Making a Chair Poem by Dileep Jhaveri

Making a chair is a most natural thing

and very easy



You can wait for autumn

for every leaf to fall

or you can pluck out leaves one by one

like a crow picking on mouse flesh

Pull down the tree like an elephant uprooting forests

and remove the twigs like a wolf tearing at the tendons

Split it apart like a crocodile the bones

Bore in holes like a woodpecker

Fixing staves in crosses and hammering nails is an ancient art

Make smooth the surface with putty provided by the pulp

Obtain paints from the ancestors of the trees

buried for billions of years to re-emerge through oil wells

Resins from the freshly peeled bark will provide the sheen



Now sit back on the chair set in veranda

and contemplate over the sprouting green of a grass blade

from a crack in the asphalted pavement

Patiently awaiting a forest