Unfortunate ideas of the perforated kind....

This had UmaS completely Wordless on a Wednesday as she drove by . Don't know if this is in Chennai. It doesn't matter. ...

I mean how can anyone, keep out the palm trees and the beach and the sea by means of a huge net ? If I were the steel pillar contraption, I'd be mortified...

I thought the trees had a point .

The trees and I
grew up
together.

Me ,
tossing ,
lobbing
tennis balls
in my backyard court,
and they,
like favorite aunts,
peering,
brushing a palm fringe
across their faces,
shaking heads
in the breeze,
occasionally bending
to see
what the older ones were thinking,
and then,
a sweet coconut
my reward
for a wonderful shot……

No house now,
but a tennis club,
and
the old trees,
now bent
with age,
non plussed
by
the champion kids
hitting
strong and fast,
an occasional shot
going straight
into the sea,
sometimes into other lands
with the speed of thought….

A high net
to keep
the shots in.
And the Amma tree
nudges
the Patti tree,
draws its palm fringed pallu
across the shoulder
and says,
“Aiyyo,
Is this cricket,
that you must
have
high fences
between
us and the players ?”