Elsewhere

The cold water feels crisp

In the January morning

But it can't be used unmixed,

It is good to see the bucket

Filling fast under the tap,

The complimentary soap

Smells different, not a brand

We have used before,

To start the day elsewhere

Is a strange experience

Through the window is seen

The hilltop, the room chosen

Just for this view, and premium

The others are all asleep, tired

After a day of sightseeing 

With mild motion sickness ----

The mind was in a whirl 

When we came back

The eyes had taken in all

The mist-draped beauty 

They could and did not trust

Memory to keep all of it

The camera had stored most

Of the scenic spots visited ----

To look back and recall and relive

When the tiring feet say no more.

Cosmic

We want to be everything we see

The tree, the breeze, the bird, the sky

We want to be them for a while and be back

Inside the familiar house that looks out,

The road turns right and disappears

What was seen is no more seen 

Must still move beyond the building

Seen still by the surveillance eye,

The mind imagines everyone is alike

Going back to the days they left behind

Seeking respite in the bursts of bonhomie,

Remembering is not the way we want it

The happy streets we like give way to ones

Where we walked the gauntlet of hostility

To be without a thought is to be spacious

Suddenly so very spacious as to be cosmic.

Late bloomer

There was a rose bush

We planted in our yard

It did not yield any flower

Past when it was expected to

I could not believe it could not

It seemed most unnatural for it to

Be so unproductive to not fufil

Its purpose in a life we had brought

Into the world with our diligent care

I felt personally responsible for its

Infertility and pleaded with it everyday

To at least come out with one blossom

To remember it by before we vacated ----

It seemed to have listened and the day

We left the city behind it had a lovely bud.

Musings in the mist

In the the winter months it seems

There is more of silence inside

The home because everyone

Goes quiet to hear the dew fall

But they cannot as it comes down

As quietly as night steals over the city

The cool weather favours quietness

One silence encourages more silence 

The rare mist brings forth reverence

Music seems like another form of silence

It is more mellifluous with the many violins

And voices sounding like springing from

Realms not accessible in warmer times

Reality is altered at night and street lights

Wear halos not normally seen when sober

Crickets begin to be heard and the ears

Remember the happy songs of the past

When there was hope and death too far.

 

Hiding

Hiding has become a way of life

We cover the thinning hair with caps

Sport beards to mask the hollow cheeks

The happy photos posted do not show

The unhappiness many soak up every day

Like bats some stir out after daylight dies

With surgical masks on to evade creditors

Their gates remain locked from outside

The gig worker quietens his hunger with tea

Counts how much more he can send home

If he goes hungry and runs on his reserve

The state fudges figures to look good

Says the world is envious when caught

The earlier migrants want to drive out

Recent migrants and claim a country

They themselves stole from the earliest

Truth is hidden in a mythology of lies

Till the digs or stone reveal the buried

Death is the one we can't hide from and

May even invite home if he takes his time.

Sky

The tree and the breeze

Cannot stop talking

Every leaf glitters 

In the January sun

Still pleasantly warm

The laundry drying

In the terrace dance

Then stop, not wanting

To dry too soon to be taken back

To the confines of the wardrobe

As long as the sky can be seen

The feet don't mind staying put.

Fleeting

The moon shadows me

Moves when I move 

Stays still when I rest

When I sleep it enters

My dreams and lights up

The strange rooms I enter

In search of something

I lost but can't remember

How can I find something

I lost outside inside, I reason

Find myself back in my house

Facing the wisdom tree that

Taught the seer everything passes

And what is fleeting can't be kept.

Angel of light

In dreams I continue to lose things ---

I no more lose my way like before

Now it is a ticket or a receipt or card

The searching is frantic but this is not

The search I would like to be in when

Reality intrudes and brings me back

Something less mundane would make

My dream more worthy of remembering

I could be seaching for an ancient text 

About a propulsion faster than light

To reach the farthest galaxies known

And return younger than when I left

Or words to describe an angel of light

Who whispered the secrets of the universe

That I could tell no one but may hint at.

Vicarious

The tongue no more misses

The sugar in the coffee cup,

Bitterness is another taste

Not acquired in haste.

When we cannot travel far

The vlogs take us to places,

Where we shiver in the snow

Exclaim at rivers that flow

The unfulfilled dreams have

All been handed over to others,

We'll see with their eyes shores

That we never got to see before.