Seasons
(A collection of poems that discuss a variety of thoughts evoked by each season)


28th Dec, ‘99
Spring Fever

pollen grains
and sneezes
yellow stains
on fresh off white petals
a bee hoevering around the hem
skirting issues until sundown.

Shalini Pattabiraman

16th June, ‘03
Summer Fever

The lines in my palms grow
out of my fist
beyond my fingers.
Caught in sweat,
slip, drip
juicy sweetness,
squeezed pulp,
sucked straight into the mouth
unnoticed, unbeckoned, unbidden
grooves, woven into textured taste
mix salty precipitate
with sweet smell of dusserries
filling the intense summer heat.

Shalini Pattabiraman

Sept ‘03
After Rain

Captured between two beams of light
caught & held,
for a fraction of a breath
over smooth oiled surface-it slips and slides
quick to renounce all form and shape
reflecting only a shimmer
speckeled over glittering drops
ready to fall off the leaf.

Shalini Pattabiraman

20th Sept, ‘03
Autumn Moods

When the grass has burnt itself
in the image of the setting sun,
rising moon, stills itself at birth.
Redolent vermillion sets upon the grass.
Only the chill of the winter moon
grazes the shriveled edges.
Soft breeze, cold dew, morning chill,
settles in the roots.

Shalini Pattabiraman

2nd, Feb ‘04
Spring

Marooned on a patch of sunny field, highlighted,
dust grows out of a corner,
fills the blooming cloud of waxen thoughts,
slipping past the sleepy winter day.
Wind whispers warm breath over sunshine blue
and green grows larger than life in my simple dream,
past the shadows, past the cold, past the darkness
Spring echoes, new colours.

Shalini Pattabiraman

07/10/04
Five minutes of breathing

The mood is set to target crisscrosses
across the path
that dissect the road into half.
Trapped underneath,
steam bursts out along with flying dust
as construction halts; Rain falls.
In the humid Indian summer,
a blatant excuse-five minutes of breathing.
Compressed in the heat,
monsoon beats a false rhythm
of respite and retreat.

Shalini Pattabiraman