when I laugh,
the whole body
one big mouth
of laughter
when I sing
words emit
like a seismo-
seismograph
If I squat, drowsy,
all my teeth are
melting down
a whirlpool
walk, look back
and wonder,
whose vanishing
footsteps
are they
meanwhile,
my as-lost-as-me
friends, frantic for
shade in the sun
and can't find it
together, like a
splash of colours,
we loll in the garden
for the madness to pass
later, at home they ask
about the blood red
eyes, I say, it was
some colour, some holi
*Bhang is a milk-based drink traditionally consumed on the day of holi, the festival of colours in India. This poem was first published in the Mar-Apr 2012 issue of the Reading Hour magazine.