On my windowsill,
flapping, a dove perches still...
Ooo too close I freeze!
Feathers glistening
metallic, yet soft-crooning—
our eyes meet spellbound!

All day up the hill
on wobbly legs we climbed
to reach the Elephant Rock
and crawl our way to the top
at sunset to look
down the final ledge
into an eagle's nest!

A hundred crows flutter,
in a cawing, cawing, flutter—they wing
up and down and up and down and round
the crow,
vacant-eyed, shiny-feathered,
lying on the tarred road,
under the sun,
after a hit and run on the highway.

Long journey, bad cold—
the girl in the facing seat
smiles each time I sneeze!

I turn the corner
in my car—the ‘stray’ dog! Smiles—
Makes way—I smile back…

[Smack in front! Sorry—
he said—and moved to the side—
it’s all right, I said,

releasing the foot on the brake.]

Knock knock knock!
A speckled moth!
Wanting to come in!

Void,
irresistibly being ******
into the void
at the other end of a dream tunnel,
I hear a cyclone
spiralling beyond...

Someone knocks at the door.

on the temple steps
i encounter an elephant
bigger than god!

the smell of parched earth
as cool raindrops sizzle down--
and you, in my thoughts

There you sit,
my pounding heart,
listening
for the soft touch of my padded feet
on your moonlit balcony...

My breath I bequeath
to you, with it to weave
the veil over
our deep secrets.

on the temple steps
i encounter an elephant
bigger than god!

Wherefrom this echo?...
I can only remember,
not hear at all...

An autumn leaf
falls to the earth from this tree
and explodes...

From inside this bud,
I watch myself flowering
petal by petal.

etched in memory
the day we left the village
leaving no footprints.

rain clouds gallop high
fast we run, puffing, panting--
who will reach home first?

the wheels of the cart
in quick rhythmic clatter
swing the bullock horns.

when the hills recede
quietly, unseen, dust
settles on the road.