On our street’s garbage heap
A child’s tattered open notebook
Marked in red 4/10 Belw Avg

 

Young couple on two wheeler
Wife on pillion, infant on lap
Curly tiny fingers, curly tiny toes
Pink palms, pink soles
Tender body, tiny brain
Face muffled by mother from the urban monoxides
Fate in the claws of the Sphinx
That decrees and decides

 

Traffic lights…beggar woman approaching, bent
Only 500s in the wallet...too much
She approaches nearer…
Still Red. ...avoid eye contact
Green at last! Get away!
Giant billboard ahead. Misty hills waterfalls and lake
Stay at GetAway Resorts @ Ooty Shimla Darjeeling Kodai All India
At only Rs 9999 a night
Could plan this summer. Ask her tonight.
Fourth gear, Zoom
Get away!

 

Busy road, ill-lit pavement
Black object in the middle distance
A bundle of rags or a tired street dog?
But nearer, it stirs.
It is neither!
A man in foetus position!
The momentary illusion dissolved.
And this is no rag -bundle or dog at all!
Elephantiasis foot.
No illusion at all!
Merely an obstacle to skirt or step over quick
On the way to the organic and health food store

 

Lined along the city streets
These great trees
March like an antediluvian army
Through the urban smoke and grime
Captives like us but nobler far than we
In giant pain they await our common doom

 

 

Dusk settles on the cityscape.
Storm clouds are gathering.
I watch from the terrace of my apartment complex.
One by one the lights go up in ten thousand high rise windows
The storm wind gathers itself up
And blows blistering though the high- rises
As through a valley.
A crow tossed and thrown about in the wind
Finds a perch on a high window sill.
With feathers ruffled but spirits unperturbed
Calmly he looks around
For a safer lodging for the night
He is the great survivor unsurpassed
Indomitable and undefeated to the last.

 

 

My newly made friend, the neighbour’s mango tree
Is within arm’s reach from my balcony
In peace and silence I enjoy his friendly company.
His mistress our neighbour sends a gift
Of a basketful of mangoes, his bounty.
But I really prefer his original gift
Of peace, friendship and quiet company.