I create rules to satisfy my ego;
you create rules to satisfy your ego;
ego-matching is the essence of compatibility,
lest we pray: you go, you go …
(from Self-Taught Lessons)

1

SHARPENING TOOLS

“Where is the strop?”
asks the corroded pen

The barber’s razor-knife
is on the anvil —
where is the unkempt face
that curls through dense
gravid forestry of undone tasks
to challenge the mess of
unaccomplished acts!

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2

SCHOLARS

There is no class of true scholars —
either an “early” scholar
who is turned down being early,
or a “late” scholar branded a senior
bypassed being delayed or dead
when the use/misuse/abuse theory overrules

True distributors of eminence
metamorphose into kingmakers
in obscene gowns of metaphoric assaults
to define scholarship as the means
of eliminating the essentials from nonessentials,
when the dogmatic tooth erupts
in the Wild West and the Appalachian planes,
as a Common-Wealther alone in the crowd
on the other side of the Atlantic
wanders wondering in enigmatic sighs
the distinction between
lifts and elevators,
beckoning for a lifting ride
in footpaths and sidewalks
after failing to locate public toilets
in the mid-town concrete  “cut-put” jungle

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3

THE RAPE OF THE LOCK

Parallels drawn in the meridian
meet at the abysmal abyss of the South Pole —
Penguins cook iced-tea without sugar
in the fuelling rods of solid rape-seed oil
and ask Alex Pope to uproot collectibles
of dead hair from the vital follicular domain.

Reaping rewards by extracting original sins
raping immaculate seedlings in despotic wins
misfit in lock-and-key mutational murals
painted in inarticulate versions of origami
by a geisha in kimono not supposed to sell
body parts for entertaining old stooping-clients.

What the heck of it in a shanghai town where
smoky-screen opens the low-key locks in
pulmonary sensations in cups of eerie coughs?

Mumbai bazaar number-locks an apartment
in combinatorial permutations of math-like puzzles —
the east learns the soullessness of the west,
and lives in communion with the western body;
the west imbibes the best of orientalism
as a Buddhist monk revels in harmonic chanting of
mantra-wheel, boasting the head lives in the valleys
in the largest palace in the world, shaming historic
Vatican palace, where smoke pollutes killing-secrecy
instead of orderly odors to mark end of wins and fails!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr.  Joy T. Kunjappu, D.Sc., Ph.D., a naturalized US citizen, resides in New York City.  At present, he functions as an educator and a consultant-scientist  in chemical sciences.  During his professorial appointments, he taught chemistry in academic institutions in New York City (Columbia University, Yeshiva University and Brooklyn College of the City University of New York).  An author of three science books and more than 100 scientific and technical articles, his contributions originated during his tenure as a research scientist at Columbia University in the city of New York and at the Department of Atomic Energy of India.   He has published seven books in his mother tongue, Malayalam (two collections of essays, and five collections of poetry); and three other books ─ two other collections of poems and a collection of essays ─ in English.  He enjoys and practices Indian classical Carnatic music, among other hobbies.