Thursday, September 18, 2025

Hail Mary

Through the umbrella the rain

Drips on my head and does not
Mind falling on a balding pate
That does not look like growing
Back again for all the herbal oil
Smeared lovingly on it every day
I secretly wanted to get wet like
This, not enough to catch a cold
Yet enough to remember it by ----
I have run out of drops meant
To prevent dryness of the eyes
Brought on by endless gazing at
The virtual reality images
That take the mind away
From all that is falling off ----
I loftily look at all those taking
Shelter before wayside shops
The Mary shrine is all lit up for
Her weeklong festival close on
The heels of the Mari temple fete ---
I pray to both when I stir out
And when I come back unscathed
Not without wondering when it will be 
When I have to leave and never come back.









Saturday, September 13, 2025

Fresh from the past

On a cloudy day the dysania

Is a given though the seatherny
Seems to suggest some days
Can be forgiven for their slowness
The distance of the native city
Vanishes and the feet stand by
The lake as the sun slowly rises
Making the heart feel happily warm
The childhood friend soon joins me
With his fishing tackle to spend hours
Catching sunlight and singing songs
That probably kept the wary fish away
Stern faces pop up now and then with
Gratuitous advice not to while away time
We laugh at them and time laughs with us
The feet return juvenescent and I am ready to
Enter the world with eyes fresh from the past.



Monday, September 8, 2025

Shading long-distance

The moon is being eaten by the earth
Or so it seems when its shadow
Takes away all the satellite's glow
In another city we returned home
Through almost deserted streets
From a movie during an eclipse
Had a meal against the neighbour's
Dire warnings and something else
Without any significant consequences
Tonight the slow-moving clouds cannot
Keep away and keep hiding the show
What shade is this, blood red or copper?
The flatness turns to spherical as my son
Keeps coming back to the balcony 
To capture on camera this cosmic line-up
The mythology of a monster ingesting
The full orb makes the spectacle more
Dramatic than it is but no less wondrous
Even when it is no more out of reach it is
As if we have now all made a landing there.


Wednesday, September 3, 2025

Tears are too human

The world keeps disappearing 

From me in little baby steps 
The child has grown up into
New times that I cannot enter
His room is full of music more
In step with the feet than the heart
The traffic races from stop to stop
In a pace faster than I would like
Destinations arrive too soon saving
Time I do not know what to do with
The distance grows and speeds increase
The slow feet cannot but be left behind
The garbage bins pile up with the useless
Machines are feted till they are outdated
Tears are frowned upon as too human
Night embraces all whose suns have set.

Sunday, August 31, 2025

A rainy day

I wake up to a rainy day

After a rainy night I left
Behind to chase absurd dreams
The clouds promise another
Idle day without feeling guilty
About putting off some chores
I watch the little one next door
Going down the stairs in raincoat
There her school bus is sounding
An impatient rush hour horn that
Can be heard all over at this hour
There are no more Monday mornings
For me to hurriedly wake up to meet
The rain falls a while and takes a break
Time has given a licence now to be slow
After all those years of rushing about -----
There's still time for the feet to cry halt.