It happened one afternoon.
Well-acquainted with the tired harbor,
I looked at the wordless scene
Without much desire.
In our vacant moments
As we sat together -
You annulled our silence,
When you saw a pair of parrots -
And showed them to me
With your eyes.

Deep-dyed in green,
Perched upon arched backs
Of patulous palms -
Their benign vision appeared to me
As an altarpiece would have!
Through the mindful quietness between us -
I heard them,
Though the parrots never spoke.
They helped to fill the constant spaces
Of my incompetent loneliness.

Mumbai
1999

Geeta Chhabra

From the book: No Journey Ends by Geeta Chhabra