Three Girls

for Kashmira, Prerna, Krittika

Run run run
in childhood’s run,
in childhood’s uproar
three girls run;
down the paddy-field’s edge
dust kicks up
as dream-balloons glide, tug at the air –
then run run run
three girls running
in a dream of pell-mell
the green field calls out
Come on girls
smudge and smear your bodies with green;
dust skims your feet
your hair strokes your eyelashes
your bodies are all breeze
your feet are galloping anklet-bells
then run run run
three girls pell-mell
hurtle through childhood’s land.