With the moon

really close,

and fourteen percent brighter,

I have at last deciphered

that I feel heavy,

with today’s ergonomics.

 

Are you worried about water retention?

Take your diuretic,

but as in everything else,

ensure moderation.

 

Lest we flow away.

 

This is the confluence,

after this

the ocean,

they say

this moon brings with it

turbulent tides,

and nagging bone-marrow pain.

 

Without water

we will be left with salt.

Do not look at  this moon

with naked eyes,

we do not have

the protection of cataract

that our fathers had.

 

Amidst the knowledgeable chatter

of our granddaughter,

and sparrows,

martins,

and sundry other

talkative birds,

who do not care,

about the angles of their office chair,

 

fetch anonymity

and loving care.

 

Even though she came to visit,

when the moon was new,

she left behind

her ‘animal’ book,

which we can read

by  the uncanny light

of this extraordinary moon,

above our autumn grass.

 

MIZMAZE

 

across the road

they have started a takeaway

for tiny Narcissus flowers

 

“big appetites welcome”

 

the mitzvah of Mithras

is muffled in the scent

of autumnal flowering

of roadside trees

that impart shade

and unexplained allergies

 

dictionaries fall apart

like a life hitherto sequestered

by intrepid dreams

the imaginary roles

of nobody as a somebody

like a short penultimate syllable

before the sleeping pills take hold

 

from the colored center

of small white flowers

fragrance unfolds

 

 

Ashok Niyogi is an Economics graduate from Presidency College, Calcutta. He made a career as an International Trader and has lived and worked in the Soviet Union, Europe and South East Asia in the ‘80s and ‘90s.  At 52, he has been retired for some years and has been cashew farming, writing and traveling. He divides time between California, where his daughters live, Delhi and the Indian Himalayas. He is increasingly involved in his personal spiritual quest and studies scripture. He has published a book of poems, TENTATIVELY, [ISBN :0-595-33935-2] and has been extensively published in print and on-line magazines and in Chapbook form in the USA, UK, Australia and Canada.