Between Silence And Sound

By Rajiv Khandelwal

Fatigued Mom

Her breath gripped by chronic cough

Lay as pale as a face bleached by time

Hovered at the gate of wake and dream

How do you feel?” I dared to ask

Her voice, once a thunder like Victoria Falls

Now softened to a quiet murmur

“I’m exhausted,” she said with conviction

“For today, I travelled to Delhi

To meet a doctor with grandson Varun

Memory and imagination—

Faithful architects of the mind

Drenched her with invented vision

Reality left behind

At her autumn age

I stood, uncertain, unsure

What can one say

Can words suffice?

For a shifting mirage of reality

Later

Came the call

Like a Celebratory firework 

                                           In the middle of a funeral  

The worker’s wife, 

In a tone 

              Accusatory 

“You failed us this Diwali

Your Brother, our employer, 

Was generous  

                     Gave us gifts 

You gave nothing 

How could you forget us?”

Two moments 

Each a mirror,

Reflecting perceptions—

I stood speechless

As tongue-tied 

As the cuckoo clock stripped of the cell 

Voiceless 

I listened 

             Absorbing their pain

             Like parched ground 

By Rajiv Khandelwal