Bob Lucky

Kathmandu, Christmas Morning 2009

My wife is up at 6:30 banging around in the bathroom as she hurries to get dressed. The electricity is off again. A yoga class begins in half an hour, and she’s not certain exactly which winding lane the studio is hidden in.

morning haze
cannabis incense
50% off

Rooftops slowly fill with women hanging bundles of wet laundry and separating produce into piles of purple onions and knobby potatoes and red and green chiles. A young mother nurses a baby while she clips her toenails.

gossip
the clack of a knife
on a cutting board

The garbage collectors have been on strike for five days, a blessing of sorts for the dogs and the destitute who fossick through the rising mounds of rubbish.

Later, I’ll wander off to Durbar Square and wash down the dust with a glass of fresh pomegranate juice.

narrow lane
a monk clings to
a bouncing rickshaw

Note: previously published in Modern Haiku 41.2, Summer 2010