When the panther is in its element and the parrots screech like rusted wheels.
When you are locked by the gaze of a bull and come to be suddenly situated
In an eternal summer.
(Summer of table-top mountains that is circled
By the floating gondolas and schooners of memorable clouds)
Then, it is time for the spirit to leap from one glorious stone to another
Like a spotted frog.
Can you dare to know what lies on the other side of the
Velveteen curtains of the butterflies that slice the sun-lanced air?
Whether the chattering of the cicadas points to possibilities of what could be.
Whether we can ever replicate the creepers
steady in their progress towards an airy outpost.
The hum of the radio from the greased cycle shop
Is matched by the buzz of the flies
And the jack fruit trees are happy
To throw their shadows on languorous dogs.
Be perpetually indebted to the solid doorway of the limitless
That leads through the veranda to a permanent brightness.
Bhupender K Bhardwaj 28, cleared the Indian Civil services examination in 2013 and works in the capacity of an IRTS officer with the Ministry of Railways, Government of India. He is a graduate in Sociology from St. Xavier's College, Mumbai. He has been composing poetry for the last few years. His influences are Derek Walcott and Seamus Heaney. His poems have been published by Mad Swirl, Indian Review, the Galway Review, the Legendary, Random Poem Tree and Kingston Creative Writers' Blog, among others. Also, last year he was longlisted for the Toto Awards for Creative Writing 2016 in the Poetry category, and shortlisted for the Poetry Society of India's annual poetry prize organized in association with the British council of India.
