Pramod Lad

Picture Perfect
 
Studying white streaks in his hair, hearing
The echo of his mother’s loving but nagging 
Voice, “Thirty-five and still no girls” he felt
Obliged to do something and turned 
To the internet. Arrays of faces to melt
Any heart. Why were they there? Spurned?
He quietly mulled his obsession
With faces; but what to make of the body’s hidden 
horror, the unseemly innards, the generous ration
Of blood and spit, the well meant but stale passage
Of morning breath with the kiss .  Not to mention
Fragrances unquelled by myriad sprays the secret tag 
Of desire. Yet he returned to one picture twice,
Oblivious to a wrinkle’s first loving trace.

Pramod Lad was born in India, educated at King’s College UK , and has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Cornell University. He was a scientist at the National Institutes of Health. His poems have been accepted in The Examined Life Journal, Right finger pointing, Omentum, Eclectica, The Innisfree poetry journal, The Umbrella Factory, Pennine Platform, Litbreak Magazine, Amethyst Review, Soul Forte, and Creations Magazine.