Sand

I did fall you know?

Skid into baleful yellow

Was soaked in all of it

And sat dripping on the shore

My throat hurts you know? 

Croaking such a broken ochre

I haven't eaten in three days

I haven't had your touch

Come soothe my fever

Just one periwinkle sprinkle?

Your wings are so fragile you know?

My fingers might go through

Our secrets are killing us you know?

Slicing us purple 

I think those are centipedes 

Crawling and now jumping green fatness onto leaves

Those are evil butterflies you know?

Ready to take flight

They will tell the world our secrets

Pollinate our misery into young flowers!

What shall we do my love?

This sand could be soothing you know?

We could slide down and bury here

We do not need to tell them you know?

We do not need to tell each other

Let us go deeper than this ocean hanging here

Further down than its whale songs

-

Chandni Girija

Day 06 of 30 | 30 Poems in 30 Days | Global Poetry Writing Month #napowrimo #napowrimo2026

Nun-naani

Nun-naani nun-naani

Nunni-nun-naani

Nun-naani nun-naani

Nunni-nun-naani

Black nose grape eyes

Nunni-nun-naani

Bum wiggle copter tail 

Nunni-nun-naani

Egg dance chicken dance

Walk dance

Side glance

Slide-under-leaf slow-motion trance

Intact males are beautiful

Biped males are scary ghouls

Cats are curse

Urine-marked stumps wonderful library

Nun-naani nun-naani

Nunni-nun-naani

Human has done 

Weak whistle again

Trot trot trot 

Legs four trot

Up down up down

Ears two flop!

Nun-naani nun-naani

Nunni-nun-naani

Hurt human port belly

Hurl-jump

Kiss-gaze stance!

Egg dance chicken dance 

Side glance 

Walk plop trot 

Back glance!!

Nun-naani nun-naani

Nunni-nun-naani

Nun-naani nun-naani

Nunni-nun-naani

-

Chandni Girija 

Day 05 of 30 | 30 Poems in 30 Days | Global Poetry Writing Month #napowrimo #napowrimo2026

Bumble Bio

My goodness, the blueness!

When did she grow those veins

And those lips?

I am throbbing adolescence

In my late thirties?

Corn-fed dog food

They actually meant horses

Multiplying daily

Gnomes

I like this rum cake 

This Christmas evening 

And this American television

-

Chandni Girija

Day 04 of 30 | 30 Poems in 30 Days | Global Poetry Writing Month #napowrimo #napowrimo2026

The Monkey Man

Just as the weather

The monkey man

Would jump jump down my chest

And onto my arm

Just as the weather

The monkey man

Would slither on my wrist

And run a running gash

Just as the weather

The monkey man

Would plop plop plop down the floor

I sit here watching drops of my blood

I sit here watching my life ebb away 

I wouldn't move 

My eyes would move

"Catch catch catch"

"Catch the monkey man"

Just as the weather

Would beat down the horizon

My eyes would fall 

Upon the floor

And the floor would catch 

My beaten eyes

My colden gaze

Just as the weather

Would turn 

So cold cold cold

-

Chandni Girija 

Day 03 of 30 | 30 Poems in 30 Days | Global Poetry Writing Month #napowrimo #napowrimo2026

Balcony

Such squareness his shoulders

The white banyan

The white thread

The astuteness his arms

The fairness his nape

Such shapeness his back

My new knowledge is round

-

Chandni Girija 

Day 02 of 30 | 30 Poems in 30 Days | Global Poetry Writing Month #napowrimo #napowrimo2026

Eyelore

Maroon

Lifting in a cloud

A saree swaying in the crowd

An elephant sashaying plod

It is like a bullet to my chest

A burst so sudden I am gone

Then I am back

And I watch 

Eyelashes

So long 

Irises brown, pupils red

World round

Swallowing all down 

I wallow like a pillow

Holding the punch of the resting head

It makes no sense I know 

But for crying out loud

Wetness flows like no stops

Breaking in thuds

Over little dams

Wetness seeps

Irrigates the field

Do these seeds break ground?

