Under Orion

How many more hours
For this mosquito drowning oblivious
In the sweetness of my blood?

How many more springs and autumns,
From smiles to tears and then to exploding ecstasy,
For me the joy of being?

How many more trillions of millenniums—
Orion—
Dissipating into the vacuum of nothingness!

*****

Sunbird

He soars
And plunges into the canopy
Flashing zig-zag
Through twigs and branches
Alighting light as eternal peace
On this leaf
Picking the ripest
Twittering...

On TV
Over Gaza
The machine zooms zig-zag
Over the streets
Never alighting
Picking this and that
Twittering...
Wreaking futility.

*****

Journey

Women in purdah
Await the train from north:

One, a monument,
Fingers locked, meditating;
The other,
Scanning the page in vogue
Through her black veil.

Southwards,
The rails stretch silver
In the dawning light.

*****

fish in the tank *

my gills flap shut and open
lips pouting
blowing bubbles swirling
to the surface going
plop, plop

i twirl my tail stalling
fins on thin ether
groping
unsure where, what, why,
glass-eyed
trying to remember
who

*****

New Year

Parting the mist on New Year dawn
Waddling into the sun
Muffler-wrapped
A whiskered gentleman
Resolute on his morning walk.

*****

Convalescent *

Days come tumbling one over the other
In silent succession
Talking to me in familiar gestures—

Now the municipal garbage gatherer
Emptying the bin of yesterday’s waste,

Then the stout unsmiling milk vending dame
Carrying light her kettle and measure,

The newspaper boy flinging the day's fare
With the same precision over the gate,

The twin-jingle of his bycycle bell
Vanishing round the corner of the street...

I keep reciting the lines again and again
As though learning by heart
The jingle of an old rhyme.

*****

Checkmate *

On the clay-tiled floor
I spread myself like chess pieces,
sleeping all morning.

Dreaming...I perspire
over the next crucial move,
facing smiling void.

*****