a sunday morning memory

a sunday morning memory

sunday morning was sunshiny
a perfect invitation we'd been hoping for all week long
to take a wander into the hills.

we walked unhurried with a umbrella in hand, just in case
the hillside was laden with wildflowers bloomed by recent rains
akk, lantana, keekar, babool, khair, bougainvillea
and others we didn't know names of.
one beaming flower-bush after the other.

we paused repeatedly to watch rain worms. Many of them.
scurrying away speedily and sometimes contracting from our presence.
to observe algae forming in puddles,
tiny mushrooms growing on sidewalks.
and say hello to a white dog, a mynah and a baby snail.

we picked stones and gathered a few branches
and returned home when the humidity felt too much to bear.
saanjh relished an ice cream and went to nap.
papa watched a movie, while muma went around the house
floating bougainvillea flowers in an enamel bowl,
arranging lantana in glass jars,
hanging a babool branch on the wall
and stringing together it's mustard blooms.

a sweet mood swept into our home and my heart
while the wind, ever present in this house, continued to softly make love to our curtains.

. . .

tuesday noontide
the twenty eighth
jyeṣṭha