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.