-

Chandni Girija

Day 01 of 30 | 30 Poems in 30 Days | Global Poetry Writing Month #napowrimo #napowrimo2026

The Boiling Frog

To be the rubric or not

To be the content or not

The metric tone of my heart

And the keen pulse in my palm

Words are clear

Horizon is paved

Yesterday’s snow is neatly dishevelled

Somewhere a tiny gap

a little puddle of pothole

an imperfection

a sighing breath

beating there—

the heart joining my heart

The sound echoes with the system

the system echoes that sound

that sound pulses in that trench

that trench beats my heart

Therein lies my heart—

the heart joining my heart

The merry

  the merry

    the merry

merry-go-go-go-round

goes round and round and round

beating to the ground—

a broken breath

heaving there—

the heart joining my heart

- 

Chandni Girija

പ്രേതവേർപാട്

 

ചാമ്പൽ കാറ്റ് 

എന്റെ കണ്ണ് നിറഞ്ഞു ഒഴുകുകയാണ് 

ചാമ്പൽ കാറ്റ് വീശുകെയാണ് 

ഇങ്ങനെ കരയാം 

കരഞ്ഞു കരഞ്ഞു ഉറങ്ങാം 

കൊച്ചു കുഞ്ഞിനെപ്പോലെ 

ഉറങ്ങാം

ഈ ദിനം അനാഥേയായിപ്പോയല്ലോ 

ഇന്നത്തെ അഭിവാദ്യം സ്വീകരിക്കാൻ 

ആളില്ല്യല്ലോ

അനാഥ ദിനം

ശരീരം കത്തി ചാരമായികഴിഞ്ഞീട്ടും 

സ്നേഹം അവശേഷിക്കുന്നുണ്ടല്ലോ 

അനാഥ സ്നേഹം 

#fathersday

അതിനു പോകാൻ ഒരു ഇടംമില്ലല്ലോ

ആ അനാഥ സ്നേഹം 

കത്തിക്കൊണ്ടേയിരിക്കും 

ചാമ്പൽ കാറ്റ് 

വീശിക്കൊണ്ടേയിരിക്കും

പ്രേതങ്ങൾ സ്നേഹങ്ങളാണ് 

പ്രേതങ്ങൾ നല്ലത്താണ്  

അവക്കി 

വേർപാടുകൾ ഇല്ല 

അവ 

നമ്മളോടൊപ്പമേ പോകുമൊള്ളൂ 

- 

ചാന്ദിനി ഗിരിജ 

 

Untitled

Last night's slumber
Clinging at corners of my eyes
The heaviness revealing
In the fullness of my lips
-
February 27, 2016
Thank you Facebook memories!

Untitled

 oh sunny days have set in....
sunrays through the window

i watch them curiosly

i know if i go out

the scorch will get my forehead

and i might look above

the yellow source of this all...

the yellow of light

of creation

of existence

oh yellow...

i might just get lost in u...

-

February 26, 2012 

Thank you Facebook memories!

An Archetypical Burst

So much thinking, so much time away, away from writing. Thinking about writing, how I want to put it out. Thinking about writing ideas. 

And lately, "You haven't written anything in a while, Chandni." 

"Well, it makes sense, with so much practicality taking over? Haven't you been enjoying it?"

It did make sense, and I respected it. Until today. Till sometime back. A flutter in my chest. Two Bumble chats that I enjoyed. Two people. Why does it rekindle me this way? Why do I feel poetic? Existence is a mystery, components of it are, components of me are. 

A visual if I wanted to give it one: citrusy! Tiny, sparsely collected, drops of citrus on the tongue. The olfactory landscape bursts too, you see. And the tactile? Awakened. Look at the awakened tongue! A beginning of a movement. A movement into dance. Look at its feminine twirls! :)

"Did you break your hiding, Chandni? Did you give yourself up, for a moment, here?!"

"Well, let them find me."

Untitled

The moon slipped from her forehead
Slid down her hair

The sun jumped in from the window

And into her eyes

He waltzed in them

Left and right he swam

Until she had to open them

"Good morning sweet," he said

The world was a wonderous burst of warm, cream, white

Cradling a zest

Zesty like citrusy oranges

Of excitement to come and a to-do list

She smiled back sweetly and hugged the new day

-

Feb 12, 2017

(Thank you, Facebook Memories!)

नाही

काळोख असा वाकुन पडलाय

रात्र चिंब-चिंब रडत आहे

मी नाही उचलणार तुला

बिलगू देणार नाही

माझा पान्हा मी साठवत आहे

तुझ्या संगोपणाला नाहीये 

तुझ्या फाटक्या कंठानी 

रडत बस

मी पाऊल टाकलाय बाहेर

या क्षितिजातुन

दिवस कसा अनेकरंगी येतोय

मोरपिसासारखा 

कुरवाळतोय, ओठांना माझ्या

हे असे मला गुदगुल्या होतात

विसरले होते 

-

चांदणी गिरिजा

ऑक्टोबर ६, २३

छायाचित्र: अंजना सी.

I Miss the Sea

Saudade. That is what I am feeling now. A terrible yearning for the sea. The touch of soft sand. The breeze tousling my hair. The sounds! Oh! The sound of waves. Rhythmic, tumultuous, rebellious, calm. How meditative! All of this, and the horizon. I could stare and stare and stare and stare. Ha. So pleasurable! 
It's a misnomer, a transferred epithet. It is the beach that I miss, not the sea. Oh, what an ache it is!
Take me to the shore. Take me home! 

