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We Sit In The Airport At Delhi
We sit in the airport at Delhi
Flight to Varnasi delayed
For uncertain hours
Bomb blast at the Hindu shrines
Ganges now carrying the dismembered.
I did not know, but I am told
Our tickets do not entitle us for
Boarding or lodging
She looks at the children under the signage
For the cafeteria on the second level
Jumping up and down and asking to be taken there
They are also going to Varanasi
The parents shouting at them to be quiet
The counter clerk gives the kids a Cadbury and a coke can
More noise and merriment as they pull at the mother's jacket.
I think of the girl
I refused to marry thirty years ago
we learnt of her affair with a local youth
We never knew for a fact
She disappeared crying
But never from my lonely moments
May be she would have mattered.
I think of uncle's daughter
Sister becoming daughter-in-law
May be she would have mattered.
I look now at wife's face
In the stranded airport
On way to Varanasi,to the eternal river, the Ganges
Looking longingly at the kids
All the guys who would have mattered.
A.Thiagarajan
Email: A.Thiagarajan
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