Forgetting where you are could be anywhere or nowhere

It’s All There Is, In India

Sometimes in India

Forgetting where you are

Could be anywhere

Or nowhere, in Kushinigar

From the bus window:

Slow man on a pink, beat bike

A baby rides a lean woman’s hip

Agile dogs mount in a trash ditch

With plastic signs of commerce                  

Everywhere without commerce      

Anywhere on planet earth

After 5 weeks, you are alert

To the location of your bag

In the universe, your gaze,

Passport. Is anyone lurking

The station besides that confident rat?

Where are your feet? How crazy is he?

Are you attracting attention?

Does your crossed leg show too much sole?

How is your odor from the monsoon sweat?

Are you hungry? Did you take a malaria pill?

Alone makes one obsessed with self

Then it occurs to you:  You

Are an insect with giant oval eyes

Alert in the flickering light

Preening yourself, exposed

Alert for predators

Aware of the mopping man

Transforming tiles in swirls

With a glee that comes from

Illusion, or pills, or conviction

That the moment of now

Is all there is