Mobile – Aparna Chatterjee

At Night –
I just hold it in my hands
And read those for a while, 
Feeling close to you…
And falling off to sleep
With your messages
In my Mobile. 

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Festival – Aparna Chatterjee

They Say: 
It’s Festive Time Today
Auspicious Durga Pooja Day
May be my time is not Right
Or my mood is not Festive
And hence – I’ve been
miserably crying away
all through the day. 

A Family Divided – Mary Nagy

Once more we talk about it.
How sad it’s all become.
No matter how we look at it
this family is not one.

They say it shouldn’t matter.
Who needs them after all? 
But, please explain the pain I feel
even though I’ve got it all.

I see my pain and emptiness
like a hollowed out old tree…
It may seem to be standing tall
but, it’s empty just like me.

There’s such a contradiction
to my entire life.
I’m happy and fulfilled 
being a mother and a wife.

What about ‘a sister’
and ‘a daughter’…how about that? 
These are roles I was born to play.
Why can’t I? Tell me that.

A family divided
that’s what we’ve grown to be.
I’ve got mine and you’ve got yours
but we have no family tree. 

The Family Monkey – Russell Edson

We bought an electric monkey, experimenting rather 
recklessly with funds carefully gathered since 
grandfather’s time for the purchase of a steam monkey. 

We had either, by this time, the choice of an electric 
or gas monkey. 

The steam monkey is no longer being made, said the monkey 
merchant. 

But the family always planned on a steam monkey. 

Well, said the monkey merchant, just as the wind-up monkey 
gave way to the steam monkey, the steam monkey has given way 
to the gas and electric monkeys. 

Is that like the grandfather clock being replaced by the 
grandchild clock? 

Sort of, said the monkey merchant. 

So we bought the electric monkey, and plugged its umbilical 
cord into the wall. 

The smoke coming out of its fur told us something was wrong. 

We had electrocuted the family monkey. 

The Family Tree – Olive Walters

We’ve got a family album
Like a family tree
A thrill to turn the pages
The pictures we can see

Starting off with grands and greats
Then slowly down the line
Like a book of history
A journey through the time

Fashions start to alter
Mustaches come and go
Ladies skirts skip up and down
A proper fashion show

Top hats change to boaters
To caps then none at all
Ladies bonnets disappear
And so does grannies shawl

Picture’s change to colour
Black and white has gone
A different place, a different time
So much to look upon

But what is so amazing
Is the likeness we can see
Showing up the genes
Right through our family tree 

Haiku 02 – Masaoki Shiki

the tree cut,
dawn breaks early
at my little window 

 

Haiku 01 – Masaoki Shiki

In the coolness
of the empty sixth-month sky…
the cuckoo’s cry.