Vijaya Sundaram

Poet, Musician, Teacher, and Amateur Visual Artist

Day-Night-Quiet — Pune, India – (A Poem)

Near Pune Station 1986

Day-Night-Quiet — Pune, India

©By Vijaya Sundaram

Written in India, on Friday, July 16, 2010

And the hills coming closer

Closer, closer

Marching towards the buildings

Being built

And the sky reaching

Towards the claustrophobic

To pluck them, gasping, into open space,

And the slim bais walking along the road

Not yet bent by hard work

In the houses of the rich,

The not-so-rich, and the toilers,

Walking proud, strong, upright

Knowing it is they

Who keep the dust at bay.

And the blood streaming

Through my arteries,

Through veins, dreaming

Along the shores

Of my being, reminds me

Of all that goes on, while all

This toil proceeds in the world

Around the edges of my skin.

And the crickets chirping

And the dogs yelping

And the buses hooting

And the rickshaws snorting

And the trucks squawking

And the light bulb humming

And the baby crying

In the flat below,

And my neurons abuzz

With mindless chatter

Non-stop chatter, flitting

From this to that, from thought

To feeling, from shapeless notion

To an idea taking form,

Taking up all my mindspace

And my mind craving quiet.

And quietness presses in

Opens her petals,

And the buzzing comes to

A dreaming halt

Drinking in the nectar

Of sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The End~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~