What We Did For Our Holidays

What did we do for our holidays?

We argued about hills to cross

We looked precipices in the eye

We chased whistling marmots

   Through petrified moss

We looked for places where we could crouch unseen

   And look up to the sky

   Or down at the gravel

We flashed our lights at a Tara and a Bodhisattva

   And marvelled at their smiles

We climbed high past rocks and mules

   Past the gates of stone

   Past the gates of horn

We floated above an obsidian lake

   That changed its colours with the sun

We walked through palaces

   Where continents collide

   And imagined old caravans

   Of relics and the treasures of Tantrics

We ate tiny fruits of the sun

We went down to a river

   A boy in a world of girls

We wrestled with despair

   And gnashed our teeth

We cried in the rare air

   That it’s all too much for me to take

What did we do for our holidays?

   Nothing much, but enough.

-Bibek Bhattacharya