Friday, 29 April 2022

Why I buy the things I do

I bought it because 

Number one excuse 

The shopkeeper 

In that hutment there 


Reminded me of a cousin 

Who I vividly remember

The chap did nothing 

The whole day, ever 


But he spoke kindly 

With his arms spindly 

His teeth with paan stain 

Sigh , don't try in vain 


To comprehend my reasons 

As to why I bought the mud 

Pot , meant to feed bird (s) 

It leaks . Even the chaps sons 


In confiding whispers, told  me so 

But he looked so much like dadu 

I can understand when it beats u 

How a man in dhoti cheats me , oh 


That another woman in a white saree 

Smiling in  all her toothless glee 

At my apparent gullibility 

When I let her give me , almost for free 


Two rotten gourds , which she lugged 

All the way from her stone age hut 

I felt my grandmother , as she hugged 

Me .Her breath of cloves and betel nut 


I can't begin to explain 

The smell of familiar pain 

Of my  village-y yesteryears , 

All scraped afresh , it appears 


Not sounding like Celine Dion 

But it's all returning ,coming 

Haunting me ,

Taunting me 


For I, who went farthest 

Climbing the hills highest 

Crossed rivers at their widest 

At heart, remained the closest.







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