One Goddamn Chance

Maybe it was the time grandma found that starving
stray, maybe it was that miserable cur that adopted

her. She in a crisp nine yard saree, her diamond nose
ring flashing in the summer sun and that bag of fleas

limping behind her every morning to the temple and
back, they said even the river stopped and giggled as

they passed by. You cannot control who you love, she
told me, all of seven then, nor who might decide to love

you back, all you can do is take one goddamn chance.
I twist the ring around my finger slowly, letting day turn

to night, the seasons breathing in and out with me. There
has to be a reason for callouses that will not heal and circles

that don’t know how to end. What if everything travelled in
a straight line till there was nothing? What if mangy pets

never came home to sit by the door for walks that could no
longer be? You cannot search for an ending and hope that a

beginning will be waiting where you stop. Take an umbrella, I
call to him from the window, they say there is a chance of rain.

 

 

About the Poet:  Rajani Radhakrishnan is from Bangalore, India.  Finding time and renewed enthusiasm for poetry after a long career in Financial Applications, she blogs at thotpurge.wordpress.com . Her poems have recently appeared in The Ekphrastic Review, The Lake, Quiet Letter and The Cherita.

 

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