6.45 pm on a Saturday, two bodies try to catch up
with traffic swayings and omnipresent speedbreakers
Our Maruti Alto negotiates its presence and passage
with bikes, cows and vegetable carts
A third body inverts itself between the two seats
Legs up and hands groping air reaching towards a wheel that juts out of the car dikkie
10 minutes of flailing in limbo
My right shoulder bettered
by an afternoon session
at the physiotherapist groans
A moment before I falter and let her jump
for her prized wheel and crash,
You park the car and jump out
Plucking our bawling distraught child out of my arms
In the car now drenched by a wave of silence
Shuddering more out of exhaustion than anticipation
I look out to see a vision radiating happiness
Vismaya in her new red and black tricycle
a fair distance away from the park.
with traffic swayings and omnipresent speedbreakers
Our Maruti Alto negotiates its presence and passage
with bikes, cows and vegetable carts
A third body inverts itself between the two seats
Legs up and hands groping air reaching towards a wheel that juts out of the car dikkie
10 minutes of flailing in limbo
My right shoulder bettered
by an afternoon session
at the physiotherapist groans
A moment before I falter and let her jump
for her prized wheel and crash,
You park the car and jump out
Plucking our bawling distraught child out of my arms
In the car now drenched by a wave of silence
Shuddering more out of exhaustion than anticipation
I look out to see a vision radiating happiness
Vismaya in her new red and black tricycle
a fair distance away from the park.
Published in The Punch Magazine, the Byword on 14/12/2019
https://thepunchmagazine.com/the-byword/poetry/her-marred-maang-and-other-poems
