The daily walk opens to a horizon aglow
Smudging sky blue with orange-yellow
The birds now back home go non-stop
Sharing tales from familiar pitstops,
Breathless, without please or pause
Of sly meals and lazy pickings
Of near misses and smart escape
… from benches and branches
And of the sights and sounds of
Dreary drama and overheard story
From sills and shade of many a storey.

As the peak hour approaches
Irritable beings in plush metal cages
Wait at the traffic junction
Honk without any compunction
Another ugly display of the daily edition
The twittering birds, barely competition.
Meanwhile, buses have their say
Burly bullies claim right of way
With people clinging on, life hanging in balance
Scattering terrified traffic
Hoping to see another day.

I hasten my strides
As my mind’s work gains pace
Solving the world’s problems
And examining vexed questions
Scripting replies to weighty mails
Overwriting checklists and ‘to-dos’
Reprising past conversations
Counting the hearts that I land in
Finally, those quiet minutes
As vehicles thin out and the birds wind down
I hear the silence and feel my emptiness.

Back in my austere room,
To thoughts and things strewn around
A weary body, an unwilling mind
Moves things around
In exaggerated acts of tidying up
Pages from life’s ledger-
Unacknowledged gifts and unfinished business
Unexamined questions and unexpressed truths
Unasked affections and unattended hurt
An existence bleak and bare
In loneliness and despair

An arduous task this-
When circumstances seem beyond repair
To reclaim life’s blessings
Recall deals struck and debts squared
Of compensation and favourable comparison
Of people met who still care
And those who lay their heart bare
To be the love rather bemoan the lack
Tempting, tiresome, the charms of fate
It is not all over and never too late
Till the last ball is bowled on the appointed date

A final entry made, the scorekeeper moves on
Not a moment to waste, another game on.