How Does It Feel?

What Is It That You Find
Looking Through All Four Corners of Your Mind?
From Self-Doubt To Blame
To Telling Others What They Did To You That Day

And How It Hurts You
And It Doesn't Matter If They Never Meant To
Because What You Feel Is What You Feel
And What You Feel Is Real

And I Always Tell My Mom
That Even Though I Speak Up And Say
What I Felt From The Words That They Say
The Feeling Of That Pain
Doesn't Just Fall Away

And So It's Something I Work On Each Day
And Pray That Someday Will Go Away
For Life Is Surely Not Meant To Be Lived This Way Each Day
As I Wait For Love To Wash The Pains Of Every Yesterday.

~M.P.

"Two Hearts"

Two Little Girls
White Like Snow
Sweet like Lollipops
Playing on the Swing Sets
Wild Honey that Sticks To Your Heart
Sisters Together
Despite the Years Apart
In a Life of Wonder
There Is a Quest to Find
Truth and Love
True Love. <3

"MLK Day"

On This Day for the Reverend King
A Leader Dedicated to Letting Others Sing
So A New World Could Begin

With Oprah as the Richest Woman
And Obama as our Modern-Day King
When the Voyage of a White Man from PBS
Presented the DNA which We Could Plainly See
That the Black Man was His 'Brother'
As He is to You and Me

A Name of Affection and Love
To Show Kinship and Hope
That We Can Now See
That Day Has Come
And Shows That We Have Overcome...

"Purity"

A Return to Light
The Third Eye of Insight
Blinded by Those
Who Carry Black Hearts
With a Crack Inside
The Light Seeps Through
And a Subtle Energy Pours Into You
A Cloak of Healing that Was Always You
Innocence Once Again
Is Restored And New
Deep Vast Eyes that Sparkle
Radiant and Alive
They Smile For You...

"A Texan Voyage"

Large Portions
Chunks of Barbeque
A Spoonful of Gumbo
A Bite of Pork Ribs

A Stroll through Faith
At Lakewood Church
A Celebration of Second Cousins
Reuniting with a Dear Uncle
After the Tolling of a Decade

A Journey through Texan History
With a Poignant "X"
Marking The JFK Assassination in Dallas

Face to Face with NASA Mission Control
Atop a Vast Houston Skyline
I See Tall Buildings Amidst a Warm Hazy Breeze

Late Night Cups of Chai and Chit-Chat
In the Land of Sugar
The Texan Experience of
"Big, Warm, and Friendly,"
Comes to a Close
Until My Return...

"Autumn in November"

A Shy Smile
And then a Lingering Tear
Shimmering High in Pink
In the Royal Spotlight on Stage
And then Crushed Down
By the Loss of a Grandma
Traveling to a City of Lights, Cameras, and Babies
Longing for the Protective Voice
Of an Older Brother
Making those Timely Payments
On the Brink of a New Business
And the Passion of a Romantic Adventure
An Autumn in Boston
From a Freezing Girl
With Ankle Booties
Struggling to Feel Whole

"A Ma to Remember"

From the time when dowries and domestic work
Were your ticket to life
Your love for something deeper
Sprouted a Samaj of sisters

They toiled in the streets
Without the basic amenities of sanitation
They walked in the gulleys
Clad in soiled saris
Lives of submission
Barefoot and unknown

Yet through the marches of sisters
You led them along Boring Road
With the branded scars of their husbands
The female voices of Mahila Samaj
Collectively echoed from the streets of Bihar

And when you were behind bars
For a worldwide mission
You began a Pachamba House tradition

And in your heart
You buried within
The key to empower
Your sisters
To sing.

-In honor of my loving grandmother, Urmila Prasad, who among her many roles, was a dedicated social activist and President of Mahila Samaj, a women's rights activist group in Bihar.