Here no logos
Here no corporations
All the same but not
Imagine ordered chaos
Frenetic stillness
Waiting for an event
Ever in progress
Then find five men at rest
In the midst of disorder and tumult
One obscured
Ever changing
Ever the same
A paradox of contradictions
Such is
Chandni Chowk
A maze of amazement
Selling all you might want
And never wanted
An eternity of moments
In every moment
Among them five still men
In a state of unrest
The burden
For those
Who carry
No burden
Irony
In a sea
Of burdens
I drift with the flood
Of beauty in the human spirit
Even in weighty moments of need
Through the market streets
They carry precious cargo
Enigmatic tale
This parade of life
This hubbub of trade
Of needs
Of desires
This chaos of order
And community
And here am I
Amid the throng
In the moments between
Want and have
In the choices between
Necessity and pleasure
This is existential quandary
Alone in my thoughts
In a sea of solitary moments
Each a universe
Borne from a solitary mind
Known only to itself
These in parallel all
With the essentials
Of desire
And necessity
A flurry of universes
Sharing a single dimension
While in my universe
The bodies of a thousand strangers
Dance in cadence
With the flow of trade
A performance at once
Exquisitely mundane and beautiful
Market day patience
Soft light for light-hearted friends
Heavy load their throne
I marvel
For a moment
At the saris
Hanging in the shops
A spectacle of
Colour
Texture
Pattern
Each sari unique
Tightly packed
In the confines
Of tiny shops
Not at all unlike
The thrumming humanity
In the narrow streets
Of Chandni Chowk
The thing about travel is
Something so everyday
As a group of friends
Hanging out on a street corner
Seems extraordinary…
…even beautiful
The thing about extended travel is
Once familiarity renders
The extraordinary as everyday
The sense of beauty in the mundane
Remains…
…and travels home with me
You with the sad eyes
Who found the glass
In this swarm of activity
And I released the shutter
Capturing your moment
Of I know not what
Tired?
Beaten down?
Or just weary
Of yet another tourist
Stealing a moment of your life
For a purpose you’ll never know
One small moment of
Solitude in the chaos
Unladen Burdens