Around the round fountain the noon sun circles. Some women in a huddle are talking. (Elsewhere old crones sit on deserted village streets, watch the dogs and mumble toothlessly) Their hair forms a quilt of black and yellow.They are smoking and I know I had left you behind.

A jet streaks a minimalist sky, with it's white smoky fingers. I don't know it's destination, it's headed east, should I persume that you still are waiting somewhere for my return? Would you recognize me if I did make a journey to you? And more importantly would I recongize myself in your eyes?

I am forgetting you slowly, as they say here, just like an ex. Many things are now different, I just can imagine how you smelt after walking in summer rain( dark earth, spices of Malabar),the clarity of your eyes(humid old starlight) and your cooking( just like my love which was and is suffocating).

But when you cross me second hand, in books( the colors are orche and saffron),in dark eyes( of women with brown skin) and in words of songs( Meera's bhajans); inspite of a quickening of breath, I don't stop and turn around. You are but an echo imprisoned in the chambers of a nautilus, shell upon shell that Time has built, whose whipsers I now ache

To hear.

2002:03:23 17:45 Atlanta

Today moving in time, I am wandering back and forth,today your town is not in sight. Today life's black highways snake away in the bright sun. Sunsets and sunrises make no difference when I can't sit and share them with you, today.

Today, I will love you as I loved you before. Today, I already love you as I love you now. Today, I will be loving you as I will be tomorrow.

See there are songs and there are silences but there is only you combining these two. Today the wind is making love to the trees, today the world is tinted green.Today out of my window, I see another night coming on without you. But I am holding on, but I am still breathing in and out, hopin to see myself in you sometime very soon, today.

Today, I will love you as I loved you before. Today, I already love you as I love you now. Today, I will be loving you as I will be tomorrow.

There are clouds in the sky today, today the moon will be in full bloom and I will be awake today, fighting the gloom. I will be dreaming of lamps and landscapes of your skin just like yesterday. The seasons circle around years, earth circles around the sun and I circle around you, today.

Today, I will love you as I loved you before. Today, I already love you as I love you. Today, I will be loving you as I will be tomorrow. Today, today.. ooh just today.

2002:05:02 18:00 Atlanta For Doc. Today.

Today I checked back on my two bird friends who were building a nest in my backyard. They were as busy as ever. I wanted to see them closer so I got my binoculars and then looked at them for a long time. They were a beautiful sight. I happened to catch them gathering berries, so there was this male with a red breast and with a red berry in it's mouth. It was flaying around the whole backyard. The cove of trees in the four surrounding backyards seems to provide these birds a nice and cozy habitat. I wondered why can't we be like birds, they just take what is necessary from the earth, they build homes, yes a sheer variety of homes (for I once collected nests when I was in class 8, which of course is a separate story) and don't ask for anything more. The whole backyard is full of birdsong. I tried to catch a particularly high pitched singer in my lenses but the green canopy proved to be too thick.  So I was left with just the song and not the sight of the singer.

Anyway I have identified my birds to be House Finches. Yay! I am an ornithologist too now!
Go take a look at  Finches at Cornell Lab of Orinthology , Georgia Finches.

They can be something else as well which is not that important. I hope they don't go extinct before I can share their beauty with my children. The next generation needs to know this beauty.Read E.O Wilson's take on this in his book Future of Life. Also I also had a germ of an idea for writing a story around these birds for 6 or 7 year olds. I will take my dig at that over summer. Oooh so many things to do in life!