they have smelled nothing, felt everything

A town with no cloud cover in the night

The breeze blowing in streets perpendicular to the sea

Sweeping ladies with their Jhadus making swishes

accompanying the barking of dogs

An old man finds himself being looked at

by me as he raises his dhoti to do ablutions

Among cobbled stones as I walk past a French boulevard

I feel the color of crayon yellow on the buildings, I smell urine

I look at a couple seated on a bench,

sitting, it seems for a long time

All by themselves,

shadow of her fingers on his forehead

touching the Vibhuti, my imagination

eclipsed by her withered jasmine caressed plait

they have smelled nothing, felt everything