In a childs hands

horseshoe stakes become cymbals
bean bags begin bean wars
fishing rods become swords
and hoola hoops can rain as drops

Sixty years later

Dee does not care about things she hasnt worked for. There was a rumor that ism would not be tolerated. Her friend Umbre's life is hard to imagine without the daily routine of chants. She cannot recall the hymns she sang every morning. Her book is warped with alphabets she cannot recognise.


After listening to the Mongolian throat singing, I can appreciate the mockingbird emanating throaty buzzes.

Looking down from the Light house , SanDiego seemed like a Greek polis with occupied rolling land.

Glovebox has the answer

A banana cracked open at an edge in the center. Ill fitting pants. The crack didnt reveal anything unexpected. For the most part since it is homogenous, except for the small dots inside. Imperceptible. The threads are louder. Even with its nose cone, it is hard to eat it fast with its filling taste in fewer bites.

Long time ago, a good friend urged me to go through the car manual. With no problems, it is hard to find your way through a manual for a solution that you only need later. service checkup revealed that a HEPA filter had to be changed. If outsourced, it would cost lot. Now is the time to look at the manual. For the current problem, the manual suggests dealer as the answer. Some self help videos and some confusion resulted in a good part (recently replaced) - air filter being replaced. Do-it-yourselfs make you believe in the impossible. A look at the glovebox, it aint gonna give. Other models flap in. It is supposed to be easy. Push in from the sides and it is expected to fall down vertically, revealing the cabin filter. With so much insistence of its possibility, it had to be true. The car now has a clean cabin filter. A look at the contents of the old filter - makes one think that its job is to chop cut trees into manageable size before trashing. Only these twigs and leaves are dehydrated. Inmates in car should smell the wilderness.

If entry into your car is not push button, you have a curfew coming up. If battery failure can prevent start up, how dont the extensive tests reveal its status? A shutdown which resets your radio, clock and thereby forces you to go the manual. A code could lie in a piece of paper in a tiny ziploc, with its knowledge that someday that those numbers would be punched in to unlock a radio while you are in ignorance until that moment. Suddenly the dashboard has secret letters which will get you back to correct time. If I am suprised that I will use some of the buttons to punch in numbers, I am even more to hold one long enough to beep.

The Art of Maintenance has just begun. The car decides to unfold itself through the crack of the hood and the glovebox. More mysteries ahead.

Feigning Immortality

The radio sends smooth waves
while the listener drifts to sleep
may be one more song
and then I can pull the plug

While the brain drifts to sleep
The hand that can pull the plug
waits for a discordant song

What kids see

At a grocery store, I set the milk gallons on the ground, waiting for the conveyor belt to roll forward and bring up space from the bottom. A kid of four or so, lifts the gallon saying thats easy. I admired his strength. He then found a toy baseball and threw it. It landed on the belt. He had many questions for the cashier. when the belt was free, he was going to help me lift the gallons on to the belt. As he moved ahead, he asked me to check if there was another baseball from where he had picked the previous one. His eyes couldnt reach it, but the mischievous must feel the presence of a green lit button on everything.

Carrying the tree

Right after a workout
the world looks new
A tree overlooking the road
now framed by jacaranda trees
with flowers and no leaves

On my way to work
I pick the
clumps of flowers - unwilted
green stems like lines
to keep the color with me
throughout the day

Avian Gardener

A lantana surrounds
a plant with leaves
triangular
like a betel leaf

Above by the
side is a
bird house
with different seeds

farmer of the spilt

Display

A baby squirrel
beat its tail
as long as itself
over its back
a threat display

A mockingbird
lands onto the grass
picking a grain or worm
in the wet
A cat still young
to know its tail as its own
was all stealth
with hidden movement
in its hind legs
The bird then hung
around for a while
on an arch
a lamp
a rooftop

Pregnant

still early
massage said the nurses
lying on the table
I felt cuts into
hard calves
pumice over dead skin

Shadow

Have you seen
a shadow run
or even walk
on the ground

In the days

when playing with
dirt was fun
You hide a small stick
in a clump of sand and
shape it like a small
long bank.
Your friend marks the
place where the stick
might be with joined
hands on the ground
If you find the
stick in the unmarked
area you win

A bird is a color

Dark Goldenrod with black spots
Two birds with opposite pigments
small Owls
I regard them,
they fling a
one and half insect
I let the memorabilia crawl

I regard a baby
her shriek talk
her palm tight softness
she shies her head around

Night's voice

Does the night sing
like a bird awake
or stars twinkle loud
do the crickets lend
their chatter or is
it their drone, snore?

In this monophony,
the bear watchful
of a handful kid
is always silent

Preserving mould

A finsihed form
vs the flutes and
folds of a hanging cloth
Why are the edges and
walls polished
smooth, perfect
parallel, perpendicular

A prickly pear
next to a
grass bush

Memory

is a mischance
of steps traced back
to spot the hawk like
bird at the edge
of a tangle of walls
from the l b h sides

All the times you
stop by
the flower,
the ants,
for the time they deserve
they stay on
their stalks,
their mounds
forever.