the stillness and the word...

 As yet another year wound its way in and out of the shadows of the pandemic as an inevitable continuum to 2020, one hoped and prayed that it would spell the end of global consternation and economic anxiety. But, Ananke and Providence had other plans for humanity, and a lot of us tumbled into new year with weekend curfews beginning to ebb our social life.

We would remember 2021 as the year when humanity seamlessly divided itself between the vaxxed and non-vaxxed, the 'responsible' and the 'rebellious'. And between those who distrusted the governments and took to streets to protest and those who mistrusted each other and shut themselves in their homes and took to the trenches of social media.  It was also a year when many of us unquestioningly resigned ourselves to a masked version of reality. We moved within the confines of our designated area, trying to reinvent ourselves vis-a-vis the limitations imposed upon us.

Personally, I saw reality  as I once knew it, slipping from my grasp, its regimented predictability becoming amorphous and elusive. I lived from moment to moment, from day to day, in an infinite stretch, looking for myself. As an immense amalgam of time, I could very well sum up  the year 2021 as a huge wasteful expanse, but no. It turned out to be a voyage of self-discovery, giving me courage to face myself in my raw solitude, and find myself in random moments of sudden revelation. I struck a natural companionship with the wilderness surrounding me as it spontaneously embraced the wilderness within me. The two became one...

1.

a gutted evening 

spilled across the

sky: ribbed clouds

in gray and pink

being dragged 

like dead weight

of a rotting day;

the poet could 

seize the peace 

even in this decay,

a pale moon's

crescent smile compelling

the eyes to reciprocate

darkness turning to light

with  sightings of 

the first stars

2.

The ocean and sky were one

the thunder and the sound

of crashing waves edged 

into each other; the far away 

cry of the peacock slipping into 

the neem grove rose in delight 

above the slashing rains,

the stinging of the fast drops 

and the memory of our hesitant 

first kisses fused seamlessly. your

touch on my dress was washed 

away by this sudden downpour, and i 

smelled of wet earth

3.

a moon quiet

and fragile like 

the sky timid behind

the golden evening

veil; a fiery drongo 

perches on the clothesline 

whistling flirtatiously

4.

short filaments

of gold looping

across the purple

night, weaving magic

and love: peacocks

waking up to the

stirrings of 

spring desires

5.

the brahminy kite cruising into

my view from across the

window slits the afternoon

with its silent flight,

the kingfisher swings on

a low branch, whistling, the frail

moth i saw last night

lies lifeless on the porch;

my heart cries and sings,

flies and sinks, sways and 

slips, like dappled pearls of

light through quicksand