Sampurna Chattarji: Self-portrait in pins and needles
What uncanny timing presents
A picture as a birthday poem
To this porcupine-pine
Prickly-pear pear
Tree with me written all over
It.
Sustained on a staple diet
Of mouse and pad
I bristle nicely at the slightest
Threat.
Cover my flanks with
Hives.
But how nicely I stand
With my elbows sticking
Out!
All angles and isosceles!
To equanimity my humble
thanks!
Poised on the head of a pin,
Pin-cushioned from
Tumbling
Down
Held together by a static
Automatic
Discourse.
Of course I’m happy.
I was born that way.
I’ve been sitting
Too long.
Let me stand up and up
Do the one-leg
Dance
Shake my disquiet
See?
On to the ground.