Weaving Sounds and Stories

A group of labourers talk and laugh out loud,
As three children pass by discussing bicycles.
A man on a motorbike stops to buy a cigarette,
As another in a car tries to settle a business deal.
A bunch of youngsters swap complaints about their boss,
While another sits bored and calls for four “chais”
A young girl walks by, talking on her phone with a smile,
Interrupted by the strained voice of a woman bargaining vegetables.
The separate threads of hundreds of individual stories,
Briefly cross my own, as I sit in silence, not quite alone.

Aviv Nair,
22/11/2008