The Look

Forgive me
Young man
For startling you
With my camera

I heard
But did not hear
You exiting the door

And my eye
Was on a scooter

For which I’d waited

A Boy in the Shadows

I step
From the shadows
Into the light
With the innocence
Of a child
Ready
To take flight

A family
Arranging a rickshaw
An essential
Every-moment moment
Of India
A million-times-a-day
Moment

A colourful picture
Beautiful
But the focus
Is a little short
The rickshaws
Are sharp
But the people
Are not

The devil
They say
Is in the details

But so too
Is the beauty

Therefore, God

Staggered by the
Scale as much as the
Stunning Beauty

All the lines
Are precise
And pristine
As to seem
An architect’s model
Atop his desk

Then I notice
The tiny figures
Taking photos and selfies

Come closer, dear
So I can come
To know you better

In your presence
I deliver myself
To your mysteries

Long have I known
Her beauty from afar
But I have longed
To know her in detail

Even the purest love
Requires a little maintenance
From time to time

A moment
A flash in passing
From a train window

A shawl
A dress
A woman

Old?

Yes

An old woman
Blending into the landscape
Now gone
Faster than you’ve read this
And soon enough
Forgotten

There is no grander crowd
Than Chandni Bazaar
Expansive
A bazaar of humanity
Vital, vibrant, vivid
Variety and spice

So I set up in the median
Camera in hand
And let the people come
Reveling in
Faces in the crowd