reflections...

i'm turning. twisting. mind's down lanes, up stairs, back allies... pumping water. bathing river. up and down. around about. horns deafening. dust blinding. feet are feeling weary. testing where to hold on.

thinking about Kolkata. and her people. her rich & poor. guests. refugees. gangsters & desperate victims. housewives, working class. i'm lost in the lanes...in seas of humanity. i see humanity. and these pulsing waves have flushed me out too deep to stand. i wonder down the roads, interactions, interjections... rejections. of the least of these. should there always be time for icecream. always time for the image of god. in our midst... what life do these little ones have i ask again and again.

a meal with the lame. out of curiosity...pity...guilt...love. rupee coins. and hands of melting steel. our lives could look the same...

four posts of a double bed...and a place called golden. curtain's makeshift privacy. no mask for the faint in heart. painted lips. life breaking through the cracks. 5 year old scouts for flesh...and i whisper for Mercy to come through...

face to face on the "bridge of whores". hollowing. hallowing. sacred. a moment of humanity, passed. but i don't easily forget.

where did you come from? my sister. beloved. my mind is wondering round the rooms i know. dancing with stories that play in my ears. embracing and aching and dreaming of exhaled life, breathe. today sweet Breath of Life, blow over my friends, my sisters. And having mercy, we'll walk on. amen.