Me and my books

The books I read every night,
Once came to life upon my bed.

The Tagore collection hummed melodiously,
The Sherlock Holmes fidgeted restlessly,
And Tinkles jumped about enthusiastically.
The Kamala Das stories came to rest in my lap,
The PG Wodehouse wanted a ride on my back
And the Ruskin Bond beckoned me to play carrom.

My quiet room was suddenly cacophonic,
Leaving me baffled.

I picked up the Holmes and gave it some tobacco,
Lent my mp3 player to Tagore;
Rested Das on my teddy bear,
Gave Bond to my kitten;
Put Tinkle in the cage with my birds,
And laid Wodehouse on the swing.

Finally, they lost their energy
And allowed me to sift through them,
Agreeing to share their knowledge and pleasure, joys and sorrows.

I held them to my bosom and slept peacefully again.

Dirge to the chemicals

They slipped, fell, declined, dropped, plummeted and tumbled;
And then rose, went up, climbed, jumped, and soared.
They saw downtrends and uptrends, fluctuations and mixed fortunes;
With trades finalised, disrupted, or simply ended in stalemate.

Those industries - petrochemicals, plastics or aromatics,
Survived the frustrating global recession cycles.
Prices, supply and demand - they were troubled;
Sometimes they sank or otherwise they doubled.

Week after week, month after month,
CBI China wrote and PA Mangalore polished them;
Month after month, time and again,
Vanessa and co. sent feedbacks and pruned them.

And now, some of these petchem friends,
Are leaving us, with no one to buy them.
Is it our fault you're going, dears?
Or is it destiny tearing us apart?

Adieu to you, O Acrylonitrile,
Adieu to Acrylic acid and esters,
Bye-bye dear Toluene di-isocynate,
Bye-bye my Epichlorohydrin!