1. Traffic Light
He smiled a toothless smile as I stopped at the traffic light
Yellow face with marbled skin
His companion
No more than six
Dirt-faced with matted dry hair
Hid behind him and
Covered his face in the folds of his dhoti
It was a wretched afternoon
For anyone to be walking in these parts
Bathing in fumes, soot and automobile exhaust
Selling books they themselves cannot read
Carrying weights
Beasts of burden
Across the street a giant billboard beamed a Beaming-Smile at us,
Exclusive apartments it read,
Your dream come true
And offered the promises of supple young flesh
In the form of a scantily-clad model
There was nothing I needed to do
I had money in my pocket,
Quite a bit of it, and coins
Next to me, in a bag, sat new clothes and a
Magazine extolling the virtues of the commodity exchange
2. A Lunch Undigested
On the second floor, the waiter obsequiously waits on us
I can smell sweat under that thick uniform in the heat
I hear a lot of words but I am not really listening
I am still thinking of the walk from the book store
You have a new car, a gala for New Year's at your farmhouse in Pune
(so I will notice that you have a farmhouse, so I notice)
Coversation continues, I nod, smile
A lot of memories redefined and restated, your stories do not add up
There are frustrations and additions
Mostly calculations
I feel like I am stuck inside an impossible math sum
Miss, miss, May I take a recess?
I hear a young boy call out as he pretends to want to
Use the bathroom to run away
From the moment
3. Boredom Drum
I sit on a park bench listening to his drone
He wants to have an affair
And run away from life
It is too boring
He wants tall tales too
Wants to be in airports
He is tired of living vicariously
I sit and stare
And without notice hang up
4. Sea Within
Polemics fall from the sky like rain
Dry rain, without moisture
Not black or white, or even blue
Your voice has desperation and warmth
And your cushions slide when I sit on them
But I like the copra-lampshades
They are as much a statement about you
As the ocean themed bathroom
5. Puddles in the Pond
“you are so vain, you probably think this song is about you, don’t you, don’t you?”
I am suspended between ether and earth
Hanging on tight
And the boat leaves without me
And I am left in the shore
With the lights fade away with every blowing of the whistle
Across the pond,
Without knowing
Sleeps
The
Question mark.
6. Pay the Piper
Every time I walk into this Starbucks
they dump a bucket of grief
on my lap
I know it will never be
But I go anyway
Because a glass of sugar-free
Machiato is always a sure-substitute
For hope
A cleaver falls
Across at the McDonald's
I gurgle in the pool of blood
That springs forth
As I become lunch
Poor choice of words
Very poor choice of moment
Poor choice of people
And then with the vision
Fading away from me
I sit there clutching to
Nothing, not even a newspaper
Somewhere in the brain
Addled with cheap-tunes from an iPOD
I hear a song
Celebrating the new year
Then I realize that the pool of wax under my feet
Is my own flesh melting
7. Car Talk
It was evening when we met, friends
After a gap, you had your tales and I had mine
All I want to talk about is the encounter with
The bookseller and the weight of his books
There is a carafe of wine in front of us
Outside the rain falls silently; I don’t hear car horns
The freckled light of sullen evenings does not
Make an impression on me
I have an astrology T-shirt for you in the car
I carry memories of terrible partings and half-written poems
A manufactured statement comes to my throat and dies
We agree that BB King is better than Ray Charles
When it comes to singing Feel So Bad
As we get lost in the dim-witted darkness of
Abandoned roads
It is good to be back
