I

 

Today, we fought over onions.

And eggs.

I guess all married couples

Specialise in skinning each-other alive

At will;

To be used to each-other is to be used

To each-other’s cruelty.

 

II

She washes the dishes

Late in the night,

Slouching next to the sink,

Rinsing eternity off a dirty plate.

Only her back is visible to me, but

Her bearing expresses her sadness to me as precisely

As temperature taken on a thermometer.

 

III

The big cat

Fidgets, lying desolate –

Like a demagogue in the company of the deaf-

Over the newspaper basket,

His new favourite resting place.

He had an accident a month ago;

We have to take him to the vet

After every two days to get his bandages

Changed, else his wounds start to stink.

The only relief is that the doctor

Has given up on selling me the

Weight-gain breakfast programme run by his wife

By now.

Abhimanyu is a journalist from New Delhi. His poems have appeared in several Indian and International journals.