make me sit here
and laugh
after all those
years
they still touch me
those precious moments
and this slow life
tingles my heart
warming it
under the glowing sun
shining bright
making me think of
how I and my friends
howled hysterically
in splits
everywhere
we went
playing the fool
seemed to be
the rule
and hearing those
voices now in
my ears
seeing those instants
of hilarity
in my mind
I look at the sky
up high
at its brightness
and I close my eyes
and I hear the light
chortle and say hi.
the workers run
their drilling machines
in the house coming up
next door
and the TV drones
at Mani’s place
and a couple of days ago
I remember Panchamma’s
non-stop laughter
she might have been
watching some comedy
it made me so happy
and then I was enjoying
some prank videos
and they were very funny
but I couldn’t laugh
like her
only soft chuckles came
out of me
though mirth filled
my sides with pain
while my mouth
was open in a smile
and I was shaking
in hilarity.
and children are innocent
and funny
they lighten life
which squeezes your throat
from time to time
leaving you out of breath
and shuddering
and other times
the world is friendly
like the air
you breathe
like these kids
come to collect
their shuttlecock
it is as simple as that
though it leaves
so many of us
broken and
alienated ghosts
who simply can’t
come back alive.
is the mind
how it brings images
memories music
conversations
kisses lovemaking
loathing fear
terror
murder playing
on and on
and war
fighting dying
so tragic it feels
to put yourself
in their place
and the mystery
what we don’t know
and sometimes
it is funny
it seems comic
this crazy film
that doesn’t end.
of my mind
remembering funny things
once I saw my neighbour
Panchamma slap Manikandan
her husband
and I remember him
looking at her in shock
he really looked comical
and I remember the day
my classmate Francis
in school took off his shirt
and started beating his chest
and singing and how we all
exploded in laughter
and how Shyam our monitor
quickly closed the class door
although he too couldn’t
keep himself from laughing
and now these little girls next door
talk and laugh and I melt in mirth
in their ringing voices.
I found it so much fun
that it came to pay us a visit
and we all got out to look at it
and it went
into my neighbours’ courtyards
crawling in and out
and they tried to chase it away
and then it slinked down
the street
and I liked it so much
the way it crawled
it was so cute
and it was funny
how Manikandan
hid inside a room
after trying to poke it
with a stick
and it was the first time
I was seeing
a monitor lizard
in Kumily
and in the golden
afternoon light
I was happy.
and golden
in the morning
the silence is a pure presence
that needs a living being to be filled
and there are birds and a cat in the story
and two sisters so close to each other
you pause to wonder what magic formula
created such colourful beings
and you walk on and find
other people walking
and puppies
and you are so happy
with the sunlight
after a day of rain
and dogs trot along
and monkeys thunder across
your terrace
they form the heart of this tale
they are the masters of this world
they do what they want
and you their slave
you wipe their shit
all over your property
and as you understand this
you find the whole cosmos
made so funny
you start to laugh
and a baby cries
its wail filling the blue skies
and now you realise
what life is
what death is
now you know
we are those
small specks of dust
that fade after a night
and then we are forever gone
never to come back
never to remember ourselves
our bodies our world
and you bow before the universe
you put your head
to the earth
and say mother mother
I your son
I love you
I love you till my last breath
till my life the slave of death
crushes me in its claws
and I am no more
mother mother
remember me
when I’m gone.
Dominic Alapat 