ms intelligence

o baini, she said
why don't you come by and sit for a minute?

those horses are mine, she said
do you wanna buy them?
why were you looking at them?

oh no, I was just passing by, I said
but do tell me about your horses
why do people still need them,
in the age of four-wheel jeeps?

the jeeps do not displace horses,
she says
they work side by side
the horses haul the bricks
over in brick factories of Kathmandu

she has never been to Kathmandu
but she knows that yesterday,
there were two strong earthquakes there
and that it rains there every day,
so the brick factories are jobless
and her sons are coming back home

she knows too,
that when you get on the plane
the houses look tiny,
and the mountains look big
birds are like flies, aren't they? she asks
the sun must be shining above the clouds
but i'm sure it's not hot,
there must be a/c inside?

i wonder how she knows all this
until she starts asking me questions
the answers she will hold in her heart
as knowledge forever

it must be really windy, in the plane?
oh the windows are closed?
but you do get to look out?
and what about the food?
they give you anything to eat?
just a bhujia and water?
hmm true that it's a very short flight
just an hour, huh?

she lives in a ramshackle hut
which also doubles as a retail shop
a bamboo shed that is open on two sides
houses her potteries
that she has stacked up for sale

there is no reason to doubt
that she would be the
sharpest woman in the room
if she was born
anywhere but here

i should go now, didi, i say
do you have cold water?
oh yes, cold water in the fridge,
she says,
only for sale