Time strikes with heavy beats,

And trails along the forlorn floor.

The gloss and hues glide and frolic out,

The bustling life, horns’ honks, toddlers disciplined in school dresses,

And the road swept late with swirls of dust hailing the dazzling light.

Vegetables haggled and sold and bought under the sun’s gaze,

And the shrews at loggerheads with crowd as witness in massive size.

The ambulance hares away blowing the hooter,

And the traffic in obeisance squeezes apart.

Crockery clatters in neighbour’s kitchen, 

And the cooker screeches, five or six times.

The woozy body stretched in the dark chamber,

And the frazzled mind fancies for the blithe spirit beaming and bouncing out.   

———-Dr. Fathema Begum