lethe is a word I don't know how to follow

like galaxies in noon time of a day like a lidded jar

followed by a night so hot the idli batter overferments.

it's a word I've forgotten how to follow.

I can't remember if that was my own choice.

forgotten roads must have been highways in living.

walking to the wash-basin balancing a cup on a saucer

climbing the stairs with a glass of rasna, crossing road.

all this has already happened thousands of years ago -

when the caveman entered his cave, there were poppies.

he had a three-battery torch he could kill an antelope with

& a singing mirror. before he entered the cave he remembered

a cavewoman watching animals, through his bow

drinking from the pond without table manners, their drinking

being prayer & the water being quenched thankfully.

she blushed like red-gold patches on a rock

preparing bed for the pioneer mushrooms.

but he forgot her like I forgot

how to follow words, words I cannot remember

on the threshold of another cave.

~Ajay
29/12/2019