An Evening Where I Walk With Him!
English Translation: Madhuri Palaji
Telugu Original : Dr K.Geeta
Whenever we step out of the house
For an ‘evening walk’
My long lost
Childhood friend
Suddenly
Stands in front of me
An old
Familiar smile
Re-appears
That hour where
The one
Who never
Acknowledges my presence
Becomes my fellow traveller
Quickly escapes
From time
And plunges
Like a waterfall
That day’s stock market profits or losses-
Or office latest topics-
In his words
Strangely
Become dangling earrings
To my ears
When he attentively listens to
The cute words
Of our lovely kids
I tell him
They gleam
Like thousands of moons
Behind his moustache
When we both
Walk
Along the path
Crossing the street
Turning the corner
Crossing the school
Crossing the children’s park
The gardens with blooming flowers
And the beautiful bushes lined up
In front of every house
Peek
At us
To the end of the street
All along the path
With starry eyes
That sparkle in the dark
The fountains
That cascade in the evening
At every step
Become artificial rain
Shining like rainbows
In the slanting evening light
And catapult
By turning into bees
With round water wings
The cozy conversations
We tell each other
Become coolers
To our brains that are heated
Due to the day spent in front of machines
And to our bodies that are tired
Because of the work pressure
The evening walk
Where the long lost
Inner childhood friends
Walk
Hand in hand with us
Laughing and giggling
Becomes a picnic everyday
Three miles become
Three feet
In the evening walk
Which changes us into being human
From being machines
Everyday renewing our
Wedding vows
When we forgot about
Each other
*****
Madhuri Palaji is a writer and book reviewer from India. Her book “Poems of The Clipped Nightingale” is available on Kindle. She writes book reviews for various publishing houses like Penguin Random House, Meerkat Press, Hot Tree Publishings, Bethany Publishers, etc. She is one of the top 50 book reviewers in India. Her reviews are available at http://www.theclippednightingale.com/