Wednesday, April 30, 2025

Unheard

After the sparrows the kuyils

Too have left for somewhere
It is April and I have not heard
The unseen bird sing its song
Its absence is a silence that is
Felt when the rain clouds mass
On the sky and the sun goes quiet
I ask around and everyone tells me
We too have not heard the bird
This year but we cannot worry 
Over what we had and do not have 
Make do with what we still can have ---
The bird sings where it is needed
And its call for love is heeded

Stop

To stop is not to give up hope

To stop is to look at all the feet
Rushing past as if sure of where
They want to be going and when
I do not know if the destination is
Elsewhere and not nearer here
The tale of the two sons cannot
Be forgotten ---- the one who went
Out to circle the world learnt
The bitter lesson that the journey
He took was in the wrong direction
There is little to choose if nature
Chooses the paths, if the heart
Tells us where to go in which light
Let my feet find their way home
Back through the jungles of desire.



Thursday, April 17, 2025

Summer showers

The rain forced us to take shelter 
Under a flyover, then we had to
Watch as it danced on the tar road
Like a flash mob causing the frenetic
To slow down and catch their breath,
The cars did not have to stop, kept
Going through the falling strings,
No two-wheelers and their pesky horns
Hot on their tails till they gave way;
The mind grew restless as the drops
Grew heavier and the minutes ticked
There was work to do and the showers
We thought would halt and let us leave
Thickened with more clouds from the sea
And we worried we would be held up 
Longer than we wanted and fretted over
The flooded routes we would have to take
We wished we could have been ambushed
Near a restaurant where we could have
Sat warm by the window with a view of 
The skies singing their summer song
And time saying wait, it won't take long.

Saturday, April 12, 2025

Golden shower

The laburnum now wears sunshine

For flowers, and it is more flowers
Than leaves this time of year,
The shopkeeper looks askance at me
Stopping to admire a tree in finery
Placed as offering to the god of time
Every spring I eagerly wait to see
This single tree turn green to gold
Take the longer route to glance
At this wonder changing colour
Between the peepal and the golden cassia
One all leaf and no flower and the other 
Almost all flowers, it's not hard to choose,
The rarer one turns the sun's rays to rain.



Friday, April 4, 2025

A day to remember

Shocking white cranes 

Burst out of the river
Black with time's refuse
Turning left the vehicle
Is swallowed by traffic
Over the horns are heard
The sharp cries of parrots
Restless on raintrees
The rooftop restaurant
Has a view of the sky
Where kites float
In the streams of music
Playing in my heart
The afternoon is hard
To cross without a nap
When I wake up it's dusk
Yellow moon blue sky
Above the green canopy
Night is easier to pass
Dreams take me away
The lost find the lost.