Talking with Pictures - 5

Silence is golden
And sunshine is silent
It steals upon you
Like still water
Water, still
Still, pond
Like still pond water
That you waded in
In your native village
And stood half-trunk out
Half in, legs still
Watching nothing
Just feeling
How the water cuts you
Into two worlds
The water world and the worldy world
But I am talking of water!
Sunshine, too
Cuts you
Into two worlds
- the lighted world and the dreary world
You watch your skin
Patching in shades
Colourfully singular, yet so, so wide
Brown if you are brown
Yellow if you are yellow
Unlike the wetness of water,
Here you are dry
Drier
Sunshine, like pond water
Gathers around you
And suddenly occupies you
Silently, suddenly
On your skin
And seeps inside
With its feel
Its very distinct feel
You know you are inside sunshine
As you are in water
Even if you are blinded
Or blind-folded
Sunshine also is moody
Softer, harsher
Intense, shallow
As the time of the day
And time of the year
These days are beckoning at summer
And I can truly feel sunshine
Occupying me
Furrowing my brows
But easing my smile lines
Baking me slightly
Under the outer wrappings of my clothes
Baking the little cracks
The little, finite cracks
Silently, seamlessly, selflessly
How royal, how graceful
How intangibly beautiful
Sunshine is!
You may find me tanned these days
But do stop to knock at my skin wall once
You will find me tougher, more robust.
These days I do not chose one over the other
Water over sunshine
Sunshine over water
But I find it more alluring
Sunshine, golden, silent and strong!

- चा. गि.
02-03-17