Nameless

No one calls me by name, anymore
The postman, yes, but that's official
(I get hardly any mail these days)
My parents, playmates, close colleagues,
I've survived them all ---
Standing on this 80-plus dizzy peak
Is not a feat I'm proud of
Does the summiteer know
The vanity of conquest?
Or if he knows
Does he admit it?
I am afraid
I'll forget my name, soon
If no one uses it
I might even think
It is someone else they're calling
(That is, as long as I can hear)
Just to avert that possibility, (keep this confidential)
I look at the mirror, every morning
Greet myself, loudly
"Hello, Ambi, how are you!"
"I'm fine, thank you!"
I smile and nod at my hang-dog image
I tell him
"Be a companion unto yourself!"
However, I would rather, someone else
Came calling my name, soon
"Ambi, your time is up.!"
Would I not go bounding
Like a dog to his master?

Collaborator

I do not look or speak or eat

Like my forebears

These clothes

Are meant for cold climes

I laugh and cry and feel like someone

Not of this land

I've become rootless

Cut off from my people

Ashamed of them

Not of their distress

In a way in cahoots

With those who prey on them

With the very dacoits

My forebears chased away

But who have now returned

To a hero's welcome

Being as nothing

From inside the locked wooden cupboard
Our landlord had abandoned
In a corner of the hall
Right against the wall
Everyone often heard
Something sinister
Sometimes a whisper,
A scrape, a sniffle, a him or her
Especially on a cold night or a deserted hour.
All who were called in, well
Had a story to tell
"Must be the landlady's sister's spirit!
The one who hanged herself, desperate!"
An elderly lady said, as if with envy.
Children hoped aloud for a genie
That would fetch them, grateful
The dark shop halwa, by the plateful
Before they would let it fly
With a reluctant goodbye
Like they did the dotted butterfly
They caught the other day
As it lay drunk or dreaming on a flower.
"Let's open it and find out, what's in there!"
The curiosity getting the better of fear
The key was fetched and someone flung the double doors open
Older children standing guard with raised makeshift weapon ---
Younger ones, ready to run, by the door ---
What a blow! What a letdown!Nothing was there! Nothing but air!
Not even a note with a curse
Leave alone an imp or spirit or worse.
And worse --- the noise stopped abruptly after
It was heard no more
Though we wished we could, once more
And kept our ears open
Wanting to be shaken
Out of our wits, again.
Though we begged the cupboard to speak
Wanted it to squeak
Implored it didn't look right
It didn't budge, just stood quiet.
Somehow, it didn't seem fair
That the cupboard was bare
That someone didn't care.

Invisible

The invisible
Are not those
Who are not seen.
They are those
You don't want to see.
They cower on the fringes
Of the moonless night
You have banished them to ---
After plucking them
From the green hill
Which suckled them.
It mourns them still
Beware, when the tears stop!

In hiding

No kuyil knows
The crow
Raised it.
Bonds do not
Outgrow the nest
I do not know
When it stops
Being a crow.
Does it know
When it finds its voice
Stirred by love?
2
As the sage says
When the wood shows
The elephant goes
When one appears
The other disappears
3
Viswaroopa.
What hides what?
The chicken the duckling!
The duckling the swan!
The caterpillar the butterfly!
The candle the flame!
The flame the fire!
The fire the inferno!
The earth time!
The beast the human
What hides, the human?

A phone conversation between friends

It's very hot here

Your place must be worse, I fear

It's bad, day and night, jeez

The high rises block e'en the sea breeze.

Met men say

Heat wave's comin' this way.

Yes. And it'll keep the rain away

How's, well, everythin'?

Jus hangin' in.

Good. Me too. Keepin' fightin'.

I say, can you... no don't bother

Call you later.

Gadfly

When I struggled
Out of the wreckage of my nightmare
On the wall was spread out
The sun
Deliciously golden, warm and edible
The crow happily cawed
As if it had found something to eat
The leaves wet with rain
Shivered with delight
At the touch of the breeze
One was just happy to be awake and alive
Quite at home with the clutter
Of a house lived in
It was almost like heaven
Before the gadfly came in