Salil Chaturvedi

Cumulus

My father tells me again, at eighty, that things have always been the same. He looks out of the window and says, “Look at the clouds. They have been there forever.” I tell him that the pattern of clouds on Earth today is new and will never be repeated. He looks at me and says, ‘How do you know that?’ The room darkens a little; the monsoon is approaching. He shakes his head and, like a wisp of smoke, disperses out of the room, leaving behind a residue—”You’re still the same.” I look at his dissolving back and wonder: Really?

cloud rumble
inside a leaf
a cocoon shifts

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About the Author

Salil Chaturvedi’s short fiction and poetry have been widely anthologized. His collections In the Sanctuary of a Poem (2017) and Love and Longing in the Anthropocene: Poems and Haibun (2021) are available on Amazon. He lives on the island of Chorao in Goa.