat
i preferred but struggling against, in the same
time, idleness to live the ideal of an early riser

i win the battle but with an empty trophy
i wake but to empty trash for collection
to shorten a word to fit into an empty page
to re-naming empty, un-rhyming phrase as poem

do i complain, then, to heaven the unfairness
picking crumbs fallen from the table when
the partying is over and the music is stopped
as i still secretly hope the distant water to be real

for too many mirages i have witnessed
after driving many miles through the land
of opportunity, a journey I began leaving
my mother land to book my six foot space

henry victor     22.10.2012
 


 

strangers

destiny walks in the familiar mall
with unknown kind and colour
dress, dodging me always
lest i stop to converse with her

forever she remains hidden
to my eyes like the hiddenness
of my own soul so close
yet unfamiliar as hiddenness

of that life-giving life
blinded to my mind, intellect
with neither logic nor vocabulary
to affirm or deny with confident collect

14.08.2012