Madam Minister’s Power-Point File and 3 other poems

When it is not the time of year for ants to be seen

How come an ant, out of the blue,

Appears on the bedspread

In the vast terrain of the double bed

Wandering as if lost

Morose with solitude

Manifestly bewildered

An ant by herself

Unaware of her transgression

Of interrupting my reading

This helpless creature

Does not comprehend

To escape what agony

I had picked up the book

Moving speedily

In one direction head on

She abruptly turns to another

And then to another

This is no longer a secret

That she has no clue of her destination

Or of her direction

My finger chases her

Like a god

And whenever it feels like

To be amused by

Her added panic

It can stand before her like a rock

And can compel her to change her direction

And run even more speedily

I, the sadist

On some slip of her

Or on being tired of the game with her

Would crush her under my finger

And at midnight

When sleep would decline to favor me

This finger would crawl forward

To a face

And halt halfway

And the midnight silence would resonate

How come an ant

Appears on the bedspread

Said she in a feeble voice

Etch my price on my arm

Or on my back

Or on my chest

But they paid no heed to her feeble voice

And etched her price on her forehead

And declined to bargain

They made a mistake

Apropos her conduct

Her price was reduced over and over again

And with no room left on her forehead

It was etched

First on her arms

Then on her back

Then on her chest

Why do you despise so much

These out-of-fashion

Artificial flowers

In our homes

With no gardens

And no flowerbeds

They fill our rooms

With color

We share,

With strangers

A building

With more than a hundred dwellings

The artificial flowers spare us the hardship

Of maintaining a garden

Or buying and replacing real ones,

That will wilt away in less than a day

You have my permission

To lay artificial flowers

On my grave