Street Secrets

Written for Round 3 of the Slam Contest (Item ID: 554585)

Street Secrets


Yesterday, I saw two street - kids sniggering
At something I was unable to understand;
They held one another and spoke vividly:
Of stars and cash and lamp-lit houses, perhaps?
Or of school and ice-creams and clean clothes?
I had not the slightest inkling.

He clapped the other's hands and laughed,
A mirthless laugh with carious teeth,
They stood below a banyan tree, pointing
To where some people had gathered;
A bleeding cur stood whining and licking
its wound where a large flower pot had fallen on it.

Why should that sight evoke a laugh?
Had the boy been similarly struck by that pot
Or did he know the helpless animal ...
Or maybe he had some other secret reason?
I could not guess at it so I merely stood
Playing a guessing game and whiling my time away.

Presently, the boys scampered away
As the whining cur did too,
The boys, to discuss their new-found topic,
And the other, to heal the new injury;
I stood there for a tiny fragment of a minute,
Then I went away to harvest my own secrets.

© Dr. Taher Kagalwala 2004.