Reader in the Mountains

A morning smile from a stranger And honest grateful eyes A soldier breathing better After falling through thin ice An unanticipated letter A well written ancient prose A book I had forgot I had With a hand-pressed red rose The footprints I left in snow As I climbed the mountaintop A bowlful of Mum's lentils With a tiny lemon drop Photographs of us together On a lone hiking trail Dense ruby sunset rays A little rain, a little hail The voices behind our war cry Two hopeful glistening eyes Tracing the track of a meteor A few necessary goodbyes The starry night on my window The endless bucket-list Slowly and steadily walking To have it all in my fist Fighting over the last piece Of red velvet cake Laughter filling the air around The memories that we made The things that keep me going Fill volumes of dusty pages They keep me warm inside When the world around rages

The air and dust inside my lungs The ink inside my pen The words behind the song I hum The drop I start to paint The spark within my ideas The blood without my fiery veins The peck of water down my throat The hail amidst my rain A little part of everything I am Is now home to you Some part dream, some part hope Some part joy, some part pain

The blazing sun in a pale blue sky Burning the blue away It cries and writhes in pain As the fire rises and sways The day takes its turn, now And only ashes remain Floating about in the empty sky The scathed blue's domain A tiny little breath escapes To blow the cloud away But it hangs as a reminder of the olden blue days I see tears rising to the sky But they are not in vain So long, dear blue, dear love So long, till you fall, my rain!

It is the field of my wishes It is the land of my dreams I may pick the petals away Or blow away the dandelion sprigs I may break the wishbone at my feet Or just sit still amidst the broken twigs I could feel the turbulent wind bursting Through the seams of my hands Erasing the blurred boundaries between mountains and lands There runs a yellow river shallow Slowly winding its way due north I could float amidst the minnows Never waiting for the sandy shore If only I could remember When my eyes face a brazen day The beauty in chasing yourself And never once shying away

I know him from the knobby fingers That held mine as I jumped onto The train to my nanihaal A child who wondered How trains switched tracks I know him from the answers that he etched in my mind I know him from the dentures That rested at night in a transparent plastic box And the way he would fiddle with it If only just to scare us The books that I grabbed from his library And the ones he brought to my lap His admiration for the queen riding her horse And how he would call her Razia Sultana I know him as the first feminist I knew Raising daughters in a world ruled by men To be free as the breeze To be fierce as the winds I know him from the scorns he faced so his daughters could fly The letters he wrote to his Sonamoni And his affection that bled through the inland I know him from the wax stamps And his steadily working hands I know him from the evenings in Patna When he'd sit us all on the porch And make us sing Billy Boy While he would sing along t...

Walking the silent winding alley of thoughts One day, I found you I should have known The mirror lies

Fear is just a word A little roll of tongue A little smell of the past That didn't go as hoped A little doubt on the plans That we dream for tomorrow Let it slip away Let it die alone Let not the fear crush your will to dream Let not the fear silence the victory scream For only one can live Fear or Destiny And what is destiny, my love If not a dream well lived?