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Tikuli Tiku

 

 

 

Toy Train Poems

 

1 

The sky was stained with the blue of berries

on that peppery winter noon,

when we sat on that small wooden bench,

outside the teashop overlooking the valley, 

watching the toy train slowly trundle past 

the pines, conifers, and flaming rhododendrons,

the hot masala chai melts all our inner strife

in a fragrant rhapsody for the time being.

2

The narrow gauge waits among the shadows

and lattices of light like a poem uncoiling

into oblivion, spell bound.

In the soundlessness of the falling snow

I listen for a heartbeat no longer there,

the silence too strong for me,

just like the tea from the old teashop. 

3

The edge of the rain slices the ruddy sun 

with delicate knife like precision,

and turns one side of the valley grey,

on the sunlit side the shivering green

tries to cling to the fading light,

the wind snores, shifts, snarls,

 rain filled clouds clamber up 

towards the mountain peaks,

in the valley below, a lone train crawls through 

the dappled grey whistling its old song. 

4

A wayward brushstroke, 

on a spring-like pallet, 

the little mountain train,

is homeward; 

along the wandering waters,

Past purple Jacarandas,

into the  valley of yellow and gold,

and then you see a little town,

pastel painted,

tumbling down the forested hill,

there and gone again,

losing its way 

in the mountain's mist 

and the steam from my tea. 

 

 

                                                           

                                    Tikuli is a blogger & author from Delhi. Her short stories and poems have appeared in print and 

                                           in online literary magazines including Le Zaparougue, MiCROW 8, The Smoking Book (Poets 

                                           Wear Prada Press, US), Life And legends, Levure Littéraire 10, The Enchanting Verses Literary 

                                           Review, Open Road Review, Cafe Dissensus, Mnemosyne Literary Journal, Women's Web, 

                                           Readomania and Troubadour21. 

 

                                           Her print publications include poems in Guntur National Poetry Festival Anthology, Melange – a 

                                           Potpourri of thoughts and the much acclaimed Chicken Soup For The Indian Romantic 

                                           Soul(Westland). Her debut poetry book 'Collection Of Chaos' was published in 2014 by Leaky 

                                           Boot Press. She blogs at tikulicious.wordpress.com