Seeing North Light

Thursday, April 21, 2016

for Inderjit Badhwar

If not for leavings in swept streets

would cows roam free and stray dogs eat?

to Lodhi Gardens from the Taj at dawn

stepping into the street when not yet light

to avoid a family’s sleeping feet

bare white soled along the pavement

where their business lived

then before breakfast crossing the road

to walk a circuit of Muslim tombs

entering formal gardens through park gates

joining others brought by car

then back past that other Badhwar’s house

ham rashers

fried eggs

toast

not yet reading India Legal

Cassandra predicts

though we know what she tells us

won’t long restrain us

where roads and paths meet

sign posts sometimes point five ways

onwards we travel

more choices more roads
to all points of the compass

never turning back

cold flowering jasmine

yellow follows pink

fuchsias frost withered

some hummingbirds stay

all winter now

on New Year's Eve they warn of Spring