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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


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