Lucid Moment Poem by Ananta Madhavan

Once, without knowing
I gained a lucid moment
When the chattering stopped
And I was struck deaf.

In that lucid moment,
Fleet as a high-speed shutter,
All was revealed
In arduous intricacy.

What I say now
Is neither map nor plan;
Sooner set down in words
The back of a TV set,

Or draw with fibre pens
'The Bathers' by Seurat,
Or photograph a face
And kiss the shiny top.

What I say here
Is neither runic nor 'tantric':
More like 'It was great fun',
At the end of a show,

Or like a lurching signpost
Pointing the next town skyward,
Or like simile itself,
Relating things, but wrong.

In that lucid moment
Nothing was left out,
All was connected
In arduous intricacy.

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