Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Dogs of the Dry Zone

The dogs limping or three legged
The dogs slouching on the road
The dogs smiling at each other
The dogs snarling over food

The flying dogs whipped in random formation
Over the late day lagoon
Over the humid water
Over the road on the dike
Under the clouds
Under the sky 
But in the sky


The roads with the buses as king
The size of the vehicle reckons its speed reckons its right of way reckons its owners wealth

Are the the rich fat and the poor skinny?
Does a helmet on both parents mean the child will be safe?
Is the rain hard enough to take shelter?
Are the clay lamps garbage if they're in a garbage heap?
Is a dog's meal in the garbage of a roadside restaurant?
Is a roadside restaurant selling brandy in that icy bottle. No. Just ice water.   
Is there palmyra toddy in the north? In the east?
Is it hot in the east like the north?
Are the upper fields fallow?
Are the upper fields alkaline?
Does the alkaline collect in the drains?
Do the drains need mending?
Do you see the tailor in his nighttime shop when you forgot your pants that need hemming?
Is the metal grate closing on the beer shop?
Is the metal screw greasy in the sluice gate?
Is the sluice gate cracked and muddy?
Do white termites fill the mud with purpose?
Does the mud run into the field?
Is the field in a state of permanent flux?


The dikelets small and flattened
And renewed every crop
And crowded with hay
And topped by knops of mud
And breached by stream portals
Like the portals of dreams
Like the portals of spillways
Like the slots in the rock
Slipped by slabs of stone
With rock and stone and mud in every space
And roads and paths and canals at every turn
With flocks and buses and beeps at every place
And homes for Ganeshas, runic, repainted, and sculptural.  

Formed by stream portals
Like the portals of dreams
Like the portals of spillways
Like the slots in the rock
Slipped by slabs of stone
With rock and stone and mud in every space
And roads and paths and canals at every turn
With flocks and buses and beeps at every place
And homes for Ganeshas, runic, repainted, and sculptural. 


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