By Salil Chaturvedi
My first memory
is of standing
in the middle
of a narrow iron bridge,
legs akimbo,
measuring its width,
which seemed like
a very important
thing to do.
I’m wearing shorts
with a metal buckle,
and black leather shoes.
I think I was still
left-handed then,
and had a tri-cycle,
which was a true friend.
I also remember
the excitement in the
feeling that the world
existed for our
explorations.
Somehow,
I don’t remember
the river below.
Salil Chaturvedi is a poet and writer. He is the Asia region winner of the Commonwealth Short Story Competition (2008) and the Unisun/British Council Short Story Competition (2007). He has been widely published in journals such as AntiSerious, Himal, Indian Literature, Out of Print, Wasafiri, Guftugu, Indian Cultural Forum, etc. His haiku and haibun have appeared in various journals including Haibun Today, Contemporary Haibun Online, Frogpond, Modern Haiku, The Heron's Nest and others. His first collection of poetry, titled In the Sanctuary of a Poem (2017), can be purchased from Dogears, Margao here or from Amazon here.