aquatint

aquatint

big magic, it feels like is

aquatint -- follow your curious

brain wherever 

it goes, lean

into the vast abyss, blue

and grey and even turquoise

of the secret waterfall, sometimes

completely clogged

up, like our brains, high

on the rush of too much

activity, seeking connection,

praise, loyalty, love - tints

of not aqua at all; not coloured

by the rivers and the lakes we

are no longer used to, that we

are definitely not doing our best

to save. instead, dopamine

hits those flashes

of silver, or maybe i 

mean blue ticks there,

those are aqua, a bit

of tint in our monochrome lives.

 

my life really isn't monochrome,

no, sirree. i wake up each day

to the green parakeets 

screeching over the songs 

of the blue whistling 

thrush, as the sun's rays 

hit the tops of the white

mountains, that moment 

of peace before i begin to view the 

dhauladhar colour-blocked

by the growing sun's light--

falling symmetrically, 

like clockwork, in a pattern 

already worked out, day-in, 

day-out, dividing the 

mountains into 

four shades of golden.

 

the orange & yellow & pastel dusk

pink journals i write in, offer

a kaleidoscope of 

colour against the black

plastic of my work

notebook. this

pencil may not have 

any aqua or tint, either, 

but the black & red

stripes topped by a teeny 

round white strip for sure are

an integral part of my landscape

growing up.  what is the 

tint of nostalgia, beyond 

 

the cliched tones of 

sepia? like for so many 

of a certain age, the spectrum

ranges from the warmth of bauji's 

white loi worn at lohri to the cool

yellow-orange & sweet pink of 

summer's mangoes & tarbooz, 

& then the lush green of 

neem dancing in the

monsoon. golden 

autumn light of european

summers ending came 

much later. so, yeah,

thank god for the fact

that my life sure is

filled with colour.

 

April 1 | Day 1 poem written in response to the NaPoWriMo prompt of selecting a new-to-you word from an art glossary; the word I chose was "aquatint."