Truth lies sprawling

        in sunny meadows
                                on hilltops
and whistling under giant mango trees
on steep
    summer
        slopes.

       [fact #3: everything's spinning]

I lie waiting for friends looking at camel-shaped time.

What good is philosophy when you have the thighs
      of the many-limbed earth to rest on?

   [fact #2: to keep pace with nights, half our souls are black]

At the edge of the river the night comes a-blinding
      on bat wings.

I look at the mountains and tell them:

I WANT TO LIVE LIKE YOU!

[speculation #1: machines may take over the world, but will they be writing poetry?]

Moonlight on a signpost on my walk back home:
  ‘Trespassers will be Prosecuted.’

I get back into my 2BHK flat –
a quick flip in the dictionary to know what BHK means today: blasted halfway kettledrum;
yesterday it was boronia hessian koan.

A glance at the corner of the room
            comforts me – it’s given over to spiders

[fact #1: Our only responsibility is to sing our children back into wild spaces]

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Salil Chaturvedi
salilwheels@gmail.com