The clock died of a heart attack

at 8.50 a.m. on January 26, 2001.

The chicken hearted clock

took the great leap,

before the citizens of Bhuj

could make a guess:

Did Mother Earth lose her balance?

Or did she heave a sigh?

Then there was no one to answer.

No amount of aid

from reincarnated Karnas,

no words of consolation

from the wise and the revered,

no holy man with all his

miraculous powers mustered up,

could ever barricade

the cascading tears of the fated to live

or bring back the dead mother

to her surviving suckling.

Time never stands still.

And the Earth has to move.

Forsaken Comb

He took care of me,

for I groomed him.

Now I am abandoned

for no fault of my own.

I am sure

I have not lost a tooth.

God knows

what he has lost.