A Poem for my Cre­ative Writ­ing Class Out on a “Poem Walk”

 

“There is no such thing as a free walk”

Did they walk well -
your poems?
Or did they fall asleep,
walk­ing,
under still­ness
only real­ly old trees
seem to promise any more?

So what was it like
to aban­don me
and your classroom?

Did your poems step out with you?
Did they smug­gle them­selves into your back­packs?
Into your unsus­pect­ing water bot­tles?
Into the ring­ing silence of your mobiles?

Did they walk many for­est miles?
Are their feet cracked,
aching, mul­ti- thorned?
Would they be need­ing a foot massage?

And what of their fin­gers?
Will they fly over keyboards?

Can your poems mail them­selves
to me
by five this evening?
There is
no such thing
as a free walk!

So will they,
will they not
turn them­selves in -
these run-away poems?

 

Pub­lished in Kavya Bharati, 2011, No.23
 

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