peace

alone along the well-lit city street walking
in the dead of the night,
i find all sediments
settled in sleep
at the bottom of the glass;
but yet, there from the sidewalk shadows,
a light churning,
a chuckle,
someone...
laughing in his dream.

*****

brink

reading over the notes in my dairy
these recent times
i find myself shrinking
to the leanest
existing
on thin air
floating
a feather at equilibrium
an inch away from altogether
vanishing

*****

Sermon on the Mount

Even the reserved bogies were crowded. As the train chugged into Kozhikode station, there was a family of five, including a breast-feeding baby and a child of three or four years, with no reserved space in the cubicle meant for eight others who were already there with reserved berths.

There was hush-hush talk among the reserved passengers how the Raiways could like this permit unreserverved passengers into reserved bogeys. If it were to be like this, why should there be a system at all for booking berths?

Around 8 p.m., after having an early supper opening a packet he had brought in his bag, the pastor climbed up the side-upper berth saying since the train would reach Kottayam just after 1 a.m., he should try to catch some sleep.

Six other reserved passengers too put their berths into position and folded up for the night, leaving the remaining one reserved passenger to allow the unreserved family to sit on the lower-side berth that was his.

What the heck, he was thinking. Staying awake one night would not shatter you. He went to the side where the latrines were and inspected the narrow space by the wash basin. The floor was fairly neat. Even if he were to become too tired standing, there was this option.

The ticket officer made his appearance for a second time around 9 p.m. and was speaking to the unreserved family about his helplessness. He said all he could do was to give his sleeping spot for the children and their mother. "Tell me what else I can do. When you travel with a sick child to the RCC, don't you know you should reserve? You would have even got priority in booking."

It transpired that they were taking the elder of the two children to the Regional Cancer Centre for treatment. Those lying in their berths were immediately alert. Three of them, including the pastor, were soon on their feet persuading the young mother of the two children, her father and brother to take their berths.

The pastor and the three other reserved passengers sat packed on the side lower berth. They did not talk about the sick child now sleeping on the side-upper berth with his uncle. As the train rocked and swung on its wheels, the pastor kept those seated by his side awake speaking about Jesus and the Sermon on the Mount. The moon shone on the rushing night landscape outside.

*****

kiss transformation

i destroyed my two-decade-old beard the other day,
because my grandchild neha started kissing my cheeks.

*****

phenomenal

there is this me in me spreading
weightless into the immeasurable,
watching dispassionately
the phenomenal me
exploding in a fit of passion.
i see myself
arguing the particular, drilling home an irrefutable point,
seggregating, comparing,
quoting the provisions of the temporal
and asserting the cause of the vital...

there is also this me in me merging wide into the infinity
and seeping deep into the infinitesimal,
from my immutable stillness watching
the phenomenal me
in a very hot turmoil.

*****