Suraja Roychowdhury
The Meaning of Things
Evening falls sooner now. The light is gentler, the harsh edge of sunlight softened by the stirring breezes. There is an air of completion. The flowers are done blooming. The trees are done being green, although they haven’t started turning orange or yellow or red. The rhythm of life, that was suspended by the fierce gaiety and sun worshipping of the northern hemispheres, has resumed. School buses clog the streets in the mornings and afternoons. I slice the first of the pumpkins and make a stir fry. Adding spices, automatically almost, checking for the salt, and waiting. Waiting for something. The old restlessness. An emptiness that has no reason, no name, just a space.
come love let's walk together like strangers now the green of spring and the dried stalks of summer
Editor’s Note: First published in Oriental Prism 2, Yellow Moon Poets (2018 Bower Bird Press for Prism Publishing)
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.
Excellent beginning. Choice of words enchanting.
Thank you 🙂
Good composition. Use of word ‘strangers’ speaks volumes. Keepit up.
Thank you very much, Sir. You have honed in on the key word in the tanka.
Your prose is lyrical!
Thank you Tara :).
“Chalo ek baar phir se, ajnabee ban jaaye…”
There is a calm in that restlessness. A want to do it all again, but slowly…
That shimo-no-ku is gorgeous. So much said. Love it.
Thanks for a lovely insightful comment, Manjula. I’ll be humming the song now…:).