MUMBAI

Pigeons will still fly
In that sea breeze
My hand will still hold you from the waist
I will still drop you at that Yari Road flat
Love will still ride us
In that Andheri fast local
I would still want to be kissed
In this sweat, grime, gunfire of Mumbai

NOTHING MUCH HAPPENED WHILE YOU WERE ASLEEP

While you were asleep
A chrysanthemum bloomed
Not in lines with time, season
or the order of the flowerbeds

I knocked at our ancestral dream
And found the doors locked
And silence swept me ashore
In fading memory
In blur of our being
I clung to a name

Nothing much happened
While you were asleep
Except the waiting
And the rediscovered warmth
Of wooly reassurance

Another chrysanthemum
Randomly