I've always wanted to own a curios shop
The one wit those little trinkets, hanging by the door
which make sound each time somebody's head hits them
The one with colorful masks of weird shapes
and those blue green pink bags with psychedelic patterns
And the metal souvenirs
of different gods and goddesses from fables
I would open the shutter everyday
and clean each of those little dolls, marble stones, coasters, saucers
and dust the cloth flags
Hang those striped kurtas in their place
Arrange them one by one, in a different pattern each day
Revel in the beauty of creation
Each day a new world would be constructed
Each day another one destroyed
I would sit there making necklaces of beads
while waiting for that rare visitor to walk in and pick up the marble tortoise
or a laughing Buddha, run their hand past the arrangement as if completing the dialogue
there are in with the objects
to click pictures, one focussing on the flags, one focussing on my face
while I let it all pass
To enquire the price and guiltily walk past it.
A few others would walk in
look as if trapped in kaliedoscope
I would sit down with the beads
and dream all day..
