Eat slowly. Read what you can by available light. <br />Take nothing with you <br />except the sky stencilled in the window <br /> <br />to picture the next stage in this journey <br />that will carry you past the poplars of home, <br />past scrub and palms to the unyielding sea. <br /> <br />And when the train stops at the last beach, <br />forget the harmony of the spheres <br />that you thought to find in hard things and fluent. <br /> <br />Put your bag down and look <br />at the reef that gashes <br />through the ocean's tablecloth <br /> <br />and the meteors that light up <br />the moon's silences. <br /> <br />[for Baiju Parthan]<br /><br />Ranjit Hoskote<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/travelling-light-2/
