ONE DEGREE OF DIFFERENCE

It rained today in Mumbai,
monsoon season.
One degree of difference
between the high and low
for the day.
You watched the downpour
from the front of the building
with people you know,
and told me about it later,
and the lunch you had,
as well as the dinner.
I did not get a chance
to say that it rained here too
or how I clipped dead roses
and let them drop on the ground.
No word about the garbage cans I cleaned,
selecting a spot that would water
the brown grass as well,
cans turned upside down to drain.
A bit of a project that has gone
on for days. Not a happy task
one might think, but an improvement to life,
and later in knowing it would go
untold I could see that how
I felt doing it was a kind of
happiness after all that greatly
surpassed the emptiness I felt
listening to you.

7/12/13