Jhilam Chattaraj
Off white chalk after
Khajaguda Hills, Hyderabad
Stones
on Khajaguda Hills
release April heat.
Bulldozed skies
turn to grey thunder —
strangers become lovers.
They grow bird wings,
explore every rock,
seek safe routes
for interrupted hearts.
Far, in the blur,
Golkonda listens
to the familiar dirge
of rain-fragrant stones.
Gneissic, granite —
very hard and very old,
melt into a pool
of real estate gamble.
Opulence — brims, spills.
Each boulder is stamped
with man’s image of God.
Twilight’s azaan fills the sky.
Dim lights of the dargah
embrace wet, weary pilgrims.
Elephant-skinned stones
bend and pray, hoping
to halt the constant breakage,
but fail. Rocks shatter
rubble to lucre —
wounds erase history.
Khajaguda Hills, Hyderabad
Stones
on Khajaguda Hills
release April heat.
Bulldozed skies
turn to grey thunder —
strangers become lovers.
They grow bird wings,
explore every rock,
seek safe routes
for interrupted hearts.
Far, in the blur,
Golkonda listens
to the familiar dirge
of rain-fragrant stones.
Gneissic, granite —
very hard and very old,
melt into a pool
of real estate gamble.
Opulence — brims, spills.
Each boulder is stamped
with man’s image of God.
Twilight’s azaan fills the sky.
Dim lights of the dargah
embrace wet, weary pilgrims.
Elephant-skinned stones
bend and pray, hoping
to halt the constant breakage,
but fail. Rocks shatter
rubble to lucre —
wounds erase history.
Ananda Buddha Vihara, Mahendra Hills, Hyderabad
Detachment descends
from Buddha’s Peepal —
a lime-and-stone Bodh Gaya
on the summit of Mahendra hills.
A monastery of marbled stairs,
quaint gardens, fluttering prayer flags,
and bony mongrels
behind boyish monks.
Cymbals claim the hectic air —
‘buddham, saranam, gacchami.’
At the end of the arched hallway,
gilded Buddha blooms into a lotus.
His eyes etched in white,
pacify tearful galaxies —
an attempt to receive
the radiance of our being.
Below, lies the city of carbon —
digital nirvana.
Poets and pilgrims
arrive with broken toes.
Ripples of ache
dissolve into satin sleep,
and slowly, very slowly
breath becomes the light of stars.