S t a i n s

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Epilogue

- Prologue -

A low-backed shack - bamboo thatched -
kneels precariously over
the edge of a knoll beside
the Brahmaputra river.

Gauhati alongside the mighty Brahmaputra in Assam, India
(click thumbnail to view full map)

I

On the verge a wooden vat
and an inclined board betray
the shack-dweller's stock-in-trade.
In the early hours you may

see him trundling laundryward
large bundles of soiled linen
and - clad only in a brief
loincloth - setting to his self-
anointed task of washing
away the stains of the world.

II

He fills the vat with a soap-
and-water mixture, which slops
and spills when he dunks a sheet
in or pulls a towel out.
Then into the sky he scoops
the tortured thing all a-drip

only to bring it down with
a mighty swing on the thick
sturdy washboard, that in ruth
answers back: "Alack! Alack!"

III

No half measures here! "Hai, hai",
cries our man rhythmically,
as he shrives the offending
article vigorously.

And every time he turns to
baptise the next in the queue
and minister to its needs
he bursts into a paean
of joyful - if tuneless - song
that dispels the bodeful clouds.

IV

Though pleased by the dirty brown
of the soapsuds draining off
the washboard into a trough,
that feeds a rill running down

to the all-embracing breast
of the Brahma, the washer-
man allows himself no rest:
he grabs his scrubbed prisoner
by the scruff, and with a wry
turning movement wrings it dry.

- Epilogue -

He flings it now in an arc
into his disciple's hands,
and with practised ease the lad's
laid it out lovingly - stark
alongside its cleansed brethren -
to bask in the morning sun.