Bats

Bats so black
Etched upon a
Blue black sky.
Wings like waves
Upon a page
Precocious at any age.

Wings together as in prayer
Then serrated cutting air.
And sailing in the sea of sky
Black on black
As night draws nigh.

And now the full moon bounces up
Makes a picture book of shapes
Of angled stars and angled wings
And scissored stars cut out of sight
With jagged wings and noiseless flight
The bats come streaming through the night.


Malati Shah
2009
New Delhi

Woodpecker above the Ganga

Its body was gold
Its body was dun
Its body reflected the setting sun.
The woodpecker dropped
Like a leaf from the tree
A tree full of cadmium
As autumn can be.
The blue river laughed
From the rocks far below
The tree laughed back
Hollow, hollow, hollow!



Rishikesh
September 2008
Malati Shah

Starting Out into an Invisible World

Here I am.
Starting out into an invisible world.
Alphabet in hand
and keys that open and shut.