Colours of a subcontinent like an artists’ palate

Or is just a camouflage I forget

But colours yes

Many many hues under a sea blue sky

Trumpets and bang da bang drums

 

Through the eyes of a wandering foreigner

who came here for quite something else the whole scene

seems like an enlivened primary school picture book

bang da bang rolling cacophonic festivity

 

little boys shout a jubilation chant that echoes down the eons

a little girl in ornamental sari joins the dance

round and around the city they parade the deity

another year, a new beginning,

 

an ancient ritual

bang da bang boosh

the god with an elephant head sits cross-legged, and smiles.