“Limited Engagement”

What we receive, we return
Not because we are petty creatures
Whose moral account keeping
Rivals that of the local chartered accountant
Whose brass shingle hangs crookedly
After the last heavy winds blew through

But because, in the pot on the stove
The milk rose so high when we weren’t looking
That we are still trying to scrub the remnants
And the burnt smell hasn’t left the air
So all our future meals carry the sense imprint
Of all the times we tried for normalcy

We disappear more than we arrive
Making sure to gather the pearls of laughter
That we may dwell on their precious lustre
Long after the people who laughed with us
Have turned their voices to newness
And still we cherish the echoes

We shrink from the full moon phases
Glad for the cloudy Amavasya nights
When we can appear the way we feel
Listening to the hunger pangs of the observant
Urging them to live our possibilities too
Accepting the deepest fears they project onto us

If I ever again wear the sun’s flaming robes
It will be because you asked me to
And I saw your love shining in your actions
So I trembled with the trust I placed in you
And you let me keep my cloak and my shield
While your lap transformed into the night sky.

Radha.