Highlands Track by Raj Kumar Lakhi Kant

While the mists last

beauty’s stilled, drifting

Did I forget my clear mind

while I was far from

where I’ve never been

I chance upon it now

reflected on mountains

of short pine trees

in an instance

draped without a season

and mediums of grazing animals

that want to speak

A Lhasa Apso pup almost says goodbye

to its home, in the chill of late-afternoon

as it wants me to play some more

Sights of fluttering prayer flags

lofted by mankind

to teach kindness

to celebrate the sky

the air infused by the peaks

as the sunlight stays on in Dirang

I see seclusion that’s also, found in spaces

it’s a difference no more distant

Gold on some lands

where laughter is not joy

I’m tired of happiness

The forest like a mainstay of words

murmurs into the descent

Seized by the far sounds

I’m not freed, again I want

to pass by familiarity

What’s it to be left on this ground

have I found trust

is this sound my root

a hermit that knows nothing

in the town

I don’t plant trees

I believe it’ll grow by itself

I see fruits on homely patches

looking for a good soul

Baked browned earth

gives the clinking or a thud

of a river, or a metal sound

Each rock a face, virgin prism

and me, should I be sad

I didn’t find a place till now

Am I this dripping tumbling cascade

the tree, the center of the earth

Am I certain I’m part of this quietude

in the trees, the river, the ground

What pushes me, when

there’s no need to look for beyond

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Raj Kumar Lakhi Kant is a journalist who was with the Free Press Journal and Indian Express, both in Bombay, and later joined the Imphal Free Press in Imphal. He is now a Senior Editor at the Imphal Review of Arts and Politics and stays in Imphal. Twitter: @RajKumarLakhiK1