You should look at your home from a distance

You should look at your home from a distance
from where you can’t come back even if you must.
hoping fully you can come back some time
you should cross the seven seas.
From another country, as you keep going
turn and look back at your own country —
this earth of yours from outer space.
Remembering what kids are up to at home
will then be what kids are up to on the earth
Is there food at home, this thought
will be if there’s food on the earth
Someone hungry on the earth
will be someone hungry at home
And coming back to the earth
will be like coming back home

Everything at home is such a mess
that I walk a short distance before I come back home
as if towards the earth

It flew out of the sky

It flew out of the sky
a tiny little parrot
as if a green shoot had popped out
from the sky
and sat down in a tree
The tree was full of green
I couldn’t see the parrot
only the lush green of the tree.

I flung my key

I flung my keys
to the sky
Then I saw
the sky opening up
One of my keys must
be the key to the sky
It could be the key to my box

In the open sky
way up
five bombers came
and went
Two or three cockroaches
were seen
in my empty box
Turn the box upside down
they still don’t fall.

On the wall

Sitting on the wall
I’m tired
and hungry
And right next to me
is a crow
with a piece of bread
in his beak
his own share
that he has snatched
I think
what a pity!
I’m neither a crow
nor have I a beak –
After all what facial lines does a man like me have
that I can’t snatch my share!

In the sea where the sun was setting

In the sea where the sun was sinking
it was sinking in a way
that along with it even the West
was sinking
So for the sun to sink in tomorrow
the West won’t be there
It can sink in some other direction
If it can sink at all.

In the sea where the sun is rising
it rises like a seabird
that’s trying to rise
from the slick
Its wings smeared with oil
It can’t rise

To see this not-being-able-to-rise sun
No tourists thronged
No tourist souls
After this not-being-able-to-rise sun
Once the day is over
The not-being-able-to-rise sun goes down

When I went to see Bhim Baithaka

When I went to see Bhim Baithaka
we were all together
And in front went a corpse
in an open cart –
no way could we drive past it
When I managed to leave it behind
then all of us left it behind.
When I reached Bhim Baithaka
we all reached Bhim Baithaka.

In the rock shelters it was the leisure time of early man
deer-like, horse, monkey-like group-dancing-like time.
Up above, from a hollow in a stone, out flew
a flock of pigeons flapping their wings.
This was our time in nests of stone
with them
When I came back –
then we were together all of us.
On my way back, I saw the pigeons
going back to their nests of stone.