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.