Poems by Arvind Krishna Mehrotra 

This Is the Thing 

This is the thing
about poetry, the
forecast
 
is unpredictable.
You can say
what you want in it,
 
or leave it
midway, or
say it twice over, or
 
not say it at all. 
 
 
Mother Dairy 

“Mother Dairy, that’s five rupees,”
the bus conductor said,
clicking the ticket punch.
“I don’t have it,”
replied the old man politely.
 
Delhi bus conductors
are notoriously foul-mouthed.
This one shuffled ahead,
embarrassed.
I watched the old man
settle into his seat.
 
I had a little money saved
after the day’s expenses
and almost bought the man’s ticket
when I stopped.  
To him it might’ve have seemed
like an insult.
He’d spent a lifetime in this city
where all that people do is flash their wallets.
 
My stop came and as I got off in the dark
I glanced in his direction.
He was looking elsewhere,
his face impassive.
 
                                                                           After Mangalesh Dabral
 

Arvind Krishna Mehrotra is a poet, translator, and editor of several anthologies. His latest collection is Book of Rahim & Other Poems. He has received the Mahakavi Kanhaiyalal Sethia Award for Poetry.
 
​​

---

---