Now

Forever thirty eight years before
whistling was our mutual code
birdbath washing was my signal
yours, binoculars at the door.

no obstacles were walls or sides
roads and foot paths were our friends;
walks and talks and motorbike rides
sailed through college, festivals, exams.

our two ill-timed discarded beings,
this cinderella stands in tattered sari
entangled in suctioning wheels
ducking, diving, dodging worry.

transport halted by two assassinations
we trudged on potholed cobbles
grateful for our chance occasions,
painting palaces, life and travels.

over the South China Sea we flew,
two people only for each other;
stalwarts in the mud life threw,
we faced a thousand wars together.

childbirth, joy, then almost-loss,
work and late nights braked the roll.
parents’ health, financial stress,
pressure cooked acidic whirl.

walls now spiked with steely wires,
embedded deep into the plaster,
rooftop ledges once scaled with ease,
leaky and useless for our shelter.

mattresses that dipped in centre
slope now convexly at the edges.
crossword games are played and let loose;
voices raised in strident wedges.

summer’s green has turned to brown,
ochre shades are falling leaves.
fertile flowering plants and blossoms
overgrown and choked with weeds.