Buddha Jayanti Park, New Delhi Poem by Ananta Madhavan

A man walked by with a transistor
Dangling from his hip.
On a cement bench under a tree,
The afternoon tilted into me.
I was reading a paperback -
'The Discovery of Time', no less!

Half-absorbed in the ambiance
Of grass and pallid sky and ants,
I listened to the graduated voice,
Just half a fading sentence from the news:
Something or other about Vietnam.
What was it, a truce, the war ended?
Happiness ever after, all fractures healed?
What could they have said about that land
Worthy of mention in the news?

The man strolled out of hearing range
Across the crazy bridge, over the rocks.
I in my half-book of Time, half grass green park,
Plunged from element to element'
Unfathomable both.

- - - 23 October,1967