This poem is dedicated to my home sanctuary, the beautiful North Indian city of Lucknow and its Christmas spirit.
**
Noel always saw Christmas as the handiwork of stars and snow.
The stars are decked by winks of a foggy enigma.
There's no snow to toss around and numb his fingertips.
Noel's big day is in his city
where native notes of good cheer are in the air.
Noel is bewitched by the bright lights of St Joseph's Cathedral
A benevolent Christ the Redeemer reserves his gleam,
for a restrained survey of a changing city landscape.
A gentle giant indeed
as he smiles at the boulevard of the Mayfair marketplace.
In the far off mall,
a wooden Rudolph the reindeer smirks at
retail tags and shopping bags.
His sleigh is pushed around modern whims.
***
Tonight in Noel's city,
history wears a festal cape.
For ruins of the Residency tip their hats
as spirits of a tonsured war sing along.
Not too far off,
the Martinian flags sprinkle colour red all over the big city's chorus.
Harmony is in the traffic crowds
and those Santa masks are masks of glee.
At 10 rupees,
they brought Noel a day of boundless happiness.
The pride of his city,
the monarch's mausoleum and palace is alive to chandeliers,
lit with candles to mark the occassion.
O,
beauty here is in the details.
***
Come midnight
and he hears the choir hit those native notes of good cheer
which adults catch in their drifts.
As the crowd gathers for the Mass,
Noel, the red nosed wanderer,
half dreaming and hopeful,
uncorks a medley of good wishes
from a pocketful of sparkling stones.
But half asleep on the bench,
under Christ's protracted gaze,
he wanders if his home will be an abode of familiar warmth.
Or will his duelling parents bang doors and make
his brother clasp his ears in unease.
The prayers may work a miracle
For now,
Noel is in the lap of his true master.
A pristine innocence it is.
Christmas,
after all,
is a Child's dream come true.
The city of monarchs is Noel's manger
A secular manger
The flower of the Northern crown
The jewel of Noel is his fantasy.
**
YOU ARE READING
WHISTLING CHIMES
PoetryTHIS IS AN ASSORTMENT OF POEMS THAT VARY IN MOOD, THEME AND VISION. VERSATILITY IS MY COMMON AIM AND I HAVE POURED OUT MY HEART AND SOUL INTO EACH OF THESE WORKS. I HOPE MY VISION FINDS A MIRROR IN YOUR HEARTFELT RESPONSES. LET THIS POETIC JOURNEY...
