Rickshaw Ride Poem by Rajiv Khandelwal

Yesterday
When my Toyota
Stopped all functionality
I got opportunity
To sit on manual rickshaw

Its jostling movements
Revived the journey
That lives forever in fall of rain
Of our movie going
In the rainy season

As the slanting rain drops
Dripped through canopy curtains
We huddled, snuggled together
In rickshaw seat confines

In that plopping shivering cold
Emerged a sensation
Of your right hip
Toasting my left

When I close my eyes
I sometimes sense
That curious interplay
Of chilly weather
Your bewitching scent
My searing thighs

I remember
As if it was yesterday
How
When you had shifted slightly sideways
Your bosom's fullness had at first brushed
Then sunk inches into my bicep
This posture then rested
And
All those times
The rickshaw found the potholes
Your soft warmth
Bounced
Swayed
Shifted
Singed
You chattered on
Trying to make me laugh
Never knowing
That several times
Surreptitiously
During that rickshaw ride

I had to rearrange my clothing

Poem from my Volume titled 'A Monument to Pigeons', P.15