Barsana

in the anemia of broken roads
the parrot call
is still as sweet as the red insides
of guavas in the afternoon
when she surely sleeps
beggars on steps that tumble
upon steps are not aggressive
and ripened corn through the view-finder
is parochial
so many widows whose begging
is like selling sex
so many hunch-backed cows
so much bramble
that black camels eat

her doors are beaten silver
and she is small
with big black eyes
that she will not blink
at this wind-swept light
merciless on the cornices
the monkeys travel long distances

to his conjecture
where beggars more aggressive
beg
and therefore get
food and money
excess flowers
and even monkeys know
it is forbidden to climb
on cell phone towers

to your house or fort
or castle where you played
exuberant pre-menstrual games
to your wind-swept heights
I give you your small black idol
I give you
your incredible eyes

Barsana is a village about a hundred kilometers south east of Delhi where Sri Radha (Lord Krishna's consort and prime devotee) is said to have been born and spent her childhood.

Ashok Niyogi, 52, graduated with Honors in Economics, from Presidency College, Calcutta University, India. He has been an International Trader for 30 years and has traveled the world many times over. Since 1985, he has lived and worked in the Soviet Union (CIS), Eastern Europe, South East Asia. He is now retired, and divides time between California, US, where his daughters live and Delhi, India, where his wife is a Corporate Manager. He still travels extensively in the Indian Himalayas, the Sierras, along the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal. Ashok has published a book of poems TENTATIVELY (ISBN-0-595-33935-2) and has been published extensively in print and on-line magazines and chapbooks in the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, Turkey, Hong Kong, Netherlands etc.

Email: Ashok Niyogi

Return to Table of Contents