ANOTHER MORNING, ANOTHER GIFT

Under the shadow of a sky scraping tower

A gypsy woman looking absolutely tired kneaded the flour

 As another woman fashionably attired zipped past in a car

On the road freshly splashed with tar.

The gypsy clothes swayed about in the morning breeze

Fluttering about in an effort to seize

The fresh new day

Under a sky, patch worked and gray.

Where the under clothed and underfed gypsies

 Performed different chores, the gypsy women now bending on their knees.

There were stirrings in the gypsy nest

In a fake flamboyance dressed, a child clinging to her breast.

One woman ignited a fire

While her man puffed away lounging on an impaired tyre.

From the neem tree, now lustily cawed a crow

At night, from its branch had hung a lamp   burning low

 Throwing flickering, shadows ghostly

On these itinerant folk who owned nothing costly

Except the diamond studded canopy over head

Under which, utterly exhausted, they had gone to bed.

Morning woke with a gigantic yawn

The budding cricketers cheering on a shy and bashful dawn

Up into the sky went the lusty cry of how’s that

Gripped by a complex severe, on the road scurried a black cat.

 In a medley of deep tongued peals the bells of labour struck

To these peals its rumbles added a monstrous truck

Before the furnace the gypsy woman kneeled

In a Mercedes   a chauffeur drove his master well heeled.

With sacks flung on their shoulders a twosome grimy and bedraggled

 Looked at a bejeweled woman who haggled

 With the vegetable vendor

  While the gypsy woman breast fed her child tender.

The excitement of the rag pickers heightened

 And their eyes brightened

Small faces broke into broad grins

As their eyes fell on something in the overflowing dustbins.

An apple half eaten and a half full packet of chips

  Had brought huge smiles on their parched lips.

Soon the morning, like a ship,

 Was ready for another trip.

 Perked by the merry breeze

 And the joyously swaying trees

 It jumped into the maelstrom of another day

While the sun sent down ray upon bright ray.

Its cool colors and fresh fragrances the new morning flaunted

 And moved ahead, confident and undaunted

To sail along with a buoyant lift

Another morning, another gift.