Long Satchels Poems

I. Sighting

I saw you  
through refracted light-  
a prism of chance  
splitting ordinary into spectrum.  
Wind-tangled hair  
terra cotta and rosemary beneath your nails  
the scent of soil and...

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Sire she's been sighted
two miles south of Sinai,
our sentinels say she has brought a river,
her baggage train stretches into the ancient sands,
the envoys of her retinue spoke of marvelous gifts,
beasts and creatures of the Orient
gems...

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The silence of morn makes this place forlorn
in the fields, the hillsides, and trenches.
Over two hundred years since the bloodshed and fear,
yet you can hear the yells, smell the stenches.
The crush of the blue, charging...

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(Dedicated to the Victims of Nuclear Weapons)

Though in the later years I was born,
Yet history makes me forlorn,
Rocks me back in the past behind,
To the horrible event and tragic morn.

I see the roses with blighted...

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Their satchels (twenty five) within auto-rickshaw seats dumped,
Same number (small and big; fat and lean; boys and girls) tight-clumped;
Some hanging; some stamping; some hitting and kicking each one;
The driver, gliding as though great battle won...

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Early morning, while walking down the country road
I saw a group of children, school bound in crisp uniforms
Oh it is August, I suddenly remembered
And the schools have opened after the summer holidays

Like birds unleashed from...

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Nothing like new polished shoes,
new dress, when restarting school,
up the bus in one and twos,
warm jacket, embroidered wool!
Cackle of sounds and laughter,
words without weighted wisdom,
atop a double decker,
relish of childhood freedom!
Lessons in school, miles away,
but...

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Scarlett thought she was promised permanent security. 
Satchels of resilience bound her fragile wrists. 
Woodland deities hailed her.
Underworld demons feared her.
The curious townsfolk simply stood in contemplation - 
Inviting epee's gleamed in their eyes 
as...

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I was pulled out of the school; doomed into hard labor,
To my home, at budding age, I became a life-saver...!

When kids of my age, with stylish satchels, proceed to school,
I, in cracker-workshops noxious, chemicals heat...

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The Benaminis are a family of rodents,
who live their lives capitalizing on other
peoples' residences,
They scope the homes when they're not 
home,
or invade it when only one member's alone,
They scamper up and down,
acting like confounded clowns,
going...

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Five stones     
                 closing times
radiograms and
         ...

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Five stones
                closing times
radiograms and
              seventy-eights
school caps
              sticklebacks
saturday flicks,pooh sticks

Charabancs
             ...

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"How sweet to the heart are the scenes of my childhood"

            Samuel Woodworth, 1785-1842


standing on the window of my friend’s house,
we let childhood imaginations...

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Five stones closing times 
     radiograms & seventy-eights
 school caps      sticklebacks
 saturday flicks    pooh sticks
 Charabancs       ...

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There’s fish and chips on the table 
It’s lovely and all piping hot
Sauce and vinegar was in bottles
Salt and pepper  each in its pot.
Now it’s laid out on the table
Driving me more and more...

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So polite. Wearing gloves. And hats. Hair in Easter colors.
Church ladies; prissy, smiling, crackling in their perfumes.
Flowered dresses, sitting primly on the hard wooden pews,
Singing in loud overtones songs they have known for decades.

Smiling at...

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My grandmother gave me this darkness
of eyes and hair. Our ancestors were gypsies
begging, wide skirts, skittish heels
before the doors to cathedrals.

My grandmother gave me this quivering 
chin and sharp nose. Our ancestors were insane.
They emigrated...

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Sleeping in perplexity
with velvet wings and iris eyes
aghast at dreams which don't comply
with all I think they signify
Breathing irregularity
with sashay coughs and biting teeth
impressed with everything I lose
in this night's dreams, beyond my reach
Catching night...

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