Streetnama (poem)

Streetnama

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Cities have scars

Written like memories in the heart

Street corners tell us of times past

Unvisited places bring strange recollections

Of books read, movies seen and persons who may have passed 

Through the sidewalk where you stand now.

We live in our veins and bones

Space is a trigger

Time is a flower

Smells bring sights

And unknown delights.

Why do I still hold in my bosom

The vision of a stranger

Out for a day's menial work

In the city of the Tinsel Town?

What did the surf in the Indian Ocean tell me

As I leaned and watched from my 10th floor hotel room

Why did 1996 feel like a century earlier

Was it the city

Or the way silence hung in the air?

All this I suspect

Are questions that look like answers

A scar turns a jewel

When sunshine falls

On a ruddy cheek

Blessed by morning light

  - Madhavan N (2022)