cold wind

this road is one
i’ve walked before
tumbled along
more so
i think

an older woman
with a young man
pass by me
quarreling
smoking cigarettes

i smile at them
why i’m not sure
do i offer anything
now
since all that

inside the thai food place
a girl with tatts is serving
i order
vegetarian fried rice
at only ten bucks

it’s cold outside
where i sit eating rice
grey cloud
reality
shouts too loud

i had it worked-out ok
once
and then and then
such a difficult blow
and those repercussions  

the younger man
passes by again
no older woman
or fighting
not smoking

he comments
to me
about the nasty cold wind
and we both laugh
for reasons we own   



being

i sit on a step of the river Ganges bathing ghat / near me a slim dreadlocked man swims in the shallows / he stands and emerges from the rushing stream and shakes water from his long ropes of hair and then drapes himself in orange cloth and sits next to me / his black eyes shine as he says a few words to me in Hindi and laughs / i laugh back though at what i am not sure / in silence we watch the flow of the river / when it is nearly dark and crowds of pilgrims are moving down to the river bank for prayers and bathing he stands and gestures to me to follow him / i do / soon i am sitting by a fire with a group of men and women about my age / in a camp that exists under a massive ancient tree / i push my traveling bag against a rock and take a blanket from it and lay it on the dusty ground and sit cross legged on it / i look towards the tree trunk as the others are doing and feel calm and happy / just being me as the full moon rises in the sky / chanting the same words the others begin to / and although i don’t know what the words mean or why i am here i do know this is where i want to be for now //