Neem-chameli! How have you been?
Long time   (short lane)   no see
     I am late again    just another day
Sun marks me absent   I will                     compensate
in the evening   if moon is kind                     enough
to take extra classes for me.

I still look the same, you say!
      But you have changed    you never used to
      fall    at my feet   like
a knock on the hollow street.

I pick up the phone   the wireless              volatile
      extension of a    phantom-limb                 sensation
      fragrant    and    hold
all   along   the   road
    in my hand   left    gently you might
hang up on me.

A dialogue develops with the    dial-tone
as now I keep    you balanced a  diagonal to my collarbone
      The other clavicle     eavesdrops
further down,

The benches like buildings    and ground
    of safety-pins    pin a belt going around
   the waist to make the two    ends meet
       somewhere in the middle.

A telephone-vase

Stalks of digits like fingernails

trim-ring trim-ring trim-ring.

11/12/20