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Suraja Roychowdhury

The Light Gathers

I watch from up high on the balcony of my hotel as they trudge up the path. Monks, their heads shaved, in groups of twos and threes. Their maroon robes are dim bursts of color.

prayer wheels
round and round and round
the same pleas

An emerald lawn. Dewdrops sparkle on the grass, damp and cool on my feet as I breathe in the early morning breeze. In the distance I see the mighty Dhauladhar mountains, mere foothills of the Himalayas. The sun blazes.

orange
even in the dark
canna

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About the Author

Suraja Roychowdhury is originally from India, now living in Lexington, Massachusetts. She is a Chinese Medicine practitioner who loves writing haiku, tanka, haibun, haiga, and other Oriental poetic forms.