അഗ്നിനോട്ടം

തീയിലേക്ക് നോക്കാൻ നീ 

പേടിക്കരുത് 

നിന്റെ തീ നിന്റെ സത്യമാണ് 

തീ തുപ്പാതിരുന്നാൽ മതി  

തീ വിഴുങ്ങാതിരുന്നാൽ മതി 

തീയിലേക്കു നോക്കിനില്കുമ്പോൾ 

നിന്റെ കണ്ണുകള്ക്ക് 

വല്ലാത്ത ഭംഗിയാണ് 

നിന്റെ സ്ത്രീത്ത്വത്തിനു 

അലങ്കാരമാണ് 

അഗ്നിനോട്ടം

-

ചാന്ദ്നി ഗിരിജ

Eve's Apples

The raindrops on our naked arms

Are raucous

We are lost in the bustling

Cacophony of this city

We are two wild animals

Walking in civilised clothes

Only our raincoats are honest,

Transparent 

Our loves are impure

Our motivations muddled

We have banished sensibility

To a humble hut in the Andamans 

Our arms brush 

As we are pushed closer

By this stifling crowd of desires

We aren't good for each other's health

And yet all we want to do

Is eat each other

-

Chandni Girija

പ്രണയം

പ്രണയം വികാരമല്ല 

സ്രോതസ്സാണ് 

ജീവസ്രോതസ്സ് 

എന്റെ ചുണ്ടകളിൽ 

നാണിച്ചു വീഴുന്ന മഴതുള്ളികളെ 

ഞാൻ തിരിച്ചു ചുംബിക്കുമ്പോൾ 

എന്റെ ആയുസ്സ് 

ആ ദിവസത്തെ എന്റെ ആയുസ്സ് 

അവിടെ കൂടുകയാണ് 

-

ചാന്ദിനി ഗിരിജ 

ജൂൺ 12, 2023 

White

I put my hand out
For some fresh air
Oh!

I have been kissed!

Tuft of soft silky white

Hair held by a seed

Oh!

Whoever thought

I did not but

I witness now

Seeds 

Seeds can fly!

Coming all this way

From miles and miles

Stopping here

To give me a kiss

Such an abundance 

Abundance of spirit

This home tree is

No, no, no, no

I am not letting

You get away

I believe now 

I deserve kisses

I will preserve now

Each and every kiss

Each and every kiss

I will plant this kiss

I will plant this seed

In my orchard

I will fashion now

A hair clip of the

Silken tuft

Such beauty, see?

Such, such, such 

Beauty, see?

It will go infinitely 

Well with my grey

And white

Grey and white

My grey and white

Peppery peppery hair

-

Chandni Girija 

On prompt, as a palinode to this poem. 

 

Day 30 of 30 | 30 Poems in 30 Days | Global Poetry Writing Month #napowrimo

Maan-ga Maan-ga

1. 

Maan-ga Maan-ga is notorious 

The most sensuous of fruits

Succulent and sweet

Tell me

Tell me if you aren't ravenous

For some mango flesh, what

What are you?

A dried up morose

Moribundity?

2.

All that mango said was

"Excuse me"

And this uncouth gent went

And squeezed it

Have you lost your rubric 

Your sense of space

Respect for a fruit life? 

3.

Madam activist lady

What I did was 

My interpretation

Of the presentation

And some gestation 

In-between

Didn't you begin with

Sensuousness of fruit

And in paragraph two 

You changed like a 

Personality split into two

Take this fruit basket

Go sell twelve mangoes

For now don't throw 

Your popply fruit rights at me

-

Chandni Girija

Day 29 of 30 | 30 Poems in 30 Days | National Poetry Writing Month #napowrimo

I attempted Maureen's prompt to write a two-part poem that focuses on a food or type of meal giving it at least one line of spoken dialogue and at some point describe it as if it were a specific kind of person. This poem ended up having three parts. 

*Maanga is mango. It is pronounced this way in South India. There is no letter in the English alphabet for the actual pronunciation of this 'ga.' 

Image by PDPics from Pixabay 

A Turmeric Secret

It sleeps in the morning's bosom

A turmeric secret

The dead rat has been dried 

By yesterday's sun

Today it has turned to a papad

The hungry dog sniffs at it hopefully 

The morning joggers balk 

The school traffic begins to assemble

Night is now a small dot 

On this street

The morning clutches 

The front end of its sari

And tucks it in the waist

The morning is such a boisterous lady

She sweeps away the remaining specks

Of the howling night

The weakly protesting night

-

Chandni Girija 

Day 28 of 30 | 30 Poems in 30 Days | Global/National Poetry Writing Month #napowrimo