sky sketches.

photo :mk

Hands

They walked on
as if reciting some cosmic
postscripts in anguish

Paramu waved his hands
from behind attempting
to catch some thing from the air in vain
Then the hands retreated
and went behind once again

Vasu’s hands were moving
in cautious slow motion
akin to that of a fat reptile
but he was not sure how to keep
his hands down

Because it was his hands
that had always helped him to
erase his agonies
It was those hands
which steadied him in troubles

Whenever he faltered
he managed to maintain his course
by waving his hands aimlessly into ages

When Ravi waved backward
with spread fingers it was like rowing
The movement of his hands appeared as if
he was cuddling his appetite for mating with death

Alternatively entwining
the hands in the front and back
he stood at times probing
his immeasurable self

Krishnan waved both his right
and left hands back and forth
giving them vain
hopes of reconciliation


Though they swayed
like trapeze artists they had to retreat
as they filed to get the grip

All the four-Paramu, Vasu, Ravi and Krishnan-
were walking at the same speed
Their hands strolled into separate worlds

For Paramu, his hands supplied
the gadgets to cleanse
the blemish of his sins
It was those hands that
always lighted his pathway

Vasu’s hands were in a frenzied
quiver shivering like an epileptic

For Ravi , his hands
were an stranger woman
always numb as if they knew nothing

Like contented accomplices
returning after a successful robbery
Krishnan’s hands were looking again
for weapons in the void

They turned into a deserted
isle craving for freedom
and free will to kill

All the three were walking
absolutely insensitive
to the movement of their hands
even as the hands were waiting for
the earliest chance
to encircle them unawares

poem by m k harikumar