These have become familiar.

At this age, there is hardly anything

that had not happened earlier.

There is only a change

in faces and time, places.

The smiles—some as spontaneous

as they should be, some made out

to look almost divine—are

all around me.  How long

 

like my own needs and frustrations,

my human wish to stay together

where we are, even as everything

was what they were a long time ago,

when everything was close

to the heart, everything was fine.

 

 

 

Bibhu Padhi has eleven published books of poetry. His poems have appeared in The Poetry Review, Poetry Wales, The Rialto, Stand, Wasafiri, The American Scholar, ColoradoReview, Confrontation, The New Criterion, New Letters, Poet Lore, Prairie Schooner, Poetry (Chicago), Southwest Review, The Literary Review, Rosebud, TriQuarterly, Antigonish Review, Queen’s Quarterly, The Illustrated Weekly of India and Indian Literature. They have been included in numerous anthologies and textbooks. Three of the most recent anthologies are: Language for a New Century (Norton) 60 Indian Poets (Penguin) and The HarperCollins Book of English Poetry (HarperCollins).             

He has also written a book on D. H. Lawrence (Whitston) and (with his wife, Minakshi Padhi) a reference book on Indian Philosophy (McFarland).