Variety And Tedium Poem by Ananta Madhavan

Though long retired from the grind
Of chores and tasks that bound
The routine of my workday life,
I seek a different way, some change
From things established in the mind,
The tedium and odium of sand grains
Sliding silently down into the lower bowl
In the hour-glass metaphor of ruthless Time.

I learnt to see the sameness of routine
Not as a compulsive habit that must be followed
As a self-accepted dharma, but as a chance to
The evoke a spirit of novelty
And provoke the savour of variety.

That proverbial “spice of life” is fine,
But often it is lost by repetition.
Even a new telecast or story
Turns antique or hoary,
Something déjà vu, already surmised.
I reach for the remote and switch on to something else
Or switch off for silence.

At such a time I crave for Otherness, alterity.
In our familiar park I find it in the tracery
Of bare autumnal branches, the changing sky,
The dusking light, the orange-scarlet, pale blue sky
With shades whose names I cannot tell, the tots
Wanting to play a little longer, who can look at you
And read you instantly with utter candour,
Your past, your nature, friend or foe.

We may be pre-ordained, but we can enjoy
The joy of seeing things anew, afresh.


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November 2015, Mysuru, India




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