beloved street, Park Avenue, Marine Drive

this street shocks you

one minute you are in kochi in her coloured bus

navigating her streets lined with billboards of jewellry , silk sarees

pliated school girls at the zebra crossings,

afternoon crowd throng mall courtyards.

and then you are in Salvador Dali' s painting

a red ship , imposing, parked a few feet away

her curves resting  easily on the blue waters

rocking. Sea birds take flight into a picture postcard sky

the park with  flowers that look into the water

and the strange  sculptures that knew me young

tender coconut hawkers . all still the same

and ahead as we near the college grounds

sheltered by trees ,wisps of my youth caught in their boughs

light thoughts, bottled memories release

as i sight the boat house, strange happiness!

and i smile at the little girl in her ferry boat,

Promise of adventure rekindles at the fleeting sight

of blond golden tresses from foreign lands.

as fallen flowers still line this street,

outside the city groans with fresh pangs

of growth -churning out taller and  meaner concrete abodes.

where earth is called dirt,

as the city hums a grim funeral rite

for the once green spaces of yore.

 let this little street stand like this forever

with the sea on side, where destructive waters purr

and the ancient trees on the other.

this street , untouched with blood of felled trees

or with the hoarse breath of greed

a shrine for our children,

to what was once , is lost and yet can be.