Memory Poem by Daniel Trevelyn Joseph

On my way to the gym in MIG Club,
Saw on the road ahead
Somebody bent double to tie his shoe-laces.

Another scene rises in my mind,
Eight years ago on the road in Ladakh,
Close to Leh, on the mountain side
In the pure air of the Himalayas, me
Bent double to tie up my shoes
Near the hired sumo; and, as I rose up
I was breathing like a furnace.

Altitude syndrome at 12,000 feet
Above sea-level
Is as bad as attitude sickness,
On the plains. It is sickening.

D T Joseph
14.01.08