Tuesday 29 October 2019

Recent Published Work

The Waiting Day

On Hearing an Early Morning Raga at Apollo Hospital, Chennai.


patrolling nurse

the quiet pad of fingers

on a drum



Still fatigued, I wake at first light. The television is running. Perhaps you were watching it. Your pallet is empty, near my bed. Did you tiptoe off to catch an auto rickshaw? Scrounge a dosai and some chai?



The day is waking, accompanied by an early morning raga.



imagining

a feathered choir

. . . dawn sky



As I float drowsily, the drone glissades through my room. On the screen, waking blooms stretch dewy petals as the alapana unfolds.



Is life is a raga, beginning slowly, finishing quickly? If so, I've been given a reprieve. Each note inhaled vibrates a blessing from Guruguha, the great master of healing. The pain has drifted off. My lungs are clear. The Ganga banks are far away . . .



keeping watch

in dawn's cadence

. . . the poet saints



Not Very Quiet 4, March 2019.

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