Billowing Smoke
Big bursts of billowing smoke
Wildfires bright, Canadian plight,
We cannot breathe!
The eyes water,
Our voices strain
It settles down for the night.
Has it really come to this?
The world is on fire
All I see is smoke
What a bummer,
All I want is summer, instead:
Big bold billowing smoke!
A sideshow covering the circus
Clowns in mad hats oblivious
To the changing of the guard
the end
Hindustani Rail-gadi1 Vignettes – 1
Underdogs win coins with humble smiles,
by
distributing free blessings
to
folks; who’re afraid to offend a ‘god’
disguised
as a beggar.
Popular songs blare through loudspeakers
At paan2-shops,
unite fakir3 and merchant alike
With
laments about unrequited love.
Lulling chug-chug soon has heads nodding off
To the
soothing beats, forgetting the heat
For
droplets of blissful naps.
Instant friendships strike up even during
Arguments
about local, regional, national,
Or
international politics.
Fertile land runs by, with abandoned ruins of
occasional
temples dotting kilometers
of
nodding crops of mustard and wheat.
Tea-sellers do well at quenching thirst, as they
hand in
Steaming clay-baked cups through windows
While patrons drop down coins
From the slow-moving train’s window
pulling out from the nowhere station.
Intangible peace that one gets by being away
from
The nitty gritty of everyday life,
As one is carried along with the flow of life.
Non-material, immaterial, other-worldly, or
ethereal?
Philosophical discussions abound about
ideologies
Between an open-minded pundit and a Sufi
writer,
Exploring similarities, connections, between
their religions.
Gleeful children enjoy this adventure
Play tricks, pop b’day balloons, ask
inquisitive questions
Unmindful of the heat, dust, or parental
irritation.
Foot-notes: 1train; 2 mouth-freshening ingredients wrapped in betel-leaf chewed by millions of Indians; 3a person who has given up worldly possessions due to their spiritual quest
Acrostic: Uplifting
Note: previously published in the Border Beats Journal 2023; and in Verse/Virtual, May 2026
Scenes from a Hindustani Rail-gadi
(returning from Europe, and travelling on an
Indian train)
Women carry bricks, water pots,
On their
heads, or children on bent backs;
Provide
for hungry families,
Do
grueling house-work
After
hours of back-breaking manual labor.
Integral to joint family life,
Elderly
people are cossetted, protected
On
chugging trains by faithful children.
Shared resources, community spirit,
cooperation
lead to betterment for most
family
members, entire neighborhoods.
Essence of hope that attracts thousands of
dreams,
brides, widows, businessmen, farmers, pilgrims
to the holy Ganga to wash off a myriad of sins,
as millions of bubbles pop under the purifying
sun.
Acrostic: Wise
Note: previously published in Candyman’s Trumpet Journal, April 2026
En Route
to Infinity
Fatal
germs hit his fragile health,
Vesuvius
erupted, pure molten gold,
Damaged
weak lungs, working by stealth.
On road
to eternity was jolted and bowled.
Packed
off to Rome, like so many bones,
Not even
his effigy would ever be made,
Burden
on friends? Weighed like stones.
Anonymous
swamps his ghost would wade.
In own
wracked ruins, would he now roam?
As big
as squeezed heart, was hole in dome?
No clan
to decry his cheek’s ashy pall,
Except
for a sister, sequestered, small.
To dear
friend, was always polite,
Except
when hollowed chest clamped too tight.
Note:
inspired by Keats’s journey to Rome.
Previously
published in Spillwords in September 2017
Al
A Saturday on Saturn
