Layers

Returning home at night, alone

Sometimes the lights go out

A second of blackness, sudden pause, to

Make sense of the world about.

The same alley, the same homes

Familiar shapes loom around

Uncertain, unknown. Silhouettes of ink

Melt into the next without a sound.

Slowly, slowly, the eyes adjust

Learn to look up from the street

See beyond the always seen, where

Darkness with the starlight meet.

Hear the gentle rustle of the leaves

As the coconut softly sways

Smell the subtle kamini

Missed so often on other days.

Look up, the faint white clouds

Lazy cross the sky from east to west

With a rare breath of fullness

Draw deep the air and fill my chest.

And I realize I'm smiling wide

Feeling blessed for the moment's sake

The lights were out, the houses mute

But the alley had come awake.

23 Nov 2008