The Bazaar

The narrow path widens

Now packed with people.

We are reaching there.

                                   *

Reapers with their crop,

Milkmen with their tins,

Children sent on errands

All heading towards the Bazaar.

                                   *

The sun lights the warm sky,

The earth begins to heat

Packed bodies raise the temperature

The sweat and oppressive weather can’t deter the buyer.

                                    *

Some sell cloth, others sweetmeat

Shawl sellers from Kashmir,

And red chilly from the desert.

The vendors propagate in shrill voices.

                                     *

A loud din hangs over the air,

The women haggle with the sellers,

The men noisily sip their tea,

The children shriek and run around.

                                    *

The sun begins to descend

As the crowd begins to thin.

The women tug their children behind them,

The men get up and stretch.

                                    *

Silence slowly sweeps the bazaar,

Only a few people are visible,

The dirt road is packed again,

The people are returning home with their hands laden with the days purchase.

                                    *

The women hurry back home to dinner,

The men lounge about at each other’s,

The children go back to their homework

Tomorrow will be another day.