love and laziness in lodi gardens

stomach bug
take the day off
and lie in the sun
in lodi gardens
in the sky shade
of octavio paz's
beloved tombs

watch the grass
glow incandescent
when you lie face down
and sniff the faint traces of
lovers past and future
and dog pee

watch the dogs
chasing tennis balls
and each other

watch school children
disciplined on the concrete paths
come to see national heritage

hold hands
lie back
eyes closed together
warmed by love
and by the sun
and bless
the stomach bug
XXX

lodi gardens has been voted asia's best urban oasis by time magazine. could'nt agree more, though as usual, the dudes get their history all screwed up.

ocatvio paz, as the mexican ambassador to india, wrote some incandescently beautiful poetry about lodi gardens, like this small gem -

The black, pensive, dense,
Domes of the mausoleums
Suddenly shot birds
Into the unanimous blue

a park landscaped by lady willingdon in the thirties, around the tombs of fifteenth-sixteenth century afghan rulers, loved by a mexican poet, and by dilli's awaam...
an of course, by the many dogs of many international breeds, which come here to frisk around and fragrantly mark their territory...