The Laughing Elevator

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

I arrived just in time,
To hear them snicker, giggle and whine.
Enclosed in a hung box
Were two timeless souls- intoxicated.
I pressed my ears to the door.
The voices drowned and fell
Till I could not hear anymore.
The talk was amorous,
Unsophisticated, innocuous; banter of love.
The innocence I thought was passe
Came back in a chorus.
I followed suit in the silent cubicle
And caught them at the gate.
My lover’s arms linked like a chain
To a man I wasn’t acquainted.
Am I to blame?
Was I late?

BEGGAR IN HIS DAY


The sun wasn’t a fireball still,
A lighter tone, it showed above the hill.
The night has shed its black cloak,
To let in the day for trees to soak.
Crows and wood pigeons have made the first noise,
Yet a fellow is unmindful of his poise.

So, a new day is born,
The beggar is oblivious of the morn,
He slumbers still, his outlook unmade,
At noon he’ll be up looking for shade.
The haggard never lived a halcyon day,
His serenity of mind, intemperate hunger took away.
A derelict ungulate licks his face,
The derelict beggar scrambles out of his phase.
He arches his back and sits up dazed,
His everyday life had begun chequered and mazed.
He mutters some expletive curses at the goat,
Rummaging in his pockets for yesterdays oats.
Every passerby to him seems zany,
They swagger along every minute so they count to many.
His measly meal was over; empty hands for tomorrow,
The day after brought less of grain and more of sorrow.

Twilight ushered in at nobody’s call,
He counted his receiving; the day was to fall,
A stroll to the beggars stall near the temple,
Then back to his slot for the next day’s jumble.
He knew no friend, fiend or foe,
Cared not for the almighty to swipe his woe.
The night was insinuated into the sky,
In his insouciant sleep he would happily die